No. 87 | |||||||
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Position: | Tight end | ||||||
Personal information | |||||||
Born: | Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. | June 24, 1959||||||
Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||
Weight: | 240 lb (109 kg) | ||||||
Career information | |||||||
High school: | Kinston (Kinston, North Carolina) | ||||||
College: | NC State | ||||||
NFL draft: | 1981 / round: 8 / pick: 212 | ||||||
Career history | |||||||
* Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||
Career NFL statistics | |||||||
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Player stats at PFR |
James Linwood Dawson, legally changed to Lin Dawson in 1993 (born June 24, 1959), is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He serves as the managing director of The Lin Dawson Organization, LLC.
Lin grew up in Kinston, North Carolina. After graduating from Kinston High School in 1977, he accepted a football scholarship from NC State University. In 1981 NFL draft, he was selected by New England, where he played ten years. A starter at tight end, Dawson suffered torn ligaments in his knee on the Patriots’ first offensive play from scrimmage in Super Bowl XX on an incomplete pass thrown to him by quarterback Tony Eason, causing him to miss not only the rest of the Super Bowl but the entire following 1986 season. He was a member of the New England Patriots ‘Team of the Decade-1980's.
Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1985 season. The Bears defeated the Patriots by the score of 46–10, capturing their first NFL championship since 1963, three years prior to the birth of the Super Bowl. Super Bowl XX was played on January 26, 1986, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
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