Imagine, if you will, the journey of an NFL player. From picking up the sport as a kid, to the Friday night lights of high school fields, to tens of thousands cheering them on at the college level before waiting for their name to be read aloud.

It’s the dream of thousands of American boys who pick up the sport hoping to make a name for themselves – hoping those big floodlights shine down upon them as they pine for glory.

Those floodlights don’t typically reach England. They don’t reach the streets of Birmingham. They don’t reach the production line at a Jaguar plant.

Maybe Dante Barnett will be the one to change that: a young man who turned to a foreign game in a time of need and hoped to reach the heights of the sport, only to have his dream nearly turn to ash before his eyes.

But persistence has led to opportunities he may not have thought possible even a year ago: the opportunity to bounce back, to show off his skills in front of scouts at a pro day at the University of South Florida, to hear his name called in Green Bay, Wisconsin at the 2025 NFL Draft.

The dream is still alive for Barnett, despite fate’s hardest try. Now, the 6-foot-1, 279 pound defensive tackle prospect is eager to make a jump into the most popular sports league in America and show the nation what he’s made of.

Meet Dante Barnett: the Birmingham native trying to break into the NFL through the IPP

The 279 pound defensive tackle prospect can run a 4.60 second 40-yard-dash

Barnett has been the picture of perseverance from the UK to the USA to now: pre-NFL Draft

Barnett grew up with a bit of a quandary. He knew he possessed athletic talent, but wasn’t sure which outlet would best suit his skills.

‘When I was in high school, around 15 to 16, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,’ Barnett told the Daily Mail nearly two months before the NFL Draft took place. 

‘So of course, I was doing education and everything, but I wasn’t doing the best in education. And navigating what I was going to do after my teen life was… It was a difficult situation.’

After trying his hand a number of sports from football (what they’d call soccer in America), hockey, rugby, and swimming, he took to American football like a fish to water.

One of his coaches, a man named Steve Kilvington, pushed a then 16-year-old Barnett to consider trying out for the NFL Academy located at Loughborough University in Leicestershire. He pᴀssed both tryouts at the New River Stadium and at Tottenham H๏τspur Stadium to gain acceptance. 

While idolizing defensive stars like Ray Lewis, Aaron Donald and Calais Campbell, Barnett said it was the community aspect of the game that drew him in. 

‘It was just good to know that the person behind me or next to me had the same responsibility as me,’ Barnett said. 

He added that he enjoyed ‘feeling like I fit in with a group of people that were in the same situation as me… just trying to get a win and working as hard as they possibly can day in and day out.’

In need of the right outlet to use his athletic talents, Barnett was convinced to try football

He earned a spot in the UK’s NFL Academy at a time where he dealt with the loss of his father

Barnett says he enjoys the community aspect of the game and that it brought him balance

Football came to him at a time where that community was much needed. Barnett admits that the environment he grew up in ‘wasn’t the best suited for me’. The people around him weren’t the best influences either.

Then, just as he was getting into the academy, Barnett’s father pᴀssed away.

‘[Football] was just something that could keep me level-headed,’ Barnett recalled. ‘I used it not as a distraction, but just something to keep me balanced. So it was an amazing opportunity that came up just in the right time.’

After three years at the NFL Academy, Barnett tried making the jump to American college football.

His athletic ability was clear. Barnett attended camps at three schools in Texas: Texas Christian University (TCU), Southern Methodist University (SMU), and the University of Houston. All three of those schools play at the top level of collegiate football – Division I FBS. 

For the uninitiated, college football in the Southern United States is as much of a religion as the Baptist Convention – with mᴀssive crowds turning out on Saturdays to watch rising stars. 

TCU, for example, routinely sells out at Amon G. Carter Stadium with a capacity of 47,000 – which would make it the eighth largest stadium in the Premier League. 

But despite receiving offers from all three schools – likely stunned by his 4.60 40-yard-dash time – he wasn’t able to attend any of those insтιтutions due to his poor grades.

Barnett attended three FBS camps and got offers. But his grades prevented him from enrolling.

Instead, he went to a Division III school. After one year, tuition became too much and he headed back to England – working at a Jaguar-Land Rover plant as he waited for a prayer of a chance.

Instead of packing it in, he went off to a Division III school – Dickinson College in Pennsylvania – in the hopes of improving his grades and getting an offer back on the table.

Despite being at a lower level than his talent maybe deserved, Barnett recalls Dickinson fondly: ‘Everyone really had their best interest and just really wanted me to do well over there. 

‘So I have nothing bad to say about Dickinson. The culture there is amazing. I loved them every minute while I was at Dickinson.’

But that desire to play in Division I remained. Barnett attended camps for a chance of getting those previous offers back, but ‘it just didn’t work out the way I’d hoped’. When tuition at Dickinson became too burdensome, he was left with no other option but to return back to England.

‘I think for the first month or so, it was just a bit of a blur because for the past four or five years, it’d just been football,’ Barnett explained. ‘All I’ve ever done is football. So adjusting to doing nothing for a minute was just a bit difficult for me. So I think I was still processing my feelings and how I was going about that.’

So that’s what led him to working the line at a Jaguar-Land Rover plant – putting together luxury cars while his high-end dreams began slowly dying in each piece of welded metal that pᴀssed him by.

Barnett continued to work out and stay in shape in the off chance there could be something that came along to resuscitate his NFL dream.

But his perseverance paid off: leading to a Pro Day chance at the University of South Florida

Now, the joyful Barnett waits and hopes to hear his name at the NFL Draft in Green Bay

That’s where the NFL’s IPP came in. Barnett persevered and worked his connections to become a part of the program and was able to work out in front of scouts at USF.

Now comes the wait. Whether he hears his name called or he signs with a team in free agency, Barnett has put in the work to earn the chance.

It’s an opportunity he’s not going to waste any time soon. He told Daily Mail that if any team chooses him, ‘they’re going to get my 100 percent commitment, my focus as well.

‘I’m extremely dedicated. I just love the sport of football.’

Speaking to him, it’s clear the journey hasn’t knocked his mood. Barnett’s an absolute joy to talk to, smiling and open about what got him here with grace and candor.

It’s the kind of story that’s hard to root against and easy to support. Now, the only question remaining is if there’s a team willing to help him write that next chapter.