Donnellon: Buddy Ryan was not homegrown, but he seemed like it

Buddy Ryan won five more games than he lost over the five seasons he was the head coach of our beloved football team. But if you moved to this town five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or just last month, no name – not even Dick Vermeil's – still resonates so emotionally as his among Philadelphia Eagles fans.

There's a reason for that, a reason that owner Jeffrey Lurie still doesn't seem to get, a reason obscured in the perennial obsession with this team's offense, and quarterbacks and indeed, coaching hires. It's the reason news of his death earlier today at age 85 will be mourned as if he was a homegrown son who delivered numerous Lombardi Trophies to our championship-starved town.

Chicks may love the long ball, and we like a long touchdown bomb as much as anyone.

But here, in this town, we love bashing people more.

And so did Buddy. If possible, even more than we do.

It wasn't just that Ryan's defenses of the late 1980s were great. It's how they did it, the absolute fear and intimidation so evident on the other side, a fear that almost made the final result secondary. Phil Simms, who still twitches when the names of Jerome Brown, Reggie White and company are brought up to him, talks often about a game in which they kept hitting him and picking him up, praising his toughness the whole time.

``I don't know if they meant it, or just wanted me to stay in the game so they could hit me some more,'' he once said.

Buddy built that defense, its members still revered around here as if Roman Gods.

But that was just on the field. Off it, whether dealing with an owner that he quickly grew to dislike, or a rival coach like Tom Landry, Buddy bashed away as well. There was no compromise, no political correctness in his repertoire. It made him almost as compelling theater as the defense that played for him, as if they were Spartans defending their threatened nation.

We were that nation. And we have never forgotten those days. Even now, 25 years after he last coached our team, defensive players, defensive efforts, defensive coordinators all are measured against that era.

Brian Dawkins and Jeremiah Trotter are Buddy-type players. Fletcher Cox sure seems to be one too.

It's the ultimate honor in this town, for a current Eagles player to be compared to his position player on that team.

It's the ultimate honor in this town, for such a player, to be told he could have played for Buddy.

Rest in peace, Coach. You are already missed.