Cecil Collins finds happiness

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Former Dolphin Cecil Collins finds happiness after 13 years in prison

TAMARAC — There come the tears again, welling up in former Miami Dolphins running back Cecil Collins' eyes, a smile turning them back as he lists why he's so happy. There's his marriage to Elena. There's his new job with a Broward electrical company.

There's the freedom he's breathed for 13 months after more than 13 months in prison for creeping into a sleeping Broward woman's apartment back when the future shimmered with fame, way back in 1999 while he was on probation for a similar offense in Louisiana.

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Sometimes people recognize him and call him the "Cecil The Diesel," just as everyone did back then. But he asks them in a friendly tone to please not call him that. That person doesn't exist anymore, he says. The Diesel is dead.

"I'm just Cecil Collins now," he'll say. "And I'm happy like this."

That's what he wants you to know. He's changed. He's happy. He wishes the young, stupid "Diesel" who lived the carefree life where decisions weren't weighed, career opportunities weren't seized and so much money wasn't turned into alcohol in South Beach clubs was this smart and happy.

He'd like to use "The Diesel" as a cautionary tale in talks with boys and girls, and especially young athletes who covet the fame and fortune but aren't ready for its fellow traveler called temptation.

He'd tell them to work harder, listen to their parents, how success is often harder to overcome than failure and also that some so-called friends are, "like weeds you should cut away,'' he says.

But what he'd also say is prison was a blessing for him.

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He met Elena while she was visiting a friend at his prison and married her in 2006 wearing his prison-blue uniform. He nearly died in 2011 when a chicken bone he ate ruptured his esophagus.

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For those wondering if Collins' 13 years in prison was too harsh for the crime, understand he doesn't allow his mind to bend that way. It would do him no good. Besides, he says, the final year of his sentence put the final changes in him.

"My grandmother died and then my cousin, who was like a brother to me, died in a motorcycle accident,'' he said. "I was close with God before that. But that final year was important for me to pull even closer."

He has plans. He starts school next month to become a licensed electrician. Elena and he are planning a wedding ceremony where he will wear a tuxedo — "maybe on the beach,'' he says.

He also talks, half-seriously, of playing football at his age, even mentioning a Canadian Football League team invited him to a tryout last summer.

"I've still got the speed,'' he says.

But can he still take a hit?

"That's the question,'' he says, laughing. "I don't know about that."

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