The 2024 NFL Draft starts on April 25 in Detroit with the 32 first-round picks. In the 88 NFL drafts, teams have chosen 128 prospects who played at Alabama high schools and colleges in the first round, and another 29 who were not first-rounders but were selected in the first 32 picks. AL.com is counting down to the draft by highlighting the players with Alabama football roots who have been chosen in the first 32 picks.

When the Cleveland Browns used the 22nd selection in the 1981 NFL Draft on Southern Miss’ Hanford Dixon, they got more than a Pro Bowl cornerback. They got a legacy.

The former Theodore High School star is the root of the Dawg Pound, the Browns’ cheering section in the east-end bleachers of their home stadium.

“The way this whole thing started,” Dixon recalled before his induction into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, “we were at a place called Lakeland Community College for training camp, and at Lakeland Community College the fans could get really close to the field. We always had two great corners, and we had two great linebackers in Clay Matthews and Chip Banks. I was trying to think of something to motivate the defensive line, and I was thinking about down South in my hometown and an old dog chasing a cat.

“I told those guys, ‘Hey man, we’re going to bark at you. You guys are the dogs, and when we bark at you, think of that quarterback as the cat and go after him.’ So we started barking. And again the fans were close to the field, and they just took over the whole thing.

“Now, not only was the defensive line the dogs, but the whole defense and the whole team became the dogs. And Arsenio Hall took over, and that thing took off before we knew it.”

Dixon spent his entire nine-season NFL career with Cleveland. He was Pro Bowl selection three times and a first-team All-Pro choice twice while recording 26 career interceptions.

Dixon helped the Browns reach the AFC Championship Game three times in a four-season span, but each time, Cleveland was stopped short of the Super Bowl by quarterback John Elway and the Denver Broncos.

Three other prospects who played at Alabama high schools and colleges entered the NFL as the No. 22 pick in a draft:

· Defensive end M.L. Brackett (Etowah, Auburn): 1956 by the Chicago Bears. After Etowah County lost one game in his final three prep seasons, Brackett helped Auburn play in three consecutive bowls for the first time before departing the Plains as the ninth pick of second round of the 1956 NFL Draft. Two of Brackett’s three NFL seasons ended in the NFL Championship Game, although his team lost in both. The weakside linebacker and long snapper for the Bears in his first season, Brackett’s next two seasons were affected by knee injuries. His final appearance came with the Giants in the Greatest Game Ever Played, in which the Baltimore Colts defeated New York 23-17 in overtime for the NFL title on Dec. 28, 1958.

· Defensive end Bryan Thomas (Minor, UAB): 2002 by the New York Jets. Thomas’ selection by the Jets in 2002 marks the earliest that a UAB player has been selected in an NFL draft, and among the Blazers’ alumni, only wide receiver Roddy White has played in more NFL games than Thomas. As a defensive end and outside linebacker, Thomas spent his entire 11-season career with the Jets. He recorded 33.5 sacks in 157 regular-season games. Thomas also played in 11 postseason games, and New York hasn’t been to the playoffs since he retired.

· Linebacker Rashaan Evans (Auburn High, Alabama): 2018 by the Tennessee Titans. The Class 6A Lineman of the Year at Auburn High School in 2013, Evans was a first-team All-American selection by the American Football Coaches Association on the Crimson Tide’s CFP national championship team in 2017. Evans recorded 111 tackles for the Titans in 2019 and 159 for the Atlanta Falcons in 2022.

The Philadelphia Eagles hold the 22nd selection in this year’s draft.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.