Dillion plays for his father

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Forty-eight hours before the biggest play of his life, Derrick Dillon went home. He drove the 90 miles back to Franklinton like he does before every LSU game, because there was something he needed to do. 

Since Dillon was a teenager, Earl Cotton picked his son up from school on game days. They’d go to Popeyes and get a haircut. They’d talk ball and get Dillon ready for his Pine High School games, a father and son trying to follow through on dreams more than 10 years in the making. 

Dillon made the drive back home Sept. 13, the Thursday before LSU played Auburn, but this time he did the tradition alone. He went to that Popeyes on Washington Street. His friend Renard cut his hair. And Dillon thought about the man who had him pushing tires and pulling bricks as a kid because he wanted his son to be great. 

Dillon was alone because Earl Cotton died March 7 after complications from a bacterial infection that gave him issues for years. Dillon keeps this tradition going, because sometimes you need to go where the loss hurts most in order to start hurting less. 

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Six months later, Dillon was standing in an endzone unsure of what to do with himself he was so excited. He tweeted after the game, “Aye pops I told I was going to get you one! That one was for you.”

And when he got back from Auburn, he hopped in the car and drove to Franklinton again Sunday. He celebrated with some high school friends. He spent time with the family. 

Ella made him a big old dinner. There was red beans and cornbread and baked chicken. “You finally got you one,” she said. He was home. 

Earl Cotton wasn’t there, except for in the man he helped mold. 

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