Sarah Spain

People around him were struggling with so many big things.

And so, Dillon, how long has he known that he is adopted?

At about seven years old, he's sitting on the floor at a friend's house.

His mom is talking with friends, and he's playing with a toy, and he overhears his mom say, Pittsburgh.

That's where we went to get Dillon when we adopted him.

And he says, I'm adopted?

And she says, yep, and then goes back to her conversation.

And they try to talk about it again in the car very briefly and sort of shuts it down.

And it becomes pretty clear to him that it's not really something to talk about.

And for him, there was not really the privilege of, let me do some navel gazing about my identity and where I come from, right?

It's like, how do I get by today and tomorrow and the next day?

And how does my family get by?

So he really didn't talk about it with his mom again for 30 years.

Well, yeah, his brother actually plays football too, and he's quite good.

And at first he's in the shadow of his brother.

He grew up so shy.

And because he had so much self-doubt, he sort of was okay being in the background on the football team.

He just liked being out there.

And then from somewhere within himself is this drive to work harder than everyone else.

He had been both a running back and a defensive back in high school, and there was a great running back ahead of him for most of his career.