GREEN BAY — AJ Dillon has a few titles: Quadzilla, the Quadfather, NFL running back, and the unofficial "mayor of Door County. Now he can add a new title: children’s author.
“(It’s on) Linkedin, it’s on the resume,” Dillon laughed. “You can’t say I’m not an author.”
After finding out he was going to become a father last year, Dillon was looking for a gift to give his son.
“I saw a lot of parents do some things, I was like you know what I always loved to read and write and I’ve always joked and was like one day I will write a book,” the Packers running back.
Shortly after the season ended he made it happen. With story ideas running rampant through his mind, he settled on “Quadzilla Finds his Footing." In the book, the title character has trouble finding an activity he’s good at, but he gets a little help from his friends.
"It’s about him trying new things, trying things with his friends, eventually he picks up football. That’s his thing, he’s great at it," Dillon said.
But Dillon didn’t want Quadzilla to be good at just one thing, and as he has learned from becoming a father, there’s more to life than football.
“I wanted to have a different moral (of the story),” Dillon said. “I feel like even with the books I read, or children's books that I’ve read over the years and (it’s the character) trying new things and then everybody finds the one thing they're good at and that’s the end of the story."
"It’s you keep trying new things," Dillon said. "You keep doing things with your friends and keep making new experiences and you keep growing and that’s obviously the message.”
Dillon had a similar experience as a child. He was a baseball kid, until his friends all started playing football and urged him to join the team.
“I remember one time I put my thigh pads, I put them backwards so the curve part was out,” Dillon said. “There was one game I started playing, I forgot my helmet. All over the place. I didn’t really like it. I didn’t like the concept and I stuck with it and my friends were doing it and it was a fun thing to do and I kept with it and I was like, 'Wow, I really do like this!' and then, 'wow, I really am good at this!' So that’s kind of where the idea came from.”
After obviously becoming great at football, he continued to try new things: playing different other sports in school as well. Trying new things is something he still does to continue to improve his game.
“There’s still who knows, all types of stuff. I can still try to get better and you don’t know how good you can be unless you try," Dillon said. "I have had great friends, just like Quadzilla (in the book) does in the locker room and great coaches who have helped me out and supported me to help me get where I’m at and keep ascending."
Dillon has a launch party for his book Tuesday July 11th from 9 a.m. to noon at the Johnsonville Tailgate Village outside Lambeau Field. If you would like more information for the event you can find it here.
And if you miss Dillon at the launch party, he’s hosting the first player-led youth football camp at Titletown Sunday July 23rd. For more information, click here.
