WHERE ARE THEY NOW? TIM DWIGHT
IOWA CITY HIGH and IOWA HAWKEYES
July 8, 2009
Former collegiate First Team All-American Tim Dwight has gone from the red and white of Iowa City High to the black and gold of the Iowa Hawkeyes to a slew of NFL teams, and now, he’s simply green.
He’s been out of the league since the Raiders released him in 2007. And in the meantime he’s been doing all he can to help mankind and society one deed at a time.
“I sold all my big cars, I drive a Mini Cooper now, I ride my bike as much as possible, I walk everywhere, I recycle like you wouldn’t believe and I compost,” Dwight said.
Dwight currently resides in San Diego and says that living in the Golden State has opened his eyes to these new ways of living.
It was a interesting journey Dwight took from his childhood home, two miles from Kinnick Stadium, to Southern California.
Despite his less than D1 caliber stature, Dwight had no trouble being noticed coming out of Iowa City High in 1993. Case-in-point, Tom Osbourne and Hayden Fry both made personal visits to his parent’s living room in pursuit of the star running-back.
Osbourne and his Nebraska Huskers were cast aside and it came down to either Iowa or Stanford for the star back.
“I took a nice trip out Palo Alto where Stanford is. Bill Walsh was coaching there at the time,” Dwight said. “But being from the home town and being able to have my parents see me every home Saturday was important to me, and playing for a legend like Hayden Fry was pretty special.”
At five-foot-eight and 180 pounds Dwight was asked by his coaches to make the switch from running-back to wide-receiver/special teams; he accepted.
“It was definitely a change in pace,” Dwight said. “You don’t get the football as much as you’re used too. And learning to run routes and get open and reading defenses, it wasn’t easy; it was a whole new learning experience.”
Dwight went on to be an extremely successful college football player at Iowa and in 1997 was a consensus All-American and finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting.
That success was quickly followed by him being selected in the fourth round of the 1998 NFL Draft to the Atlanta Falcons. Coincidentally enough the Falcons would make it to the Super Bowl that season. And wouldn’t you know it; Dwight solidified himself in Falcon lore by returning a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown. He recalls that with each return in the game he would get farther and farther down the field. And he said a big time return was bound to happen.
“I got nervous on the first kickoff that game,” Dwight recalls. “It’s the adrenaline that gets you nervous, and than once that adrenaline is gone, you just kind of settle down and let your natural abilities kick in.”
The Falcons lost that game 34-19 to John Elway and the Broncos, in what would become Elway’s final game.
Dwight stayed with the Falcons through the 2000 season and was than shipped to San Diego to become a Charger. After four successful seasons in San Diego, he, as well as his now stellar reputation was sent to New England for one season.
In 2006 he stayed in the AFC East and was a New York Jet. That season he was injured and cut from the team. He underwent reconstructive surgery on his right big-toe and rehabbed himself back to the team, just to be cut again in the third week of training camp in 2007. He was then picked up by the Raiders half way through that year, and was released at the conclusion the season.
Dwight is currently a free agent, but is receiving severance pay from the league, which automatically happens after a year absence from being on a roster. The soon-to-be 34 year old has not completely ruled out a return to the NFL.
“I’m kind of working out a little here and there, but I’m not going to hang my hat on it,” Dwight said. “If there’s an opportunity that presents itself than obviously I’m going to take a good hard look.”
Since being absent from the NFL, Dwight has kept himself extremely busy and relevant to society. He had a yoga shop in Iowa City called “The Studio” that his sister ran. It just closed its doors on July 1st.
Dwight became interested in yoga during his playing days in San Diego.
“I really found a nice relationship between being a sprinter and being involved in yoga. It helps your stride length and your flexibility, and it helps you recover a lot faster,” Dwight said. “So I kind of dove into the yoga quite a bit in California and decided to open a yoga studio”
Coupled with his passion for yoga is a passion for benefitting society in all ways shapes and forms. He has a foundation called the Tim Dwight Foundation, which works with children’s hospitals in Iowa City as well as gives scholarships to deserving students from the state who will be attending Iowa, Iowa State or Northern Iowa.
Dwight also puts on a not-for-profit annual summer football camp in Iowa City; he has been since 2002. All the profits from the camp are recycled into the Tim Dwight Foundation. Dwight uses his camp to teach not just football lessons, but life lessons as well.
“I talk to the kids every morning about being a good person and being a good football player, as well as being a good teammate and having compassion and being reliable and responsible.” he said. “And these are some of the things I bring up to them; I ask them ‘How can you make an impact?’ Whether it’s football or education or whether it’s picking up trash in the street on the way to your car, they all need to know they can make a difference.”
Currently Dwight is working in the renewable-energy industry as part owner of a small California company called Integrated Power Corporation; they design solar applications for commercial buildings and commercial use.
Dwight has a mission, and that mission is to make the world a better place, not just for us, but for future generations as well.
“In about the last three to four years living in California I really started to hone in on what was important. Was it a BMW, or was it a smaller car that made less an impact on my pocket book that gets me from A to B?” Dwight said. “I think of it like ‘What can I do everyday to have an impact on our world?’ And hopefully my impact will add up and lead to other people making a difference and maybe we can save humanity for another 1000 years.”
TJ Rushing, High School Playbook
P.S.
Dwight remembers the 1996 Penn State game, the 1996 Ohio State game, and the 1997 Michigan game as his most memorable as a Hawkeye. “You always remember the games you play big in, especially when they’re against big time opponents like that.”
Jamaal Anderson was on Dwight’s 1998 NFC Championship team and would often perform a celebratory dance that was dubbed the “Dirty Bird,” however Dwight admits he never took part in the celebration. “I never performed the ‘Dirty Bird,’ I don’t think I had enough dance skills to put it all into coordination to make it look decent.”
While in Atlanta Dwight was dubbed “White Lightning,” based upon the color of his skin and his great speed, he was not a fan of the name. “I would rather be called just ‘Lightning’ or ‘That Guys Fast.’ We don’t need to look at skin color when it comes down to performance.”
Dwight on yoga… “I really think that yoga prolonged my career to 10 years and it’s something I’ll always be practicing the rest of my life. It slows things down and eases my mind. It’s good for my body.”
Dwight on the scholarships given out by the Tim Dwight Foundation… “We like to have a student who we feel will benefit from our gift as well as help benefit mankind as in knowing the importance of being involved with the community. We’ve had some pretty amazing kids come through and hopefully one day they’ll be able to benefit mankind.”
Dwight has had the like of NFL quarterbacks Doug Flutie, Drew Brees, Sage Rosenfels and Brooks Bollinger at his football camps over last eight years. He also helps out at the camps of Phillip Rivers, Chad Pennington, Brooks Bollinger and Doug Flutie.
In high school Dwight and his teammates began to shave their entire body before track meets and were successful when they did it. Dwight is superstitious and still does it to this day. “I believe that if you feel good and look good, than you’ll compete good. As long as you’ve taken care of other things, you know, eating good, learning your playbook etc. But yes, I feel a lot better when I’m cleanly shaved.”
Dwight recently competed in the Hy-Vee Triathlon and has future plans to compete in other Triathlon’s as well. “It was a great experience. “Triathlons are great because everyone shows up and tries real hard and wants to be competitive. Than after the race everyone wants to hangout and have a good time and meet one another. It’s a community type competition.”
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