Lional “Jelly Roll” Dalton, a former Ravens defensive tackle and Super Bowl XXXV champion, recently published his new book, “Who The Hell Are We?” After playing nine seasons in the NFL for five different teams, Dalton saw a lot of the country and found a passion for figuring out who he was and who we are as humans.
Dalton, 45, began his NFL career in 1998 in Baltimore and spent four seasons with the Ravens. He accumulated 36 solo tackles, 10 assisted tackles, nine tackles for loss and two forced fumbles as a Raven. The Eastern Michigan graduate always remembers where he started off and loves his first team.
As much as Dalton wanted to stay in Baltimore, he was offered more money to sign with the Denver Broncos as a free agent in 2002. Throughout the remainder of his career, Dalton played for the Kansas City Chiefs, Houston Texans and Washington as well.
During his professional career, Dalton met a lot of different people by traveling from team to team. His inspiration for writing the book comes from how different people would judge him and who he was even though Dalton never knew who he truly was.
“I identified as a football player for most of my life. Just traveling to different teams and meeting different people helped me open up and realize I’m more than just an athlete,” Dalton said on Glenn Clark Radio Sept. 22. “All of these experiences I had, I had to write them down. I wanted to share these experiences I had with the world. So I decided to put it in a book.”
Once Dalton began to understand who he was as a person, he shifted his interest to humans as a whole. One of his fondest memories while writing his book was a trip he took with his wife, Kimberly Dalton, to get to know different people around the world.
“After trying to figure [out who I was], me and my wife did an eight-month excursion around the world,” Dalton said. “So we traveled for eight months straight and we just went around the world. We went to eight countries in Southeast Africa, Asia, China and pretty much just studying different cultures trying to figure out who the hell we are.”
This eye-opening experience allowed Dalton to meet people from different parts of the globe. It changed his outlook on who we are as people and just how unique some people can be.
Dalton grew up in Detroit, which he said was tough for him as a child. When he had the chance to play in the NFL and make new memories as a professional athlete, there was a culture shock that came with all of the traveling and new people.
Dalton knew that his life story was important and that perhaps others would find it intriguing as well. As a football player, Dalton never thought of himself as anything more than a professional athlete, but that quickly changed when he realized the opportunities he had been given. Dalton knew he needed to jot down his experiences so that he could one day share his story with the world.
Dalton also found it important to stress how crucial it is that modern-day NFL athletes take care of their body and make sure they are doing the most to stay healthy after they retire. Dalton, who played at 315 pounds, struggled physically after his retirement from the league. Dalton believes that nine seasons is way too long and recommends players only stay for six seasons and get out with their body intact.
“I definitely recommend all players to do a serious yoga practice when you finish and drop all of the extra weight as soon as possible,” Dalton said. “I was dealing with high blood pressure, arthritis and kidney issues since I retired, and a lot of that comes from all the medication [and] all of the blows to the body.”
Still, Dalton reminisces about playing in the NFL, and he never forgets what it was like suiting up in a Ravens uniform.
“Most of my best experiences happened in Baltimore,” Dalton said, “so I always secretly wanted to come back to Baltimore after every team I played on.”
For more from Dalton, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens