Packer Central

Clinton-Dix Tackles New Phase of Football Career

HaHa Clinton-Dix officially retired as a member of the Green Bay Packers on Friday.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Former Green Bay Packers safety HaHa Clinton-Dix retired on Friday as a member of the team that drafted him in the first-round in 2014.

He’s staying involved in the game as director of player development on coach Nick Saban’s staff at his alma mater, Alabama. It was an opportunity he said stemmed from his return to Tuscaloosa as part of a reunion for the Crimson Tide’s 2012 national championship team. While there, he met with some of his academic advisors.

“They were asking me what direction I was going in, and I was telling them I was looking to flip the page from football, focusing on being a servant and of course doing what I love and that’s helping others. She sat down with me and she damn near opened the floor for me and told me I had an opportunity to come back and work for Nick Saban,” Clinton-Dix, via a Zoom call with a few Packers beat reporters while in New Orleans for Alabama’s bowl game against Kansas State, said on Friday.

“So, that’s where my life is headed is into coaching and helping these kids create great decision-making and making the right choices as they get ready for their career heading to the NFL and other avenues they want to [explore] after football.”

In four-plus seasons with Green Bay, Clinton-Dix recorded 419 tackles, 14 interceptions, 38 passes defensed and three forced fumbles. In 2016, he was voted second-team All-Pro after intercepting a career-high five passes. He played in 100 percent of the defensive snaps in 2015 and 2016, 99 percent in 2017 (missed eight snaps in one game) and 100 percent in seven games in 2018 before he was traded to Washington.

“I can say that 100 percent I didn’t get ticked off,” he said of being traded halfway through his final season under contract. “Mr. Brian [Gutekunst] had told me if I ever had any problems or needed another home that I could just call him to come back. I wasn’t ticked off at all. It was just a chance for a new opportunity.

“One thing Nick Saban always told me was there’s never a bad day, just bad moments. Once I was traded, I was definitely upset, didn’t want to leave Green Bay at all, but you’ve got to kind of go with the flow, trust God and believe in him and just keep the boat rowing.”

Clinton-Dix finished the 2018 season with Washington and started all 16 games for Chicago in 2019 before bouncing around the league in 2020 and 2021. Seeing the “writing on the wall,” Clinton-Dix knew it was time to find a new opportunity. That came at Alabama, where he earned All-American honors in 2013.

“Hell, yeah, I miss football, man,” he said. “The beautiful thing about it is I still get to be around ball. Being a part of a team is what I feel like is important and being able to help others. I still watch every game on Sunday. I got my iPad and we get all the games and all the plays so I still get a chance to watch football, be around football. I have a lot of friends in the NFL, as well.

“I watch all these guys each and every week and it feels like I’m still a part of the game without all the meetings and all the practicing and stuff. I miss it, I love it. It’s a part of me. It will be for the rest of my life. When I go to practice with these guys at Alabama, I still do a little back-pedaling and working out with these guys so I’m still around the game and I still love it. It’ll always be a part of me.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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