STRANGE TALE OF A FALLING STAR

Dexter Manley recorded 97 quarterback sacks during his 11-year NFL career.
He is a member of the Washington Redskins' Ring of Fame. He made more money
than most of us will ever see. He had everything. Now, once again, he has
nothing, nothing but his addiction ...

The year must have been 1979. Jimmy Johnson, newly named football coach at
Oklahoma State, and members of his coaching staff visited Enid to try and
fire up the local fans in advance of the upcoming season.

"We've got this guy named Dexter Manley," said one of the assistant
coaches. "He's a big old fella from Houston. He's a good pass rusher, but
he's not the smartest guy in the world."

The coach then preceded to tell a story, no doubt an apocryphal tale, about
Manley being set up with a blind date, a less than svelte young woman, as
it turned out. Before he went out on the date, said the coach, Dexter was
cautioned that he should be nice to the young woman, and should say only
nice things to her.

At the end of the evening, upon walking the woman home, Dexter was
struggling for something nice to say, according to the coach. Finally he
hit upon something, and he blurted "Gee, you sure don't sweat much for a
fat girl."

The story prompted laughter from the assembled Cowboy fans, as well as the
storyteller.

Dexter Manley, the word was, was a quintessential "dumb jock." He was big,
fast, agile and tough, but just wasn't very smart.

Dexter Manley played four years of football at Oklahoma State. He was a
nice guy, always polite and patient with the media. He stood in the glare
of the TV lights, a crescent scar gleaming. The scar, it turned out, was
the result of an altercation in his native Houston. Dexter always made good
copy.

The only problem was, Dexter couldn't read anything being written about him.

Dexter Manley apparently suffers from both attention deficit disorder and
manic depression. When he left Oklahoma State, he still couldn't read.

The Washington Redskins drafted him in the fifth round of the 1981 National
Football League draft. He moved to Reston, Va., a Washington suburb, and
made friends with some of the neighborhood children. One of those children
was David Swanson.

"He occasionally would talk to me and my friends about football," Swanson
once wrote in a letter to the editor that appeared in the Washington Post.
"I remember him as kind and without arrogance. I also remember him flipping
his big TV to static on channel 72 and asking if we knew whose number that
was. I did not then realize that he could not read and might be proud that
he could recognize that number."

During an appearance before Congress in 1990, Manley testified about being
pushed through school without learning to read.

"I have to overcome all the negative things I heard because now I can feel
good about who I am," he said.

By 1990, Dexter Manley already had established himself as a top-flight NFL
player. He also had been suspended once by the NFL after failing a drug
test. Drug abuse ended his career with the Washington Redskins, with whom
he won two Super Bowl rings, in 1989. In 1991, he was banned for life by
the NFL after having failed another drug test.

Now, drugs have laid Dexter Manley low again. He was recently sentenced to
two years in jail for evidence tampering. In January 2001, police saw
Manley leaving a motel room they were about to search. Officers said he
tried to swallow some cocaine he was carrying as they tried to arrest him.

Between November 1994 and July 1995, Dexter Manley was arrested four times
for possessing small quantities of crack cocaine. He was convicted in 1995
and served 15 months of a four-year sentence. He was paroled in 1996. Upon
his release, he planned to become a lobbyist for anti-drug causes.

"The only thing I can say," he said upon his release, "is don't judge me by
what I say, judge me by my actions."

Dexter Manley recorded 97 quarterback sacks during his 11-year NFL career.
He is a member of the Washington Redskins' Ring of Fame. He made more money
than most of us will ever see. He had everything. Now, once again, he has
nothing, nothing but his addiction, and that ever-present smile.

Dexter Manley. Big, dumb, Dexter. Nobody really knew the demons swirling in
his head, or if they did know, they didn't really care.

Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle.

Copyright Enid News & Eagle 2002

Dexter Manley recorded 97 quarterback sacks during his 11-year NFL career.
He is a member of the Washington Redskins' Ring of Fame. He made more money
than most of us will ever see. He had everything. Now, once again, he has
nothing, nothing but his addiction ...

The year must have been 1979. Jimmy Johnson, newly named football coach at
Oklahoma State, and members of his coaching staff visited Enid to try and
fire up the local fans in advance of the upcoming season.

"We've got this guy named Dexter Manley," said one of the assistant
coaches. "He's a big old fella from Houston. He's a good pass rusher, but
he's not the smartest guy in the world."

The coach then preceded to tell a story, no doubt an apocryphal tale, about
Manley being set up with a blind date, a less than svelte young woman, as
it turned out. Before he went out on the date, said the coach, Dexter was
cautioned that he should be nice to the young woman, and should say only
nice things to her.

At the end of the evening, upon walking the woman home, Dexter was
struggling for something nice to say, according to the coach. Finally he
hit upon something, and he blurted "Gee, you sure don't sweat much for a
fat girl."

The story prompted laughter from the assembled Cowboy fans, as well as the
storyteller.

Dexter Manley, the word was, was a quintessential "dumb jock." He was big,
fast, agile and tough, but just wasn't very smart.

Dexter Manley played four years of football at Oklahoma State. He was a
nice guy, always polite and patient with the media. He stood in the glare
of the TV lights, a crescent scar gleaming. The scar, it turned out, was
the result of an altercation in his native Houston. Dexter always made good
copy.

The only problem was, Dexter couldn't read anything being written about him.

Dexter Manley apparently suffers from both attention deficit disorder and
manic depression. When he left Oklahoma State, he still couldn't read.

The Washington Redskins drafted him in the fifth round of the 1981 National
Football League draft. He moved to Reston, Va., a Washington suburb, and
made friends with some of the neighborhood children. One of those children
was David Swanson.

"He occasionally would talk to me and my friends about football," Swanson
once wrote in a letter to the editor that appeared in the Washington Post.
"I remember him as kind and without arrogance. I also remember him flipping
his big TV to static on channel 72 and asking if we knew whose number that
was. I did not then realize that he could not read and might be proud that
he could recognize that number."

During an appearance before Congress in 1990, Manley testified about being
pushed through school without learning to read.

"I have to overcome all the negative things I heard because now I can feel
good about who I am," he said.

By 1990, Dexter Manley already had established himself as a top-flight NFL
player. He also had been suspended once by the NFL after failing a drug
test. Drug abuse ended his career with the Washington Redskins, with whom
he won two Super Bowl rings, in 1989. In 1991, he was banned for life by
the NFL after having failed another drug test.

Now, drugs have laid Dexter Manley low again. He was recently sentenced to
two years in jail for evidence tampering. In January 2001, police saw
Manley leaving a motel room they were about to search. Officers said he
tried to swallow some cocaine he was carrying as they tried to arrest him.

Between November 1994 and July 1995, Dexter Manley was arrested four times
for possessing small quantities of crack cocaine. He was convicted in 1995
and served 15 months of a four-year sentence. He was paroled in 1996. Upon
his release, he planned to become a lobbyist for anti-drug causes.

"The only thing I can say," he said upon his release, "is don't judge me by
what I say, judge me by my actions."

Dexter Manley recorded 97 quarterback sacks during his 11-year NFL career.
He is a member of the Washington Redskins' Ring of Fame. He made more money
than most of us will ever see. He had everything. Now, once again, he has
nothing, nothing but his addiction, and that ever-present smile.

Dexter Manley. Big, dumb, Dexter. Nobody really knew the demons swirling in
his head, or if they did know, they didn't really care.