Will McNabb return to Philly for Dawkins?
Philadelphia, 76ers, Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, basketball, baseball, hockey, football, college sports, union, independence, soccer, penn, temple, la salle, villanova, st. joseph's, st. joe's, penn state, drexel
Will McNabb return to Philly for Dawkins?
Matt Mullin, Sports Editor
Signing a one-day contract to retire with your former team seems to be all the rage nowadays. Sure, it's been done before - plenty of times - and as we learned over the past few weeks, it will most certainly be done again.
Pat Burrell is doing it with the Phillies and will be honored before the team's May 19th game against the Red Sox. Well desereved for a guy who played a pivotal role in ending the city's 25-year title drought and spent all but two years of his career in the Phillies system.
But tomorrow, Brian Dawkins, arguably the greatest - certainly one of the most well-liked - Philadelphia athletes of my lifetime, will officially retire as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. After that, he will throw out the first pitch at tomorrow night's Phillies-Cubs game.
Jeff McLane of the Inquirer reported earlier that several former Eagles will be on hand for the 11 a.m press conference to honor the man fondly refered to as B-Dawk. David Akers' agent, Jerrold Colton, confirmed via Twitter that Akers will be in attendence.
However, McLane also said to expect "a few surprises."
Well, that got me thinking.
Surprises?! Who?
My first guess was Donovan McNabb, who spent 10 years in the same locker room as Dawkins. Wouldn't that be something? Remember, we're just over a week removed from his comments claiming he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Hopefully McNabb will realize that this isn't First Take, and that keeping his mouth shut will actually help. Any outlandish comments would only take away from a day that is surely going to be a special one for Dawkins. I'd like to think Wilma McNabb taught him enough manners to know better. If not, hopefully the pure fear quarterbacks had when they saw WeaponX hitting the gap will be enough to silence the ever-quotable No. 5.
Another name thrown around the office today was that of Ray Rhodes, who was the Eagles head coach when they drafted Dawkins. Now that's a blast from the past.
Brian Westbrook was another name mentioned, but I would expect him to be there, and wouldn't consider that to be a big surprise.
Many of the big name players from the Brian Dawkins-led defenses - like Jeremiah Trotter, Hugh Douglas, Ike Reese, and more - have stayed in the area, and will almost certainly be in attendence.
The only question remains: Who are the surprises?
maybe if Mcnabb retires as an Eagle he could throw the ball in the dirt at an Iron Pigs game— klew
1. Matt Mullin, good to see you continuing the slop you guys are passing as journalism these days. 2. You go on First and Ten to give your opinion, which is what he did. You however are paid to at least pretend to have a clue, so how about you learn to shut your mouth and get back to stealing money. Hack.- 1. It's called First Take. 2. Yes people go on there to give their opinion. Donny Boy on the other hand goes on there with a graphic of Shanahan-coached quarterbacks who struggled going back to the 90s, putting a half-dozen guys on blast with their stats for all to see, yet curiously omits his own crappy stats from the graphic. I agree with the writer, I don't want that passive-aggressive over-sensitive drama queen anywhere near a microphone on Dawkins' day. Somehow it will end up being about Donovan and his standing in this city. Not the time or place. Point, Mullin
- 1. XanderCrews, thanks for your critique and it's good to see you are continuing to click on and comment on our stories. Your pageviews are much appreciated. 2. This is a blog post, which can also be used for opinion. I expressed mine above, and you are more than welcome to criticize my work. Not sure what you were expecting when you clicked on this story, but sorry I didn't meet your expectations. I will stop by your place of work next week to critique your performance.— MattMullin
- to guy posing as Matt Mullin, weak dude, try again. To Stikolboloni - How many playoff games have we won since 5 left? Oh yeah, 0. You clowns didn't deserve him then and you don't deserve him now. He always stayed professional and classy despite being at the focal point of Limbaugh, the NAACP and T.O. blow ups.
- It won't be Westbrook. He will be at the Golden Nugget in AC working for 97.5 at that time he said on the radio today.— wingslax35
