Getting to know Davone Bess

Ever since Davone Bess was signed by the Dolphins not too long after the conclusion of the NFL Draft, a lot of Dolphin fans were excited.  And that includes me.  In fact, I predicted that night that Bess would indeed be a Miami Dolphin in 2008.

But I want to learn a little bit more about Bess.  And I'm sure most of you do, too.  And for that, I turned to Tombo Ahi, the blogger for the best University of Hawaii blog out there: University of Hawaii Football Fan Blog.

Below is what Tom writes about Bess:

His first loves were basketball and baseball. He began playing football in the 10th grade.

Bess played center field for the Skyline High School baseball team. He batted over .400 his senior year, and was invited to try out for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization but decided to concentrate on football.

At Skyline, he played quarterback, cornerback and free safety. At the University of Hawaii, he was a slot receiver and punt returner. He was also seriously considered as punter. In practice he booted some 50-yarders.

He was known as one of the hardest working players at UH, waking up early in the morning and dragging the JUGS machine out to the field to catch 150 to 200 balls before the start of 7:00am practices. From a Honolulu Advertiser interview, his attitude can be summed up in this quote:

"When it comes to working hard, there's no such thing as an offseason."

He was once evaluated as having an ESTP personality. ESTP stands for "Extra-verted, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving." Apparently, that's supposed to be pretty good. Here's what June Jones had to say at the time:

"Davone is the real deal," Jones said. "I thought he was the real deal before we played a game last year. He's wired the same way as Michael Jordan."

Questions about Davone's character have come up because of his time served in juvenile detention after graduating from high school. Basically, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - his friends asked him for a ride, and he obliged without realizing they were bringing along stolen goods for the ride. In his time at UH, Bess was a model citizen off the field, speaking to kids in juvenile detention halls, volunteering in the community, cheering on Pop Warner teams, etc. His coaches and teammates from high school and college have attested to Davone's great character.

As a player, Davone Bess is smart and unselfish. He's quick off the line, runs well with and without the ball, and is able to make tough catches look easy. He is an amazing athlete, but is always working hard to get better. He is simply... "Da Bess", one of the most exciting players to ever to play for Hawaii.

Good stuff and I want to again thank Tom for taking the time to put this together!

There is one thing I did just want to expound upon very quickly because it's very interesting.  Tom explains to us that Bess has an ESTP personality.  The point of that specific test is to evaluate a person's ability to perform under pressure.  Bess scored the same as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Peyton Manning.  So while it doesn't mean too much in terms of how Bess will perform as a Dolphin, it's just an interesting thing to know - that pressure is something that Bess clearly doesn't mind.  This should help him as camp wears on and we get closer and closer to cut dates.

Thoughts?