CANTON, Ohio _ He was hoarse and throaty for the 22 minutes that he spoke from the stage, his voice on the precipice of breaking throughout a speech that laid bare Brian Dawkins' soul, that revealed just how close he had come, long ago, to killing himself.
This was not a succession of happy memories and light and funny shout-outs to teammates and friends, the kind of time-filler at a Hall of Fame induction ceremony that you hear and forget in the same instant. This was a vital message from the bottom of Brian Dawkins' heart Saturday night at Tom Benson Stadium here, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and this was everything that everyone who follows the Eagles had come to admire and appreciate about him.
Dawkins came out as if he were again the most ferocious free safety in the NFL, just as he was over his 13 seasons with the Eagles, rambling out on all fours as if he were again the final member of the team's defense to be introduced at Veterans Stadium or Lincoln Financial Field.
But instead of delivering a crushing tackle or intercepting a pass in overtime to turn the tide of a playoff game, Dawkins poured all that energy into a confession. He had suffered earlier in his life, he said, from a deep depression that had him contemplating suicide, and he turned his remarks into a plea for people dealing with similar strife to be strong, to resist the temptation to feel sorry for themselves, to fight until they pull themselves out of that darkness.
"The majority of the success I have had has come on the back of pain," he said. "I was actually planning the way I would kill myself so my wife would get the money. But what that pain did for me, it increased my faith exponentially. ...
"Don't settle. Don't settle in this life. Don't allow yourself to settle. On the other side of that pain is something special."
