Back to the Gonzaga Bulldogs Newsfeed

Who is LSU football's new guy? Damien Lewis is son to an imprisoned father who escaped impoverished Canton

CANTON, Miss. — The phone calls are brief.

They are between Damien and Damien.

They are between father and son, a prison inmate and a football player.

It’s been this way for nearly seven years.

Damien Dozier, Damien Lewis’ father, missed his son’s formative years while behind bars: those middle school days of Damien stumbling upon football in eighth grade because he “liked to hit things,” his mother says; the high school days, on a team of 26 players, when Damien completed his three-year career with 11 wins and zero scholarship offers; at junior college, where Damien developed into a 320-pound mauling offensive guard who drew the interest of dozens of college coaches.