Dallas Crawford Honors his Dad

It looks like we have a solid kid and I can't wait to see him in a winged helmet.

 

 

Crawford's play honors his dad

By DAVID DORSEY
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On the eve of his father’s funeral, Dallas Crawford said he intended to honor the memory of the man who taught him to throw and to catch.

Crawford did a little bit of both Friday night at South Fort Myers High School, where he helped the Wolfpack to a 33-2 victory against Barron Collier in the Region 3A-3 quarterfinals.

Steven Crawford died last Friday, which was Dallas’ 18th birthday and the same day he verbally committed to play at Michigan, from an illness at the age of 43. His funeral is at 1 p.m. today at Cornerstone Ministries on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Fort Myers.

“He was my biggest fan,” said Crawford, who estimated that his father, a Cypress Lake High School graduate, must have been present for “hundreds” of his football games.

Some of those games were sandlot-style, played as late as midnight on the street in front of their home.

“He taught me everything I know,” Crawford said. “He taught me how to throw a football.”

Crawford completed 11-of-15 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown.

“He taught me how to catch,” he said, after catching a 24-yard touchdown pass. He also intercepted a pass. Listed at 5-foot-10, Crawford outleaped Barron Collier 6-foot-3 tight end Mike Heuerman in the end zone, grabbing the ball away from him for a touchback early in the second quarter with his team leading just 13-0.

“That did turn the momentum pretty good,” Barron Collier coach Mark Ivey said.

Crawford said he tried blocking his father’s death out of his mind during the game. His teammates dedicated the victory to Steven Crawford, the father of three grown children.

“This just shows the drive, the ‘it’ factor that he has,” South Fort Myers coach Grant Redhead said of Crawford and his performance. “His dad made him the man he is. It’s a hard loss for the family and for him. We’re going to continue on. When you make a team a family, good things can happen.”