Perseverance helps Maclin break free

Jeremy Maclin does not do the diva act we have seen from a long list of No. 1 NFL wide receivers over the years. Maclin, in fact, does not even care if you consider him a No. 1 receiver, which a lot of people did not before this season.

Perspective probably best explains Maclin's modest blue-collar approach to life and his brutal profession. He has had to deal with a large dose of difficult reality during his 26 years and that has helped form the man's leathery interior and exterior.

Maclin's teammates acknowledged his tenacity Tuesday when it was announced that the receiver had been voted by his peers as this year's winner of the Ed Block Courage Award for the Eagles, an honor usually bestowed upon a player who has overcome a devastating injury or some other kind of personal tragedy.

"It was a no-brainer," fellow receiver Riley Cooper said. "He does everything that the coaches ask him to do. He blocks, he catches, the run after the catch, the deep ball . . . he's the all-around wide receiver. Obviously he shows a bunch of toughness."

You only have to rewind to Sunday for Maclin's most recent display of grit. Late in the first half of the Eagles' 24-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, he caught a pass from quarterback Nick Foles and was violently sandwiched between Arizona cornerback Patrick Peterson and safety Deone Bucannon. The helmet-to-helmet hit from Bucannon left Maclin laid out on the field and the Arizona safety without his helmet. Peterson was also hurt on the play and did not return.

Maclin, on the other hand, was back for more on the Eagles' next offensive series after passing a series of concussion tests and getting the blood from a cut on his left ear cleaned up. Before the end of the day, Maclin had crashed into a couple of tables on the Cardinals sideline at the end of a punt return and caught a 54-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter.

He finished the afternoon with a dozen catches for a career-high 187 yards and two touchdowns.

"I'm just playing football," Maclin said. "Obviously the hit hurt, but I was able to come back in after I cleared everything I had to go through and that's part of playing football. You're going to get hit and sometimes you're going to be a little slower to get up, but you have to get back out there and help your team."

Maclin has been getting back up his entire life, so the torn anterior cruciate ligament to his right knee that ended his 2013 season before it started was not as daunting to him as it might have been to others. He had suffered the same injury as a freshman at Missouri and he still achieved all-American status with the Tigers the next two seasons.

As a youth football player, Maclin's friends called him "Smiles" because that's the expression he wore most often despite the fact that his biological father had abandoned the family and his mother battled alcohol abuse. When doctors thought he might have lymphoma in 2011, Maclin admitted that it scared him.

"Nothing worse than not knowing what is going to happen, especially in a situation like that," he said. "I'd have to say that was probably the low point, but I'm blessed. God was on my side. A lot of friends, a lot of family were on my side. Luckily it came out in my favor."

The Eagles were on Maclin's side this offseason. He was a free agent and DeSean Jackson was coming off the best year of his career. The Eagles chose to make Maclin their No. 1 receiver with a one-year deal worth up to $6 million and they released Jackson. It's fair to wonder what damage the two men could have done together, but there is no denying that Maclin has emerged among the NFL's elite receivers.

After his monster game Sunday, Maclin ranked eighth in the league in yards per game at 90.3 and was tied for third among wide receivers with six touchdowns.

"I think this is my first time I've been looked at as much I am this year," Maclin said. "As far as calling yourself a number one receiver or anything like that, it's just the way the offense is going right now. The last game, things came my way quite often and I was able to come up and make some plays for this team. It's all about being reliable. If you guys want to call me that, then that's what it is, but I'm just trying to be reliable for my team and my quarterback.

Maclin is also proficient in the art of having his teammates' backs. When he was asked about Foles' turnover issues, he became a defender.

"He's leading us where we need to be," the receiver said. "We're 5-2. We still control our own destiny."

When asked about rookie Josh Huff's costly fumble in the red zone Sunday, he pointed out his own past failures.

"I just tell him that in this league you have to take extra care of the football," Maclin said. "He's a guy who wants to learn and definitely wants to get it right."

Maclin is getting it all right this season after everything went so wrong for him before the start of the previous one. That is how he has tackled adversity and misfortune his entire life.

@brookob