Earns Prestigious "Golden Crab" Honor
for Survival & Exceptionalism
In a rare move for the Coltons
Point Times, so rare it never happened before, we have initiated the first "Golden
Crab" honor and bestowed it upon John Michael Dorsey for the
incredible success he had his first year as General Manager of the Kansas City
Chiefs NFL team.
There are many parts of John's
story, the stuff legends are made of, that the world needs to hear because this
is not just a story of success in football, nor about landing a critical
position in one of the best franchises in professional football after two
decades at the most legendary franchise in professional football history, the
Green Bay Packers.
I mean how many
professional jock stories can say the subject has direct ties to the 1634
landing of English settlers in Maryland ?
How many can say his family is one of a
handful of original pioneers, get this sports fans, from the oldest continuously
occupied chartered community in the original 13 colonies?
It gets better. Not only can John's ancestry be traced back
to the landing at St. Clement's Island in
1634, that was 380 years ago for those of you short on math, but his family has
lived there the entire time since. Since
St. Clements was just the 3rd settlement in America
(only Jamestown
and Plymouth Rock preceded it and both of them disappeared by the late 1600's) this
apparently qualifies John Michael as a true Colonial Blue Blood.
Fast forward to the 20th
century.
Phil, Helen, Walt & John Dorsey |
John was born in 1960 in Leonardtown , Maryland
into a family headed by patriarch Walter B. Dorsey. When his father died in 2009 it was the end
of a tumultuous yet golden era in Southern Maryland and statewide politics as
this third generation public servant put his indelible stamp on history and
left a rich legacy of service, a shrewd record of political survival and a
mosaic of interwoven personal experiences that made Walter bigger than life.
Then again, it was only
appropriate that Walter, the son of a son of a son of an Irishman would use his
Irish wit, his Leprechaun mischief, his command of language and gift of
storytelling to mesmerize juries, outwit the opposition and more likely than
not aggravate the judges while amassing a stunning record of victory in court
and politics.
Walter was first and
foremost a people person with a love of knowledge, a hunger for defending the
little people and a panache for competition and controversy. He came from two generations of political
activists, a heritage in Southern Maryland
transcending centuries and a desire to fight for what was right.
Before that the ancestral
family came from Ireland by
way of England , France and Nordic countries with the name
changing from D'Arcy in France
to Dorsey in Ireland . It was Ireland where John Dorsey, NFL football star met the
Mayor of Dublin, John Dorsey, on a trip.
Fate put him in a family
where politics ran in the blood. His great,
great grandfather was Philip Dorsey, born in Calvert
County but an adventurer who was part
of the 1849 gold rush in California . Walter once told me family lore says his
great grandfather Philip found gold and once owned a claim to what became San Francisco . Then he caught a ship for home that sailed
around South America
Family legend has it the
ship wrecked rounding Cape Horn off Chile and Philip was lost at sea
and given up for dead. More than two years
later he showed up in Maryland saying he walked all the way up the Amazon
through South, Central and North America to St. Mary's County, Maryland. As for his claim for San Francisco , he probably lost it in a poker
game.
John's great grandfather,
Walter B. Dorsey, was first elected to the Maryland House of delegates in 1911
while his grandfather, Judge Philip H. Dorsey was a Circuit Court Judge who was
elected Senator in 1926 and to the House of Delegates in 1930 and 1934. His father Walter was first elected State
Attorney in 1954, then elected to the State Senate in 1958, the third
generation Dorsey to serve in the state legislature. He was then elected State Attorney again in
1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994. From 1962-66
he served as Assistant Attorney General for the state and in the 1970's he
served as the Deputy Maryland Public Defender.
During the three
generations of Dorsey politicians Southern Maryland became a hotbed for statewide
politics and many a weekend was spent at the Dorsey home with whoever the
presiding governor of Maryland
might be. You see, in those days the
Democrats controlled the Baltimore area and the
Republicans controlled the Washington
suburbs. To win you often needed St.
Mary's County and that meant the Dorsey family.
Needless to say the Dorsey
DNA from the swashbuckling colonial pioneers to the rough and tumble world of Maryland and national politics was well suited for young John Michael Dorsey as he excelled in
football in high school then was off to the University of Connecticut .
At U Conn he was a four
year starter at linebacker while he earned a Bachelor's degree in Political
Science and Economics. Twice John was
named Yankee Conference Player of the
Year and capped his collegiate career by being named NCAA Division 1AA All American.
As if there was any doubt
as to his talent, he was drafted in the
4th round of the NFL draft by the storied Green
Bay Packers and played five years before knee
injuries ended his playing days. His thirty-five special teams tackles for the
Packers in 1984 is still a team record. Dorsey totaled 130 tackles and two
fumble recoveries during his five-year career.
After his playing career
ended, Dorsey chose to remain in football, taking a job as a college scout for
the Packers in May 1991. He was later promoted to Director of College Scouting for the team in February 1997. In
January of 1999, Dorsey followed former Packers coach Mike Holmgren to the Seattle
Seahawks assuming the role of the team's Director
of Player Personnel but after just over a year in the Pacific
Northwest , Dorsey resigned and returned to the Packers.
He served as Director of College Scouting and remained
in that position through 2011 when he was named Director of Football Operations for Green Bay. Dorsey is credited
with making the Packers one of the best drafting teams in the NFL, helping
choose star players like Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews and Greg Jennings.
John left behind an amazing history with the Green Bay Packers where he was part of a
group that made 15 playoff appearances
and won two Super Bowls in 21 years.
On January 13, 2013, news broke that Dorsey had agreed to become the new general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. The move reunited Dorsey with new Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
Talk about challenges. The year
before John arrived the Chiefs were 2-14 and that was the team the new GM
inherited. In his first year Kansas City partisans
were stunned when the Chiefs won their first three games, more wins than the
entire previous season. They were the only
team in NFL history to win 2 or fewer games the previous season and then win
the first four games the next season.
On October 13, 2013 Chiefs fans broke the Guinness World Record for loudest
crowd roar at an outdoor stadium with 137.5 decibels, a record later reclaimed
by the Seattle Seahawks, but the Chiefs record was a precursor of good things
to come. When the Indianapolis Colts
defeated the Payton Manning led Denver Broncos in week 7 of the season, the Kansas
City Chiefs were the final undefeated team in the NFL. As if that was not enough, the Chiefs
clinched a playoff berth but lost to the Indianapolis Colts in one of the wildest
Wild Card shootouts in playoff history 45-44.
When the dust finally settled the Chiefs had a season record of 11-5,
finished 2nd in the AFC and made the playoffs. All in all it was an amazing first year as
General Manager after inheriting a team that was 2-14 the previous year.
John has another connection to Kansas
City besides being GM. He first met his wife Patricia in Kansas City while on a
scouting trip for the Packers and married her after a couple of years of dating. Patricia Sexton-Dorsey already had ties to
the Kansas City
area prior to her husband's hiring as the Chiefs General Manager. She is an
attorney and partner in a large Kansas City-based law firm who worked from her Wisconsin home while they were in Green Bay .
She is a native of Abilene , Kansas and
attended both the University
of Kansas and Washburn
University in Topeka were she earned her law degree.
As for living in middle
America, John had this response to a reporter's question if there were similarities
between Green Bay and Kansas City .
“Absolutely. In
the people. It’s the Midwest . Work ethic is huge. Principle is big. Those traditional Midwest
values that I have grown to love and respect.”
For a lifetime of professional
football experience at the highest levels of the sport, a stunning first year as General Manager of the Chiefs,
for returning to Kansas City so his wife
didn't have to commute from Wisconsin and for recognizing the value of living in the Midwest (the CPT publisher
is from neighboring state Iowa), John Michael Dorsey is awarded the CPT "Golden
Crab" honor and is forever a member of the Secret Society of Golden Crabs
but please don't tell anyone.
What's the story on the Golden
Crab?
Since hardly any of my readers are from Southern Maryland you should know
Maryland is the Mecca for Atlantic crabs along with oysters, clams, eels, and
all that other stuff you find in the Atlantic, the Potomac River and Chesapeake
Bay where John was also big in swimming, fishing, boating and water skiing.
The crab, or crustacean as it is known to the local Watermen, is the most valuable species
harvested from the Chesapeake Bay . As a result it is the state "Species" whatever that means
since I never got past state mottos, songs, flowers and animals. Technically the Blue Crab or Callinectes sapidus Rathbun is the
official Maryland State Species.
By the way, John did leave behind on the East Coast a brother, Phil and
sister, Helen to preserve the family ties to the Colonial Blue Bloods.
Congratulations John Michael Dorsey for giving hope to the Chief's fans and
don't forget to drop by your family roots on the banks of the Potomac
when you can where you can still catch your own blue crabs. Hummm...
Blue crabs and Blue Bloods...
John, your "Golden Crab" will be delivered
as soon as we can get it back in the truck.
.
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