It’s that lack of respect that has pushed Dawson to work harder on the field and stay more focused off of it. While he’s best known around campus as a running machine, he realizes that his toughest challenge at Harvard is gaining respect away from the field.
“A lot of student athletes, a lot of football players have a lot to prove not just to themselves but to everyone,” Dawson says. “I definitely do work a lot harder because I know I’m battling the social perceptions of football players.
“There are definitely times when I’ve wondered what professors’ preconceived perceptions of me are.”
But after 10 minutes around Dawson, you realize that you’re dealing with someone who could be better categorized as president of a reading club than star football player. Unless you steer him in the direction of talking about football, he’ll never bring it up himself. Sitting with him less than 24 hours after he ran for 160 yards and a touchdown to help the Crimson clinch the Ivy title over Penn, he doesn’t mention football until someone comes over and congratulates him. Even then, he turns to his injured roommate sitting across the table and says with a smile, “Yeah, man, congratulations, great game.”
“He’s a humble guy,” Kennedy says. “He enjoys being a football player but that’s not all he is. He’s a pretty calm guy.”
Calm—as long as you give him his respect.
The Next Level
“There are so many experiences I want to have and so I look at the NFL as maybe one of those experiences for a little while, but there’s so much I want to do.”—Clifton Dawson
While NFL scouts showed up in bunches this year to evaluate captain Ryan Fitzpatrick, it’s likely that throughout the next two years it’s going to be Dawson they’re coming to see.
Fitzpatrick aside, it’s not often that NFL scouts consider Ivy skill players as serious prospects, but Dawson’s sheer dominance of the league might make them take notice.
The most notable Ivy backs in recent memory to have success in the NFL are Keith Elias from Princeton and Jim Finn of Penn. Dawson’s numbers figure to be far superior than both of those players by the time his time wearing Crimson is done.
“He’s going to have to stay focused,” says Menick regarding Dawson’s future success. “And he’s obviously done that by how consistent he’s been. You just can’t think about the big picture and have to really focus on what’s happening right now.”
Dawson’s still not sure what he wants his “big picture” to look like. He came to Harvard so that his college time would consist of more than just football, and he’s hesitant to pursue a life following college that would limit him in any way.
“There are so many things to do,” he says. “And football may just be a part of that.”
—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.