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The "Secretary of Defense" is finally getting his place in the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
Dexter Manley, who spent nine years in Washington (1981-1989) and won two Super Bowls, will join former Voice of the Redskins Frank Herzog as this year's crop of former Redskins to be inducted into the 2016 class.
Joining them are former Washington Post columnist Christine Brennan, Georgetown standout Patrick Ewing, NBA player Earl Lloyd, Maryland Field Hockey head coach Missy Meharg, longtime high school football coach BobMilly, prep sports stars Hymie and Phil Perlo and tennis star Harold Solomon.
Back in September, "Dexter Manley: A Football Life" debuted on the NFL Network, and the documentary explored Manley's entire playing career – his time in college to his two Super Bowl championships in Washington – that remains tethered to an upbringing laced with adversity and hardship, growing up in Houston's third ward.
Once Manley became recognized as one of the most feared pass rushers in the game, so did Manley's often boisterous, unfiltered attitude and commentary find its way to the national media. Head coach Joe Gibbs even got him a job as a sheriff's deputy in the offseason just to keep him out of trouble. "Dexter being Dexter," was coined by local media, and he had become larger than life in some respects.
The twilight of Manley's career is a time of exposure. There is the admission of his illiteracy in front of congress. There is the suspension from the league for drug use. There are the relapses and prison stints. And there is the fallout from all of it.
Today, Manley is nine years sober and fulfilling so many of the things in his life – reading stories to his children, being a father figure – that he had once neglected, continuing his remarkable journey, which now has another stop.
Herzog, meanwhile handled play by play duty on the radio for the Redskins from 1979-2004, calling all three Super Bowl victories, and continued his line of work, covering other Washington, D.C.-based sports teams, until retiring in 2010.
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