Dexter Keith Manley (born February 2, 1959) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

, Phoenix Cardinals, and

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL). He also played in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a c ...

for the

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

. Manley played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

and was drafted by the Redskins in the fifth round of the

1981 NFL Draft The 1981 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1981, at the New York S ...

Professional career

National Football League

Manley was drafted in the fifth round (119th overall) of the

by the Washington Redskins, where he played for nine seasons. During his career with the Redskins, Manley won two

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...

titles and was a

Pro Bowler The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

when he recorded a Redskins single-season record of 18.5 sacks. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, Manley failed his third drug test, with an opportunity to apply for reinstatement after one year. He then played for the Phoenix Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, after he failed his fourth drug test, he retired on December 12, 1991. He had a series of arrests related to his drug problem and was ultimately convicted and served 2 years in prison. Officially, Manley had 97.5 quarterback sacks in his career. His total rises to 103.5 when the six sacks he had his rookie year of 1981, when sacks were not yet an official statistic, are included. After his career in the United States ended, he revealed that he was functionally illiterate, despite having studied at Oklahoma State University for four years.

Canadian Football League

Manley also played two seasons in the

with the

(1992 and 1993).

Personal life

He was nicknamed the "Secretary of Defense" during his time with the Redskins. Manley lives in suburban Washington with his family. Manley underwent brain surgery in June 2006 to treat a colloid cyst. He first learned about the cyst in 1986 after he collapsed in a Georgetown department store. His prognosis is for a relatively full recovery, although doctors have said that memory loss is a common side effect of the operation. In May 2020, it was announced that Manley had tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

. In an article by Taylor Branch entitled "The Shame of College Sports", prior to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities in 1989, Manley was famously quoted as saying that he had been functionally illiterate in college.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manley, Dexter 1959 births Living people American football defensive ends Canadian football defensive linemen National Conference Pro Bowl players Oklahoma State Cowboys football players Ottawa Rough Riders players Shreveport Pirates players Phoenix Cardinals players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Washington Redskins players Players of American football from Houston Players of Canadian football from Houston African-American players of American football African-American players of Canadian football American sportspeople convicted of crimes 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople