He played for college football for the Grambling State Tigers, earning All-American honors in 1964.
[2][3] He was selected by the National Football League (NFL)'s Green Bay Packers in the second round (24th overall) of the 1965 NFL draft, but signed with the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs and played a year.
From 1967–1970 he played for the AFL's Oakland Raiders, mostly as a backup as he recorded only 4 career starts.
The Raiders defensive line of that era was Ike Lassiter, Ben Davidson, Tom Keating, and Dan Birdwell, a group who set the NFL sack record (broken in 1984 by the Chicago Bears), so Dotson did not get a lot of playing time, although he played in most of the games while with the Raiders.
[5][8] Dotson's grandson Alonzo Dotson, a defensive end, played college American football at the University of Oklahoma where he was part of two National Championship games and won three Big XII Conference Championships.