Aloha!
The sign greeting visitors at JordonDizon’s Colorado home exudes tropicalwarmth. “Aloha,” it says.
The trademark Hawaiian salutationmeans both hello and goodbye, butDizon (Econ’08), a Hawaii native, saidit’s more than a greeting or farewell: Itconveys an attitude about the future.
“It’s not just ‘goodbye,’ it’s ‘I’ll see yousoon,’” he said. “It’s a sign of love andrespect towards another.”
For Dizon — one of CU’s bestdefensive football players of the past25 years — living the optimistic ‘aloha’spirit has served him well.
Two seasons after entering the NFL asa second-round draft pick of the DetroitLions, the former All-American linebackerblew out his knee, ending a promisingpro career after 28 games.
Rather than lament his misfortune, heseized an opportunity: A week later, he enrolledin EMT classes and began pursuinglife in a different uniform — a firefighter’s.
In some ways, becoming a firefighterwas more of a challenge for Dizon — the2007 runner-up for the Butkus award forthe nation’s best college linebacker —than landing a NFL roster spot.
In California, where he and wifeChelsea Haverty Dizon (Jour’09)lived in the off-season, there were thenabout 1,800 applicants for every firefightingopening, he said.
But he kept after it and, in 2012, afterreturning to Hawaii and briefly managinga hotel, joined the Kauai County FireDepartment in his hometown.
“My mom has been a cop for 30 years,”said Dizon, who came to 鶹Ѱfrom thewesternmost high school in the UnitedStates. “I’ve always found public servicevery interesting. When you play footballthere’s always that competitive side andcamaraderie that you like about sports.When you’re done, you try to find somethingto fill that competitive void.”
Firefighting lived up to his expectations.
“When you run into a burning building,you don’t know what to expect,” he said.“Anything and everything can happen…There’s no other rush like it. You want to dogood and you want to help people… And it isan incredible feeling not only to do it, but todo it with your friends and work as a team toaccomplish something greater than yourself.”
The next step, Dizon decided, wasbecoming a Colorado firefighter.
“When I went to college in Boulder, Ifelt like that’s where I grew as a man andas a person, and it kind of became home
to me,” he said. “So I had to come back toColorado. I missed everything about it.”
As in California, the competition forColorado firefighting jobs was fierce. Hespent a year applying to departmentsaround the state before he was offered ajob in Greeley — after seven rounds ofinterviews there.
He liked firefighting. Then the Broncos called.
“It was probably one of the mosteye-opening experiences I had in my life,”Dizon said of joining Greeley’s departmentin 2014, after two years in Kauai.“When I was in Hawaii as a firefighter, itwasn’t a busy department, so there weren’ta lot of calls. When I got to Greeley, it was
somewhat overwhelming, the amount ofcalls that we had.”
There were house fires, car fires, oilfires, medical calls — “every type of incidentknown to man,” he said.
Dizon loved it.
But it turned out the NFL wasn’tfinished with him.
Dizon had been in Greeley less thana year when the Denver Broncos camecalling in the form of Matt Russell(Comm’96), another former 鶹Ѱdefensivestar. Russell was the Broncos’ director ofplayer personnel, and the Broncos had anopening for a scout. Was Dizon interested?
Curious but conflicted, Dizon agreedto meet with the team. When he did, hefound himself face to face with John Elway.
“I kind of had to take the job,” saidDizon, now a Broncos scout focusedon evaluating current NFL playersand free agents.
A benefit of joining the Broncos wasthat Dizon could return to the NFLwithout going too far from his new firefightingchums in Greeley. He’d still bein Colorado — a fine place to be for the2015-16 season.
Said Dizon, “There’s no better way toput it than, ‘I’m part of football and wejust won a Super Bowl.’”
Photo by Glenn Asakawa