Dusty Dvoracek (born March 3, 1981) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

nose guard A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive tackles. Defensive tackles are typically ...

for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). Selected by the

of the NFL in the third round of the

2006 NFL draft The 2006 NFL draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with additional coverage offe ...

, he played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the college athletics in the United States , athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, Oklahoma, Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to ...

and professionally with the Bears from 2006 to 2009 and the

Omaha Nighthawks The Omaha Nighthawks were a professional American football team based in Omaha, Nebraska, which played in the United Football League (2009–2012), United Football League, joining the league as an expansion team in 2010 UFL season, 2010. During ...

of the United Football League (UFL) in 2010–11. Since retiring from football, Dvoracek has worked as a color analyst for

Fox Sports Southwest FanDuel Sports Network Southwest is a Texas-based regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate of FanDuel Sports Network. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of profe ...

, Fox Sports Oklahoma, and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

, and an analyst on

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

and

KWTV KWTV-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship broadcast property of locally based Griffin Media, and is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KSBI (channel 52). Th ...

. Dvoracek co-hosted a sports radio show on Oklahoma City's WWLS until he left at the end of 2020.

Early life

Dvoracek attended Lake Dallas High School in Corinth, Texas, where he played football at the positions of

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the Guard (American football), offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive Tackle (gridir ...

and

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative (Netherlands), Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tende ...

. During his senior year, he was named to the

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

's Top 100 list and the

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

's Texas Top 100. He was also named all-district both on offense and defense in his senior year, while tallying up 79 tackles, 9.5 sacks, four fumble recoveries, and 10 forced fumbles in just seven games.

College career

Dvoracek attended the University of Oklahoma, where he majored in management. In 49 games at Oklahoma, Dvoracek started 28 times. He finished his career with 136 tackles (44 tackles for loss), 16 sacks, one interception and three fumble recoveries. He was a consensus All-Big 12 performer in 2003 and 2005. In 2004, Dvoracek was suspended from the Sooners after an alleged assault that resulted in the hospitalization of a long time high school friend, then 21-year-old Matthew Wilde. He was backup to future

teammate,

Tommie Harris Tommie Harris Jr. (born April 29, 1983) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of Oklahoma, and was r ...

, and started ahead of future

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

World Heavyweight Champion At boxing's beginning, the heavyweight division had no weight limit, and historically the weight class has gone with vague or no definition. During the 19th century many heavyweights were 170 pounds (12 st 2 lb, 77 kg) or less, tho ...

Jack Swagger Donald Jacob Hager Jr. (born March 24, 1982) is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former Amateur wrestling, amateur wrestler and Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist. He currently performs on the independent circ ...

Professional career

Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears selected Dvoracek with the 73rd overall pick in the third round of the

. He missed most of his rookie season after sustaining a foot injury in the preseason. Dvoracek started his first professional game against the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...

on September 9, 2007, but left the game with a season ending torn ACL injury. Dvoracek recovered during the 2008 offseason, injured his calf before the Bears training camp. He was placed on season-ending injured reserve with elbow

bursitis Bursitis is the inflammation of one or more bursae (synovial sacs) of synovial fluid in the body. They are lined with a synovial membrane that secretes a lubricating synovial fluid. There are more than 150 bursae in the human body. The bursae (bu ...

on December 9. He finished the 2008 season with 29 tackles and two passes defensed on 12 games (all starts). Dvoracek suffered a sprained MCL during the Bears second preseason game on August 22, 2009. He underwent

arthroscopic knee surgery Arthroscopy (also called arthroscopic or keyhole surgery) is a minimally invasive surgical procedure on a joint in which an examination and sometimes treatment of damage is performed using an arthroscope, an endoscope that is inserted into the j ...

to assess the severity of the injury. The examination concluded that Dvoracek had also injured his ACL, and would miss the 2009 season. He was waived/injured on August 31 and subsequently reverted to injured reserve, his fourth consecutive year ending on the IR list.

Omaha Nighthawks

Dvoracek was signed by the

in 2010. He was re-signed by the team on July 15, 2011. He was let go after the 2011 season.

References

External links

Stats Crew profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dvoracek, Dusty 1983 births Living people American football defensive tackles Oklahoma Sooners football players Chicago Bears players Omaha Nighthawks players People from Corinth, Texas Players of American football from Denton County, Texas College football announcers NFL announcers