Dawkins had gotten the worst of it. He was battling through shortness of breath, fever, chills, cough, and dehydration. There were moments in the hospital where Dawkins didn't know if he was going to play football again or even if he was going to survive.

"I didn't know that my mind could get to the low that it could get to," Dawkins said. "And I was extremely emotional, extremely emotional. … Like I was down bad, I was down bad where I could barely move, and I was just hurting. But you keep pushing, God has a way of doing stuff and making things happen in your life so you can snap back and just like realize that, shoot life can be over before you know it."

It could have been a lot worse for Dawkins if he wasn't vaccinated. He had gotten the two doses of the vaccine and was in the two-week waiting period after his second dose when he tested positive. Dawkins has a six-month-old boy at home, and he was one of the biggest reasons that Dawkins got vaccinated. His son, Dil Ray Dawkins was born premature, and the left tackle didn't want to risk anything when it came to his son's health.

"But when I took that initiative to get vaccinated, I just wanted to do what was right," Dawkins said. "The message that I probably would overall say is, do what you're most comfortable with. But I'm glad I had the vaccine when I had Covid, I just wish that I could have been fully vaccinated."