BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — There is a finality that can’t be felt until something actually ends.
It sounds simple enough, in theory, but the impact of the end isn’t truly understood until you cross the threshold, and look back on where you’ve come from.
This day had been coming for months, of course, the end of the season. The Florida Gators had been asked about it for weeks, what will the end be like.
The formal end to the Will Muschamp era, the end to their careers — in the case of Dante Fowler.
But now it’s firm, as firm as the steel that made Birmingham one of the South’s industrial hubs.
Florida’s 28-20 victory over ECU was won like so many others: with talented Gators defense saving the day in the end when Vernon Hargreaves intercepted a Shane Carden pass on its way to stud wideout Justin Hardy’s hands.
It was a Fowler-led defense with leader Antonio Morrison exiting the game early with a knee injury. Fowler said he told Morrison he was going to "anchor everything. My job was to keep fighting hard no matter what for my brothers."
He tried his best to soak the last moments of the game in. He was one of the last Gators into the locker room after shaking hands of fans and taking pictures on the field.
He waited to take a shower and change until after doing media obligations.
Instead, he sat in his orange jersey and turf-stained white pants telling reporters he wasn’t ready to take the thing off yet, and when he did, he’d certainly be holding onto it as a keepsake.
Fowler didn’t have to play.
Hell, he didn’t even have to come on the trip.
It wouldn’t have been the honorable thing to do, but it would be at least a little bit understandable if Fowler — just like wide receiver Andre Debose — stayed in Gainesville after the firing of his coach he loved and the announcement that he was headed to the NFL Draft.
It would be — in a fiscal sense — the smart thing to do, to protect his body and its future earnings potential by not subjecting it to a car crash like collision 100 times over in an exhibition game at Legion Field.
But that’s not what Dante Fowler did.
He opted to play, saying he didn’t even give it a second thought, and absolutely terrorized an ECU offensive line that looked like it wasn’t even trying to block him at points.
He had three sacks and two quarterback hurries on the day, including one sack on Shane Carden when, after dropping back into coverage he noticed Carden was rolling right.
Fowler stepped up, sidestepped a lineman and buried Carden, wiping his shoes off and high stepping in celebration, something his interim head coach D.J. Durkin poked fun at him for after the game.
Durkin is one of the reasons Fowler played Saturday, and the other relationships he has with teammates and coaches and support staff and trainers and fans.
He owed it to them to give his best effort, and he owed it to the competitor inside himself to take the field for Florida one last time.
He’s off to the NFL now, with a substantial payday coming at the end of the spring when his name is called and he walks across the stage to shake commissioner Roger Goodell’s hand.
Dante Fowler will take his smile and his talent to the big leagues, but until the very end as a Gator he competed, and that’s all anyone could have asked of him.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Dante Fowler looks down the field prior to the start of Florida's 28-20 win against East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl at Legion Field on Saturday.
