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Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN
ORCHARD PARK, NY – While Buffalo Bills has spent the past 25 years without hosting an NFL playoff game, Valentino Dixon has spent most of his time incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.
Dixon, a big Bills fan, missed most of the team’s Super Bowl races in the 1990s and the most recent home playoff game in 1996.
Invoices from Taiwan Taiwan ensures that Dixon will not miss the next.
After announcing that Bills Stadium will open for the first time throughout the season, Jones gave Dixon tickets to Bills’ wild card game on Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts. It is the latest in a series of important moments in Dixon’s life since he was exonerated and released from prison in 2018, after serving 27 years at the Attica Correctional Center in New York.
Raised on the East Side of Buffalo, Dixon, 51, was arrested and convicted of murder in 1991, despite no physical evidence linking him to the murder. While incarcerated, Dixon turned to art, drawing thousands of images of golf courses, despite never playing the game, even with his story and works published by Golf Digest.
A group of students at Georgetown University made a documentary about Dixon’s conviction and illegal imprisonment, which eventually led to his acquittal.
Jones first became aware of Dixon’s story in the early 2020 season. He wanted to do something for himself, but with the COVID-19 protocols of New York State and Erie County limiting businesses throughout the year, he was hard to figure out exactly how to get to him.
“I was already a little excited about everything that was going on in the world,” Jones said. “I contacted various organizations in Buffalo to see what I could do to make a difference. When I first read the story to him, man, it was emotional and heartbreaking. I definitely wanted to do something for him.”
The Bills special teams got in touch with Dixon and said he was amazed by the attitude of a man who had every reason to be angry with the world.
“When he called, it was like talking to an old friend. Our conversation was real,” Jones said. “I think what stood out the most was that he had no zeal in him. He seemed to be simply happy with where his life is today. I was so amazed by where he was emotionally and mental.
“He certainly showed a lot of character for who he is, because he’s just a happy guy. He didn’t know me or what I was going to do for him and he just had so much enthusiasm. I was happy to be able to do something for him. make me happy “.
Jones, 32, shared the content of their conversation with his teammates, including 27-year-old receiver Stefon Diggs, who, like Jones, struggled to understand spending so much time behind bars for a a crime he did not commit.
Dixon told ESPN he “refused” to be cut off from his time in prison.
“I had to stay that way – I was born that way,” Dixon told ESPN. “The prison was designed to break my spirit and I refused to allow it. I was the one who encouraged everyone else to continue to stay there.”
While in prison, Dixon’s love of bills never wavered, nor did his passion for football. He said he played wide receiver in the Attica football league for 20 years, winning five championships.
He said these connections to the game made “a dream come true” from Jones.
“In prison, we’re just a few of us who are very good, so I had my way,” Dixon told ESPN. “I would just tell them to throw it, I’ll run under it and take it. I would usually leave the boys 5-10 meters back – at 41 [years old], I was still the fastest on that team. I was Jerry Rice in that league. “
Saturday’s game will mark Dixon Bills’ second game, the first being a pre-season game at the age of 11. As a city center child, Dixon called the experience “something you never forget” and one he has held for the past 40 years.
This game will be unique because Bills allows only 6,772 fans on the stadium of almost 71,000 seats. It won’t be the whole gaming experience, but, as Dixon put it, “anything is better than a 6-on-8 cell.”
“This team right here, I know it can beat anyone,” he said. “They could have beaten anyone last year, but they just weren’t ready – now is the time. And I have no doubt that a Super Bowl will come to Buffalo, if not this year, then the next three years.
“If we come to play hard, there is no team on this planet that can beat Buffalo.”