Warrick Dunn

Warrick Dunn grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as the oldest of six children. His mother, Betty Smothers, was a Baton Rouge police corporal. She was killed on January 7, 1993, two days after his eighteenth birthday, in an ambush while she worked an off-duty security job. With help from his grandmother, he took on responsibilities for his younger siblings while preparing to attend Florida State University.

At Florida State, coach Bobby Bowden gave Dunn the opportunity to play running back. Dunn helped the Seminoles win the 1993 national championship and developed into one of the program's leading rushers, finishing his college career with 3,959 rushing yards and 37 touchdowns. In the National Football Foundation's account of his career, Dunn credited Bowden's willingness to let him try the position. In an ESPN book excerpt, Bowden said he did not believe Florida State would have won the 1993 title without Dunn.

Tampa Bay selected Dunn twelfth in the 1997 NFL draft. He spent twelve seasons with the Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons and earned three Pro Bowl selections. Away from professional football, he completed an information-studies degree at Florida State in 1997.

At a 2022 Atlanta Rotary event, Dunn explicitly described himself as a Black man. He also discussed seeking counseling in the years after his mother's death.

In 2023, he joined a legal challenge to expedited Louisiana death-row clemency hearings.

Homes for the Holidays began in 1997, during his rookie season. The charity's history credits the Buccaneers' community-relations staff in developing the initiative. Its approach addresses particular costs associated with moving into a home. Working alongside housing providers, the program supplies furnishings, stocks pantries and provides down-payment assistance for qualifying single-parent households. The housing organizations and participating families have their own roles in the work. The charity's own history records more than $2 million in furnishings and $500,000 in down-payment assistance, and it marked its 150th recipient family along the way.