Charitable act five years ago allowed former Seahawk Dion Bailey to debut with Jets

Martin Rogers | USA TODAY Sports

LONDON — If not for an act of humanitarian goodwill, Dion Bailey’s “dream” call-up to the New York Jets would likely have been delayed another week.

Bailey, a strong safety who lost his job with the Seattle Seahawks when Kam Chancellor ended his much-publicized holdout, was claimed off waivers by the Jets early last week — hence, an urgent scramble to find his passport.

“I’m not the kind of guy who watches a lot of NFL, so I didn’t know we were playing in London until my agent told me,” said Bailey, who made a solid contribution (4 tackles and a pass break-up) to the impressive Jets defense as New York comfortably beat the Miami Dolphins 27-14 at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

“I was nervous. I didn’t know where my passport was, I was scrambling around to find it. I thought my mom might have it. It was getting pretty tense, and then it showed up.”

However, Bailey would not have had a passport at all had it not been for a charitable visit to Haiti after his freshman year of college at the University of Southern California.

“I never had a passport, but Matt Barkley took me and some others to Haiti to help out,” Bailed explained.

Barkley, the former USC quarterback who now plays for the Arizona Cardinals, recruited Bailey in 2010 to assist in building shelters and new homes for victims of the Haitian earthquake that devastated the country. Bailey had plenty of time to reflect on that experience during a week of intense travel, including a red-eye flight from Seattle to New Jersey on Monday night after he was claimed by the Jets, and another across the Atlantic on Thursday.

“Sometimes things just work out,” Bailey added. “I am in a great place and playing on a team that is starting to build some momentum.

"I couldn’t be happier. But I need some sleep.”

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Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter @mrogersUSAT

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