Former Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney was one of the greatest pass rushers in franchise history.
Freeney’s patented spin move, which he developed during his high school days in Connecticut, helped him rack up double-digit figures in sacks and a combined 23 forced fumbles in his first four NFL seasons alone.
Freeney complemented Robert Mathis on the Colts’ defensive line perfectly. The duo made life miserable for quarterbacks and ball carriers during their decade-long collaboration in the Circle City from 2003 to 2012.
Dwight’s exploits on defense helped Indianapolis become a perennial Super Bowl contender during the memorable Tony Dungy era from 2002 to 2008. The Colts averaged 12 wins per year and clinched five division titles during that seven-season time frame.
Without a doubt, the pinnacle of that memorable run was winning Super Bowl XLI in February 2007.
Freeney was one of the main reasons behind the Colts’ dominance from 2002 to 2012. Hopefully, he will earn his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH sooner than later.
This is Dwight Freeney’s inspirational football story.
Early Life
Dwight Jason Freeney was born to parents Hugh and Joy in Hartford, CT on February 19, 1980. He has one brother.
Freeney told The Players’ Tribune in December 2021 that his first job was working as a paperboy in his neighborhood.
When it came to sports, Freeney’s first love was basketball. His father, Hugh, coached him during his formative years in Connecticut, per Colts.com’s Heather Lloyd.
To his dad’s dismay, Dwight frequently “traveled”—a dribbling violation in basketball—while doing low post spin moves.
Dwight eventually gave up on hoops to focus his attention on football. Little did he know his spin move would become one of his trademarks on the football field.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Josh Elliott, Freeney grew up idolizing New York Giants outside linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
Freeney was so fanatical about LT that he collected his sports cards and covered his bedroom walls with his posters, per The New York Times‘ Karen Crouse.
Freeney also told The Players’ Tribune in 2021 that his first sports heartbreak was Taylor’s retirement following the 1993 NFL season.
Dwight eventually displayed a similar kind of ferocity as Taylor when he played in the NFL for 16 seasons from 2002 to 2017.
Dwight Freeney attended Bloomfield High School in Bloomfield, CT. He excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer for the Bloomfield Warhawks.
Freeney played soccer for the Warhawks as a freshman before focusing on the gridiron as a tight end and defensive end in his final three years of high school.
Dwight’s coach told him that it didn’t matter how he got to the ball carrier and made his blockers miss— all he cared about was that he played the role of pass rusher to the hilt.
Dwight instinctively used the spin move he used on the basketball court to make pass and run blockers miss. It was so effective that he used it as his main weapon well into his legendary NFL career several years later.
“I was pretty good at traveling or spinning or drop step, whatever it was,” Freeney told Lloyd in the spring of 2018. “And I just kind of incorporated that into my game of football. I started in high school and I just kept running with it. It became a natural thing.”
Before long, Freeney’s vaunted spin move helped him rack up 37.0 sacks, 87 total tackles, 21 tackles for loss, and four defensive touchdowns in high school.
Freeney, the Warhawks’ team captain in his senior season in 1997, earned a slew of accolades, including All-American high school honors from Super Prep, Tom Lemming, and Blue Chip that year, per Syracuse’s official athletics website.
Joe Paterno’s Penn State Nittany Lions recruited Freeney hard as his high school athletics career wound down.
When the Nittany Lions recruiters finally saw Dwight in person, they balked—they thought he was too short to play on their defensive line. Freeney told The Athletic’s Bob Kravitz in November 2019 that Penn State eventually stopped recruiting him.
Dwight learned how to live with criticisms about his height when he entered the NFL ranks in 2002. He took it in stride and tried to prove his detractors wrong.
Freeney eventually committed to the Syracuse Orange during his senior year with the Warhawks.
Dwight Freeney, the frustrated basketball player, became one of the best pass rushers Paul Pasqualoni’s football program has ever produced.
College Days with the Syracuse Orange
Dwight Freeney attended Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY from 1998 to 2001. Freeney, an information studies major, suited up for Syracuse Orange head football coach Paul Pasqualoni.
Freeney got off to a slow start in his college football career. He recorded just 3.5 sacks from 1998 to 1999.
The Orange averaged eight wins per year during that two-year stretch and beat the Kentucky Wildcats in the 1999 Music City Bowl, 20-13.
Although Dwight sat out Syracuse’s last four games of his junior season, he recorded a Big East-leading 13.0 sacks and three forced fumbles in 2000. He sacked Virginia Tech Hokies quarterback Michael Vick 4.5 times in one game that year.
“He had no chance,” Freeney told the Pro Football Talk podcast (via the Patch’s Tim Jensen) 19 years later. “That’s probably one of my most favorite games that I played in.”
Despite Freeney’s emergence, Syracuse won just six games in 2000 and did not play in a bowl game for the first time in six seasons.
Freeney’s senior season was literally one for the record books. Dwight gobbled up quarterbacks with reckless abandon and racked up an NCAA record 17.5 sacks in the 2001 NCAA season.
Not only that, but Freeney’s eight forced fumbles that year also established a new Big East conference record.
Consequently, Dwight Freeney earned the second of his consecutive First-Team All-Big East selections in 2001. He also became a Unanimous All-American selection and earned Big East Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors that year.
The Orange won ten of 13 games in Dwight’s senior season. They beat the Kansas State Wildcats in the 2001 Insight Bowl, 26-3.
Freeney finished his stellar four-year college football career with 34.0 sacks, 50.5 tackles for loss, and 14 forced fumbles in 40 games for Syracuse from 1998 to 2001.
The stage was now set for Dwight Freeney to take the NFL by storm and help the Indianapolis Colts become perennial Super Bowl contenders during the unforgettable Tony Dungy era.
Pro Football Career
The Indianapolis Colts made Dwight Freeney the 11th overall selection of the 2002 NFL Draft.
Detractors thought the 6’1″ Freeney was too short to play defensive end in the National Football League.
Dwight proved his naysayers wrong the moment he stepped on the NFL gridiron.
Although Freeney started just eight games at defensive end as a rookie, he certainly made it worth it.
Colts head coach Tony Dungy made Freeney one of his starting defensive ends in Week 9. Dwight made the most of his opportunity—he sacked Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and fellow Syracuse alumnus Donovan McNabb once and forced him to fumble three times.
Freeney was so impressive that Dungy made him his starting defensive end for the rest of the season. Dwight obliged and had a team record 13.0 sacks and a league rookie record nine fumbles in 2002.
Consequently, Freeney finished second for the 2002 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award behind Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers.
Happy 60th Birthday to the best owner in the @NFL @JimIrsay Thank you for taking a chance on me! @Colts pic.twitter.com/4ykI3lv5ix
— Dwight Freeney (@dwightfreeney) June 14, 2019
Although the Colts were a high-scoring unit during the Jim Mora era from 1998 to 2001, teams took advantage of their porous defense. Dwight Freeney was just what the doctor ordered for Indy, and then some.
When Freeney was a rookie in Indianapolis, he had no desire to play football for more than a decade.
One day, Freeney struck up a conversation with fellow Colts defensive end Raheem Brock in the locker room. They saw the trainer taping up veteran defensive lineman Chad Bratzke who, at 31 years old, was already in his ninth pro football season.
Dwight told Raheem that there was no way he was going to play in the NFL for more than ten years, per the Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder.
Freeney was wrong. He spent 16 seasons in the National Football League from 2002 to 2017.
With Pro Bowl running back Edgerrin James back in play (he sat out ten games in 2001 with a torn ACL), Dungy’s quiet leadership, quarterback Peyton Manning’s rifle arm, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison’s dynamite catches, and Freeney’s pass-rushing prowess, the Colts regained their swagger in 2002.
Indy won ten games and returned to the postseason after missing out in three of the past four years.
Although the Colts lost in humiliating fashion to Herm Edwards’ New York Jets in the 2002 AFC Wild Card Game 41-0, Freeney and Co. would own the AFC South and become perennial Super Bowl contenders for the remainder of his 11-year tenure with the team.
Dwight Freeney’s instincts as a pass rusher were second to none. He proved he could deliver when he strip-sacked Miami Dolphins quarterback Brian Griese to clinch a 23-17 road win on November 2, 2003.
Freeney helped avenge an earlier 33-7 loss to the Tennessee Titans just several weeks after the Colts beat the Dolphins.
Dwight somehow read Titans quarterback Steve McNair’s eyes and correctly predicted that he would pass to wide receiver Derrick Mason on a quick slant for a possible two-point conversion.
Freeney reached up and broke up the pass to preserve the Colts’ 29-27 win over Tennessee.
Dwight also developed his quick burst off the line of scrimmage and patented spin move that bewildered pass and run blockers week in and week out.
“Dwight’s so fast off the snap, his size doesn’t matter,” Dungy told Elliott in 2003. “Dwight’s ability to force fumbles is not something that’s learned. That’s just Dwight.”
Freeney’s spin move was so popular with Colts fans that they frequently asked him to show it to them after asking for his autograph. Dwight always got a kick out of that gesture, per The New York Times.
The start of #9893BringTheHeatBlvd. #tbt #thosewerethedays @Colts @RobertMathis98 pic.twitter.com/4vdsy69mz0
— Dwight Freeney (@dwightfreeney) May 8, 2019
When the Colts drafted former Alabama A&M Bulldogs defensive lineman Robert Mathis in 2003, they complemented Freeney with another ferocious pass rusher.
The Freeney-Mathis combination became one of Dungy’s weapons from 2002 to 2008. However, it took some time for Dwight and Robert to get accustomed to each other’s presence on the defensive line.
“I would rush around the edge and run right into him,” Mathis told Sports Illustrated in 2010. “It happened all the time. We would lay each other out. And you know, defensive guys don’t like to get hit.”
Freeney and Mathis went over their rush plan prior to every snap so that once the play unfolded, they knew how to improvise their routes and complement each other so they could stop the ball carrier dead in his tracks.
While Freeney used his vaunted spin move to pry himself loose from offensive linemen, Mathis resorted to his patented dip maneuver. If either man went outside, the other one went inside.
The Freeney and Mathis duo made life miserable for quarterbacks every Sunday afternoon. They combined for an astonishing 45.0 sacks from 2009 to 2010 alone.
“Every time a quarterback drops back, I feel like there’s a bomb in the stadium and it’s about to go off,” Freeney told Jenkins. “I have three seconds to defuse it or the stadium is going to blow.”
In the aftermath of Freeney’s retirement from the NFL in the spring of 2018, he told The Indianapolis Star that he considered Mathis more than just a teammate—he was like a brother because of the camaraderie they forged during their ten seasons together in Indy.
The feeling was mutual for Robert Mathis.
“It’s a brotherhood. I love him, man. I love him,” Mathis told Colts.com’s Andrew Walker in 2018. “I appreciate what he did for this game, what he did for this organization. He’s definitely a first-ballot (Hall of Famer).”
To say Dwight Freeney was meticulous with his body during his 16-year NFL career was a massive understatement.
For instance, Freeney consumed nothing but beef and pinto beans in the four days leading up to Indy’s 30-17 win over the New York Jets in the 2009 AFC Championship Game.
His drinks of choice were water, grape juice, and tea on occasion. Whenever Dwight ate out, he brought a list of ingredients he wanted to consume. He also told the chef to hold the oil, powder, garnish, and garlic.
Freeney wasn’t as finicky as one might think—he gave himself two cheat days after game day. If he gained five pounds by Tuesday, he would burn them off two days later.
Dwight always used two weighing scales for accuracy’s sake. According to Jenkins, Freeney wanted to weigh 262 pounds if the Colts went up against teams with an elite passing game.
Dwight Freeney’s spin move is legendary. Here’s two minutes of some great @dwightfreeney spin moves! #passrush pic.twitter.com/O0ppdOFFla
— DLineVids (@dlinevids1) October 7, 2022
On the other hand, if Indy squared off against a great running team, Dwight wanted to weigh 267 pounds. He couldn’t believe he weighed 269 pounds prior to kickoff against the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 AFC Divisional Round.
Freeney told Sports Illustrated that eating kidney beans likely made him gain some weight prior to that game. Nonetheless, the Colts routed the Ravens, 20-3.
Freeney also equipped his brick mansion in Indianapolis with every possible recovery mechanism he needed. He left no stone unturned.
His bedroom had a hyperbaric chamber and an infrared sauna. He also installed his Accelerated Recovery Performance (ARP) machine that stimulated his muscles with electrical currents.
Freeney also had an inversion table and an inflatable posture pump in his basement gymnasium. Finally, two laser heads that helped soothe sore muscles and tissues sat atop his staircase.
Dwight also paid extreme attention to his dental health—he always used Crest toothpaste. Other brands didn’t cut it for him.
“I know it’s weird,” Freeney told Sports Illustrated in 2010. “Everything I do is weird. I ask myself all the time, ‘What the hell am I doing?”
With Freeney at the top of his game, the Colts enjoyed their most memorable stretch in franchise history since moving to Indianapolis, IN from Baltimore, MD in the spring of 1984.
Since Dwight entered the National Football League ranks in 2002, Indianapolis averaged 11 wins per year, made ten postseason appearances, and won seven AFC South division titles over the next 11 seasons.
The pinnacle of that memorable run was their 29-17 triumph over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007. It was the Colts’ first Super Bowl title since moving to Central Indiana 23 years earlier.
Dwight Freeney earned his first and only Super Bowl ring of his legendary pro football career.
It certainly didn’t come easy for the Colts, who were repeatedly tormented by Tom Brady’s New England Patriots in previous postseasons.
Dwight Freeney is heading north at Lucas Oil Stadium
🔹11 seasons in Indy (2002-12)
🔹3x AP First Team All-Pro & 7x Pro Bowl selection
🔹Super Bowl XLI Champion
🔹17th in NFL history in sacks (2nd Colts) & 5th in forced fumbles#RingOfHonor #Colts @WISH_TV
📸: Getty @WISH_TV pic.twitter.com/FIgCVyMOrr— Charlie Clifford (@char_cliff) May 2, 2019
Freeney and Co. finally overcame that hurdle when they beat the Patriots in the 2006 AFC Championship Game, 38-34. They won the elusive Vince Lombardi Trophy just two weeks later.
“When we beat the Patriots, that was the mountain we couldn’t climb,” Freeney told Holder in April 2018. “We knew if we beat the Patriots, we’re coming home with the ring.”
The Colts made another Super Bowl run after winning 14 games in the 2009 NFL season. Unfortunately, Indy lost to Drew Brees’s New Orleans Saints in Super Bowl XLIV, 31-17.
Dwight was instrumental in the Colts’ ascent during the Tony Dungy and Jim Caldwell eras.
He earned seven Pro Bowl and three First-Team All-Pro selections from 2003 to 2011. He also earned one Second-Team All-Pro selection during that nine-season time frame.
Freeney, who spent the first 11 of his 16-year pro football career in the Circle City, wanted to retire as a member of the Colts organization.
Indianapolis won just two games—the team’s worst record since its forgettable 1-15 showing in 1991—in Dwight’s tenth year with the team in 2011.
Much of the Colts’ free fall was due to quarterback Peyton Manning’s neck injury which forced him to sit out the entire 2011 NFL season.
To the dismay of Colts fans everywhere, owner Jim Irsay parted ways with Manning at season’s end—a clear indication that Indianapolis was going to make either Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III the first overall selection of the 2012 NFL Draft.
The Colts eventually drafted Luck, who led them to an 11-5 win-loss record and a postseason berth under first-year head coach Chuck Pagano.
As for Dwight Freeney, Pagano converted him to an outside linebacker for the first time in his 11-year career. Robert Mathis, Freeney’s partner on the defensive line for the past decade, also converted to linebacker in 2012.
Freeney had issues adjusting to his new position. He finished the season with just 5.0 sacks and 12 tackles. Worse, his contract was about to expire at season’s end.
Dwight Freeney's final sack as a member of the #Colts
Happy Birthday @dwightfreeney pic.twitter.com/Embc2h2nas— Collin Telesz (@CT_Colts) February 19, 2018
Pagano, who survived a bout with leukemia in 2012, called Dwight several days before his 33rd birthday in February 2013.
Freeney thought Pagano was going to wish him a happy birthday. It turned out that Chuck was also on the line with Irsay and general manager Ryan Grigson.
Pagano dropped the bombshell—the Colts weren’t going to renew Freeney’s contract. Dwight was devastated, per The Athletic.
Freeney told Kravitz that the better option would have been for the Colts to offer him a pay cut so he could finish his career in Indianapolis knowing he had been with the team for over a decade.
When that didn’t transpire, Freeney vowed he wasn’t going to end his pro football career on a sour note.
“When it didn’t happen, it probably made me play longer than I wanted to,” Freeney told The Athletic almost six years later. “At that point, I just thought, ‘I’m not going to end my career on those terms.'”
Despite how Freeney’s career with Colts ended, he understood the NFL was a business.
Freeney spent his final five NFL seasons in nomadic fashion—he had stops as a backup pass rusher with the San Diego Chargers, the Arizona Cardinals, the Atlanta Falcons, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Detroit Lions from 2013 to 2017.
Freeney filed a lawsuit against Bank of America after he allegedly lost more than $20 million worth of investments in February 2015. He had just concluded his second season with the Chargers several weeks earlier.
Freeney had reportedly entrusted his money to the bank during the lead-up to Super Bowl XLIV against the Saints five years earlier.
Dwight eventually discovered that something was amiss in his financial records two years after his initial investment with the bank. The FBI reached out to him several weeks afterward.
Kravitz confirmed in his 2019 article for The Athletic that Freeney had already reached a settlement with Bank of America. Dwight, however, did not delve into specifics regarding the agreement.
Dwight Freeney retired following the 2017 NFL season. He finished his legendary 16-year NFL career with 125.5 sacks, 350 combined tackles, 128 tackles for loss, 148 quarterback hits, one safety, 16 passes defensed, 47 forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, and one touchdown off a fumble recovery.
Remarkably, Freeney’s 125.5 sacks ranked him 17th all-time in NFL history at the time of his retirement, per Colts.com’s Andrew Walker.
Freeney signed a one-day contract to retire as a member of the Colts organization in April 2018.
Dwight told The Indianapolis Star that playing for five different teams in his last five pro football seasons made him think back to the 11 seasons he spent with the Colts from 2002 to 2012.
Whenever Freeney was having a bad day, he would just think about the relationships he formed with Robert Mathis, Raheem Brock, Peyton Manning, and Marvin Harrison, to name a few. Reminiscing on Dwight’s memories in Indianapolis lifted his spirits in a heartbeat.
Freeney also told Holder that his affinity for the Colts was one of the reasons he decided to retire as a member of the team.
“One of the greatest football players I’ve ever seen in my life,” Colts owner Jim Irsay told The Indianapolis Star on the day Freeney signed his one-day contract in the spring of 2018. “He’s going to go into the Hall of Fame even if him and I have to break in.”
Dwight Freeney's career resume:
– 7x Pro Bowl
– 3x All-Pro 1st Team, 2003 2nd Team
– Super Bowl 41 Champ
– 2004 NFL SK (16) leader
– 2002 FF (9) & TFL (20) leader
– 2x finished top-3 DPOY
– 2000s NFL All-Decade
– #Colts career TFL (113) leaderpic.twitter.com/YAWvdV2JwD— Pro Sports Outlook (@PSO_Sports) June 22, 2022
Dwight Freeney was unarguably one of the best pass rushers in Colts franchise history. He singled out Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as his favorite victim.
“You know who I liked to hit? Ben Roethlisberger,” Freeney told The Athletic in the fall of 2019. “He’s trying to throw you off and be Hercules back there, so he gave me lots of opportunities, especially back in the day when you could cream a quarterback.”
On the other hand, Freeney considered Baltimore Ravens Hall of Fame left tackle Jonathan Ogden the best he ever went up against in the NFL ranks.
While most teams employed double teams to stop Freeney’s spin move, the Ravens left him in single coverage with Ogden who, at 345 pounds, was a load to handle for Dwight.
Aside from Ogden, Freeney also considered quarterbacks Steve McNair, Tom Brady, and Michael Vick among his toughest opponents. Former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew also gave him fits, per The Players’ Tribune.
In contrast, Freeney told Kravitz that the left tackle who gave him the least amount of resistance was the Houston Texans’ Seth Wand.
When Kravitz asked Dwight who his most underrated teammate with the Colts was, the latter didn’t bat an eyelash—left tackle Tarik Glenn.
Freeney and Glenn went at each other hard in practice to the point that they grew accustomed to each other’s moves. Dwight knew if he got past Tarik, a three-time Pro Bowl left tackle, he could get past anybody.
Post-Football Life
Dwight Freeney, his wife, and his young daughter currently reside in the West Palm Beach, FL area, per his official LinkedIn page.
Freeney became a member of the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor on November 10, 2019. He became the first defensive player and the 16th individual to earn that distinction.
Jim Irsay's 'A-listers' didn't miss it.
One last stellar spin move from Dwight Freeney in Indy — #93 officially joins the #Colts Ring of Honor. @WISH_TV pic.twitter.com/Wycjzf1614
— Charlie Clifford (@char_cliff) November 11, 2019
Dwight Freeney became a modern-era finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023 in January of that year.
Just one week later, the College Football Hall of Fame announced that it will induct Freeney as a member of its Class of 2023 in December.
Dwight Freeney is also a member of the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team.
According to Kravitz, Freeney is an avid golfer in his retirement years.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Freeney
https://vault.si.com/vault/2010/02/08/man-on-the-spot
https://www.colts.com/news/dwight-freeney-retires-as-a-colt-i-gave-it-my-all-20572654
https://www.colts.com/news/dwight-freeney-spun-his-way-into-the-hearts-of-colts-fans-20573306
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/sports/football/30colts.html?_r=1&ref=lawrence_taylor
https://www.colts.com/news/dwight-freeney-syracuse-college-football-hall-fame-sacks-forced-fumbles
https://www.colts.com/news/dwight-freeney-indianapolis-colts-ring-of-honor-ceremony
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/my-firsts-dwight-freeney-nfl-football-indianapolis-colts
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