ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Buffalo Bills activated offensive lineman Dion Dawkins from the Reserve/COVID list August 12. On Tuesday, he spoke to reporters after practice and detailed his battle with COVID-19.
Dawkins said he was hospitalized in Buffalo for four days and said if there was a "checklist" for it, he had everything.
"It was one of the lowest points I've ever been, I never even thought that I could get in that low," said Dawkins.
According to Dawkins his conditioning took a hit, something that head coach Sean McDermott addressed Sunday, stating that he is “not close to where he needs to be." But, Dawkins said he knows that is part of it and he is feeling more and more like himself each day.
The Bills offensive lineman said he received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but was a day or two short of the two week window of being considered fully vaccinated.
Dawkins admitted he didn't know what to believe at first, but chose to get vaccinated because he wanted to make sure his family was protected and he wanted to do what was right for him and the Bills.
Do what you're most comfortable with, but I'm glad that I had the vaccine when I had COVID. I wish that I could have been fully, fully vaccinated, I was right before the fully vaccinated point. If I was fully, I think that it would have been a little bit easier on myself, but hey whatever you're comfortable doing, do it. But just do your research and try to think about others, because everybody is gonna go through it differently. Like some people it's just a day of hurt and some people it's two weeks and some people it's longer.
When he returned to the team he said his teammates wanted knowledge of what he went through and how it made him feel and he just told them the honest truth.
"I don't want to scare anybody, but there was moments that I was like "yo, I don't know if I'm gonna make this, I was down bad," Dawkins said.
Dion Dawkins was candid and raw about his battle with COVID. This is what he said about the mental and physical impact it had on him @WKBW pic.twitter.com/IVHjc7yuoB
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) August 17, 2021
Dawkins was asked if everyone in the NFL should be vaccinated and he responded with the following statement:
I don't think that I could ever say that everybody should just go ahead and do it, because everybody's life is different. There's some people that believe in god, there's some people that don't, so to put everybody in one basket I can't find myself doing that. I think the proper way to answer that is I really just want people to get the research of the good and bad and the examples and then go on your decision.
Dawkins was asked if everyone in the NFL should be required to get the vaccine. Here's what he had to say #BillsMafia @WKBW pic.twitter.com/fatY4gF5Mx
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) August 17, 2021
