Texas senior safety Dylan Haines knows there are critics who do not believe in him.
That is why Haines prefers to believe in himself.
Haines has listened to the negative comments about his ability since the former walk-on began playing under Charlie Strong in 2014. He has nine interceptions in two seasons as a starter. However, some observers would prefer Haines to be on the sidelines instead of the Longhorns’ backfield. Not only does he think the jabs at him on message boards, radio shows, articles and social media have been unfair, Haines is convinced being white factors into those negative opinions about him.
“I think Christian McCaffrey (white running back at Stanford) said it best a few months ago,” Haines recently said at Big 12 Media Days. “Everyone stereotypes. There’s a stereotype around white athletes, especially. You see the word ‘tough.’ That’s all I see about me. I see unathletic, but you always see intelligent for some reason, and hard worker. I’d be lying if I said I can run a 4.3, so why don’t they say I’m a good athlete? I’m maybe not considered a good athlete to some, but my definition of athleticism is a little bit different than others. In my opinion, I am a good athlete. I do think there is a little bit of stereotype around certain athletes, whether it is a walk-on thing.”
To be clear, Haines raised the issue of race when ask about the criticisms he has faced at UT.
That being said, Haines believes being a white defensive back contributes to the negative analysis of his game.
“That’s the thing, too,” Haines said. “The number one position in the NFL that doesn’t have a lot of white people is corner. Then safety is probably up there. Yeah, I think it’s probably up there. People see a white defensive back, and they back a stereotype. Whether it’s true or not, it should not affect how you play, or how someone is characterized. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. If you go out there and make plays, that is what you’re going to be remembered for. It’s not really how you got them.”
Clearly, Haines plays in a sport dominated by African-Americans.
According to the "2015 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Football League" by Richard Lapchick, the percent of African-American players increased from 67.3 percent in the 2013 season to 68.7 percent in 2014. The percent of white players decreased from 31 percent in 2013 to 28.6 percent in 2014.
In Division I football at the FBS level, according to Lapchick’s “2015 Racial and Gender Report Card: College Sport”, African-Americans accounted for 53.4 percent of football student-athletes while whites made up 41.4 percent, Latinos made up 2.2 percent, Asian/Pacific Islanders made up 2.4 percent, and those describing themselves as “other” made up 0.6 percent. Lapchick’s breakdown for all Division I football student-athletes was as follows: whites decreased from 44.3 percent in 2013-2014 to 43.1 in 2014-2015 percent; African-Americans increased from 43.3 percent to 43.6 percent; Latinos increased from 2.5 percent to 2.8 percent; Asian/Pacific Islanders remained the same at two percent, and Native-Americans remained the same at 0.4 percent. Those describing themselves as “non-resident aliens” remained the same at 0.4 percent while “two or more races” and “other” saw an increase from 7.1 percent to 7.5 percent.
Haines was asked what contributed to his knack for being around the football. Was it athleticism? Is it his intelligence? Maybe a combination of both. He gave an answer, but you could tell the question touched a nerve inside of him.
“It’s a combination of both, obviously,” Haines said. “I guess the first thing I would say to someone asking me that question, and they’ll say you kind of just know where to be … What I’m trying to say is I see what gets posted in the media, all the stuff like he’s not a great athlete. There’s better athletes than him. What I would ask them is to define athleticism because a lot of people think athleticism is running a 40, or what your vertical is. The game of football is not running a 40. It’s getting from Point A to Point B to Point C and making a play, whether it’s tackling, whether it’s intercepting the ball. What separates my game from others is that I take a lot more pride in knowing what to do and knowing what’s going on, so that guy that runs a 4.3, I’ll have two steps in front of him before he takes off running because I know what’s coming.
“I think it is a combination of both. I’m not going to sit here and say I run a 4.3. I don’t run a 4.7 either. I’m faster than what people give me credit for. I’m quicker than what people give me credit for. Regardless of what it is, I put myself in a position to make plays, and often that happens. I think what I have to continue to do is take that a little bit more seriously, and put myself in position to not take myself out of position. So that’s going to be something I work on this year.”
Haines does not need to work on obtaining respect from senior defensive tackle Paul Boyette.
“He has outstanding character,” Boyette said. “He gets respect from me because he’s an emotional leader. He practices what he preaches. He knows what he’s doing. He gets everyone lined up on defense and gets them in the right position.
“He knows how to play every position in the backfield. For a man to know how to do that, it take a certain amount of skill, a certain level of maturity to achieve it.”
No matter what you say about Haines, the man is honest.
Haines is the same guy who challenged his younger teammates last season prior to the Oklahoma game. During a weekly media session, Haines called out those players for not putting in extra work studying film throughout the week. Freshmen players fired back at Haines on Twitter, and the team appeared to be in disarray.
Then Texas defeated Oklahoma to record one of the biggest upsets last season.
“The thing was I came up to the Monday press conference,” Haines said. “It was like this. There were 20-something people. We were 1-3 [Texas was actually 1-4]. We’re sitting there answering the same questions week-by-week. Basically, what happened? Why are we not playing good. At some point, you have to take responsibility. You can’t just say we decided not to win, or we decided not to show up. There’s a reason you play the way you play, and it’s preparation. What comes in preparation is practice and film. I felt like some people were taking it more seriously than others. It wasn’t just young people. It was everyone included, on both sides of the ball, and all phases of the ball. But I said what I said because I felt like I was required to give an answer to what I felt was the truth. Yeah, we responded, and we responded well. We responded better than I would have liked.
“I think that with everything that happened on Twitter and media, that’s kind of what fired us up, too. I said we had voluntary film and people weren’t showing up. After that, people did decide to show up. Whether it was what I said. Whether it just clicked for someone. It doesn’t really matter to me because we turned it around, if not just for that week. Now we just have to learn how to do that for a full year.”
Haines does not expect to eliminate any of the negative perceptions about him. He knows some people are optimistic DeShon Elliott or Brandon Jones will take his spot during training camp. Haines said if he does lose his job, he will work hard to get it back.
Actually, he does not appear too concerned about the competition battle.
His critics may not believe in him.
Haines believes in himself.
“Ever since I’ve been at Texas, I’ve been developing,” Haines said. “There’s a lot of kids that hit a growth spurt in middle school, and they kind of develop physically. Even physically, I graduated high school at 165 (pounds). I walked on at 185. Now I’m over 200. I think I’m still growing as a player, technique and physically. The thing I made the most time for is getting into the weight room and the film room. I’ve done all the studying that I felt is necessary to go on a Saturday and perform. I was always afraid, my first year playing, going out there and making a fool out of myself, so I took that personal. I just want to be the most prepared guy on the field. I’m not ashamed to admit it. There are guys out there who are more talented than me, faster than me, bigger than me, but it’s going to be hard to find a guy more prepared than me.
“I’d still take smart (as a description). Whether it has anything to do with how smart they think I am, I would like people to think I’m smarter, instinctive and just a hard worker.”
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Sports On A Dime
1. If I had expansion input, Cincinnati, Houston, UCF and USF would be added to the Big 12. Let the existing schools get more money, fans can enjoy Florida in November, and Texas will do whatever it wants in 2025.
2. UT’s media days would have been more interesting if Malik Jefferson was in Dallas. He is the face of UT’s program and could have easily represented the youth movement in Austin. Going forward, Jefferson should be at every media availability to sell the program.
3. Pittsburgh running Le’Veon Bell is breaking more than league rules right now. NFL players do not care about what their teammates do off the field unless it affects them on the field. Players have always told me once a teammate’s actions starts to mess with their money – potentially losing games because a star player is suspended – it becomes an issue behind closed doors.
4. If the woman accusing Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott of domestic violence is lying, I hope his attorney’s go after the accuser. For now, I want to see Elliott’s case play out before formulating an opinion.
5. Houston’s front office needs to do everything it can to avoid becoming the next Detroit Lions. Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins has two years remaining on his rookie deal and wants a new contract. Oh, Hopkins deserves to get paid. However, I remember Detroit paying quarterback Matthew Stafford, receiver Calvin Johnson, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, but not having enough wins to justify the immense salary cap hit. The Texans must put talent around quarterback Brock Osweiler, defensive tackle J.J. Watt and Hopkins in the future.
6. I enjoyed learning more about Dennis Green this past week. Geoff Ketchum informed me Green was a candidate to coach at Texas many years ago, something I never knew. Green was a pioneer for black coaches. More importantly, he was a great man. Rest in peace.
7. Greg Hardy had a workout with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Ray Rice is not good enough to at least be a backup in the NFL? Yes, I saw the yards per carry average during his final season, but never forget Baltimore’s offensive line was pretty bad that year. This is one of those times when the NFL does not make any sense.
8. At least Cam Newton is a really good football player:
9. So, former college football coach Lou Holtz had this gem of a quote about immigrants during the Republican National Coalition for Life on Tuesday: “I don’t want to become you. I don’t want to speak your language, I don’t want to celebrate your holidays, I sure as hell don’t want to cheer for your soccer team!” One day people will learn a famous person is not always a smarter person.
10. Terence Crawford is probably ready to face Manny Pacquiao after picking apart Victor Postol on Saturday. The fight was not worth $60, but Crawford proved he is ready for the only major opponent remaining. Considering Bob Arum represents Pacquiao and Crawford, I fully expect the promoter to do everything possible and receive two paychecks from one fight later this year.
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