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Dante Fowler found his game, and restored his name, with the Rams
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/buc...his-game-and-restored-his-name-with-the-rams/
The former Lakewood High and Florida Gators star made the biggest play of his life to reach the Super Bowl.
He held the towel over his mouth and wiped away tears, shortly after Greg Zuerlein’s winning field goal split the uprights in overtime, sending the Los Angeles Rams to Super Bowl LIII.
The outpouring of emotion was unexpected but understandable. Only a few minutes earlier, Dante Fowler Jr., spun inside and away from Saints tackle Ryan Ramczyk and smashed into quarterback Drew Brees, causing his pass to flutter into the arms of defensive back John Johnson and set up the clinching kick in a 26-23 win in the NFC championship game.
Rams pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald embraced Fowler, cupping his head and pulling it to his chest.“You made that big play, you hear me? You made that play for us!” Donald shouted into Fowler’s left ear. “I appreciate you, you hear me? Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.”
Appreciation hasn’t come easy for Fowler, the former Lakewood High and Florida Gators star who said the Jaguars gave up on him even before they dealt him to the Rams at the trade deadline in October. But given his troubled past, including a devastating knee injury, an arrest and multiple suspensions, Fowler could not have imagined this was how the 2018 season would end for him.
“I just wanted a fresh start,” Fowler said. “When (the Rams) called and said they were going to come get me, it was a sigh of relief. I knew that was going to be fresh start. I just wasn’t going to look back anymore. Just keep that in the past and take it as a fresh start and keep going forward.”
According to Fowler, his career with the Jaguars was over nearly as soon as it started. Selected No. 3 overall in 2015 after quarterbacks Jameis Winston went to Tampa Bay and Marcus Mariota to Tennessee, Fowler tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a non-contact, 11-on-11 drill in his first minicamp practice.
“I feel like it started with the ACL injury, my knee scared them,” Fowler said of the Jaguars. “Then there was some off the field stuff, and they just benched me before the regular season even started (this year). So that’s why I said that they gave up on me. Just a weird situation and I’m happy I’m out of there.”
After the injury, Fowler never lived up to his promise and finished his career in Jacksonville with 14 sacks in 49 regular-season games. Ironically, the highlight came when he had two sacks in a loss to the Patriots in the AFC championship game last year.
But by then he had lost his starting job to Yannick Ngakoue. Fowler said he grew depressed about his situation, but then bad decisions off the field began to pile up. He was suspended without pay for the 2018 season opener for violation of the league’s personal conduct policy.
That punishment was the result of Fowler’s arrest in St. Petersburg in July 2017 on simple battery and criminal mischief. Authorities say Fowler got into an altercation with a man who had criticized his driving at an apartment complex.
Fowler allegedly hit the man and stepped on his glasses. He then took a bag of groceries from the man, which included liquor, and tossed it in the lake. He was sentenced to a year of probation, 75 hours of community service, and $2,575 in fines.The Jaguars suspended Fowler for a preseason game after he got into a physical altercation with Ngakoue during training camp.
If Jacksonville was looking for a reason to move on from Fowler, he gave it to them. Before the season, the Jags decided not to pick up Fowler’s fifth-year option, meaning he would become a free agent after the 2018 season.
“I don’t think the off-field issues were part of it,” Fowler said. “I just felt like they took it and ran with it and added that much more fuel to why, ‘Oh, this is why you can’t play. This is why we’re not playing you. Because you did this off the field, you did that off the field.’ That’s what it was.”
Ever since his days at Lakewood High School, Fowler has had periods where he couldn’t channel his supreme talent into a team setting. As a senior at Lakewood in 2011, he got into a heated exchange with coaches during a video session and was suspended three games.
“We had peaks and valleys in our player/coach relationship,” Spartans coach Cory Moore said. “Dante was still young and trying to find his way. We were, too, as coaches. People think it’s easy coaching a superstar. It’s not. There’s different levels of coaching for every player on a team. It’s finding that right balance.
“Dante had these flashes where he would just wow you with what he could do on the field. He has all the talent and athleticism in the world, and he just had to learn how to channel it in the right way.” Moore said the two have a good relationship now. They run into each sometimes, whether it is at the gas station or grocery store in St. Petersburg.“Dante truly is a good kid,” Moore said.
St. Petersburg still means a lot to Fowler. He said it hurt him having his mug shot in the Tampa Bay Times. “That’s what really let me down and broke my heart,” Fowler said. “Because it wasn’t about me, it was about my dad. He always told me not to disrespect and hurt our last name and I felt like I did that .“I knew what it was like to be a star player in the paper, and then you see that mug shot in the paper, and you’re like, no, no. That’s like one of your worst fears and I was looking at it for a while. But I’m happy I was able to bounce back.”.
The Jaguars received a third-round pick in 2019 and a fifth-rounder in 2020 in exchange for Fowler. He said he knew his game would be helped by going from a 4-3 defensive end to a stand up 3-4 outside linebacker and pass rusher in Wade Phillips’ defense.
“I knew I was just going back to my old position and knew I was going to be me again,” Fowler said. “I just had to do everything in my power to get all the rust off and get that feeling back.”
Almost as soon as he joined the Rams, Fowler said he felt at home. While the NFC champs have a young core of stars, before the season they also had added veteran players such as Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters and Ndamukong Suh.
“That’s one thing I’m starting to understand,” Fowler said. “Guys like Aqib, Marcus, myself, Ndamukong —people may think certain types of thing about us, or they put a discipline tag on us. Things like that. But ever since I’ve been here, these guys have been professionals to the highest standard I’ve ever seen. When you’re in a good environment like that and just around good people, it just makes you want to be that type of professional that you know you can be. So it’s put me in a good environment for me to just to be myself and work on myself as well and just be around people that are selfless.”
Fowler will be a free agent in March, but he’s not focused on where he will go next. “Right now, I’m just having a blast with this team,” Fowler said. Moore watched the NFC championship game and saw his former player make the game-changing play in overtime.
“I think Dante really is starting to come into his own,” Moore said. “The success he’s had since coming over to the Rams is a turning point for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made a few plays in the Super Bowl.
“It’s Dante Fowler’s world right now.”
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/buc...his-game-and-restored-his-name-with-the-rams/
The former Lakewood High and Florida Gators star made the biggest play of his life to reach the Super Bowl.
He held the towel over his mouth and wiped away tears, shortly after Greg Zuerlein’s winning field goal split the uprights in overtime, sending the Los Angeles Rams to Super Bowl LIII.
The outpouring of emotion was unexpected but understandable. Only a few minutes earlier, Dante Fowler Jr., spun inside and away from Saints tackle Ryan Ramczyk and smashed into quarterback Drew Brees, causing his pass to flutter into the arms of defensive back John Johnson and set up the clinching kick in a 26-23 win in the NFC championship game.
Rams pro Bowl defensive tackle Aaron Donald embraced Fowler, cupping his head and pulling it to his chest.“You made that big play, you hear me? You made that play for us!” Donald shouted into Fowler’s left ear. “I appreciate you, you hear me? Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games.”
Appreciation hasn’t come easy for Fowler, the former Lakewood High and Florida Gators star who said the Jaguars gave up on him even before they dealt him to the Rams at the trade deadline in October. But given his troubled past, including a devastating knee injury, an arrest and multiple suspensions, Fowler could not have imagined this was how the 2018 season would end for him.
“I just wanted a fresh start,” Fowler said. “When (the Rams) called and said they were going to come get me, it was a sigh of relief. I knew that was going to be fresh start. I just wasn’t going to look back anymore. Just keep that in the past and take it as a fresh start and keep going forward.”
According to Fowler, his career with the Jaguars was over nearly as soon as it started. Selected No. 3 overall in 2015 after quarterbacks Jameis Winston went to Tampa Bay and Marcus Mariota to Tennessee, Fowler tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a non-contact, 11-on-11 drill in his first minicamp practice.
“I feel like it started with the ACL injury, my knee scared them,” Fowler said of the Jaguars. “Then there was some off the field stuff, and they just benched me before the regular season even started (this year). So that’s why I said that they gave up on me. Just a weird situation and I’m happy I’m out of there.”
After the injury, Fowler never lived up to his promise and finished his career in Jacksonville with 14 sacks in 49 regular-season games. Ironically, the highlight came when he had two sacks in a loss to the Patriots in the AFC championship game last year.
But by then he had lost his starting job to Yannick Ngakoue. Fowler said he grew depressed about his situation, but then bad decisions off the field began to pile up. He was suspended without pay for the 2018 season opener for violation of the league’s personal conduct policy.
That punishment was the result of Fowler’s arrest in St. Petersburg in July 2017 on simple battery and criminal mischief. Authorities say Fowler got into an altercation with a man who had criticized his driving at an apartment complex.
Fowler allegedly hit the man and stepped on his glasses. He then took a bag of groceries from the man, which included liquor, and tossed it in the lake. He was sentenced to a year of probation, 75 hours of community service, and $2,575 in fines.The Jaguars suspended Fowler for a preseason game after he got into a physical altercation with Ngakoue during training camp.
If Jacksonville was looking for a reason to move on from Fowler, he gave it to them. Before the season, the Jags decided not to pick up Fowler’s fifth-year option, meaning he would become a free agent after the 2018 season.
“I don’t think the off-field issues were part of it,” Fowler said. “I just felt like they took it and ran with it and added that much more fuel to why, ‘Oh, this is why you can’t play. This is why we’re not playing you. Because you did this off the field, you did that off the field.’ That’s what it was.”
Ever since his days at Lakewood High School, Fowler has had periods where he couldn’t channel his supreme talent into a team setting. As a senior at Lakewood in 2011, he got into a heated exchange with coaches during a video session and was suspended three games.
“We had peaks and valleys in our player/coach relationship,” Spartans coach Cory Moore said. “Dante was still young and trying to find his way. We were, too, as coaches. People think it’s easy coaching a superstar. It’s not. There’s different levels of coaching for every player on a team. It’s finding that right balance.
“Dante had these flashes where he would just wow you with what he could do on the field. He has all the talent and athleticism in the world, and he just had to learn how to channel it in the right way.” Moore said the two have a good relationship now. They run into each sometimes, whether it is at the gas station or grocery store in St. Petersburg.“Dante truly is a good kid,” Moore said.
St. Petersburg still means a lot to Fowler. He said it hurt him having his mug shot in the Tampa Bay Times. “That’s what really let me down and broke my heart,” Fowler said. “Because it wasn’t about me, it was about my dad. He always told me not to disrespect and hurt our last name and I felt like I did that .“I knew what it was like to be a star player in the paper, and then you see that mug shot in the paper, and you’re like, no, no. That’s like one of your worst fears and I was looking at it for a while. But I’m happy I was able to bounce back.”.
The Jaguars received a third-round pick in 2019 and a fifth-rounder in 2020 in exchange for Fowler. He said he knew his game would be helped by going from a 4-3 defensive end to a stand up 3-4 outside linebacker and pass rusher in Wade Phillips’ defense.
“I knew I was just going back to my old position and knew I was going to be me again,” Fowler said. “I just had to do everything in my power to get all the rust off and get that feeling back.”
Almost as soon as he joined the Rams, Fowler said he felt at home. While the NFC champs have a young core of stars, before the season they also had added veteran players such as Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters and Ndamukong Suh.
“That’s one thing I’m starting to understand,” Fowler said. “Guys like Aqib, Marcus, myself, Ndamukong —people may think certain types of thing about us, or they put a discipline tag on us. Things like that. But ever since I’ve been here, these guys have been professionals to the highest standard I’ve ever seen. When you’re in a good environment like that and just around good people, it just makes you want to be that type of professional that you know you can be. So it’s put me in a good environment for me to just to be myself and work on myself as well and just be around people that are selfless.”
Fowler will be a free agent in March, but he’s not focused on where he will go next. “Right now, I’m just having a blast with this team,” Fowler said. Moore watched the NFC championship game and saw his former player make the game-changing play in overtime.
“I think Dante really is starting to come into his own,” Moore said. “The success he’s had since coming over to the Rams is a turning point for him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made a few plays in the Super Bowl.
“It’s Dante Fowler’s world right now.”
