May 01, 2025
Pouya Dianat/Imagn Images
Brian Westbrook could do it all out of the backfield for the Eagles during his prime.
The NFL Draft is in the rearview mirror. Camp will be here before the Delaware Valley knows it. Until then, what's the word on the Eagles? They just won the Super Bowl (again). They crushed the draft and did what they were supposed to all offseason. Why not take a stroll down memory lane, have some fun and look back at what this franchise has done in their ultra-successful 21st century run?
Thursday marks my final day in the phenomenal PhillyVoice sports department before shifting to our wonderful news desk team. In this edition of "5 Eagles thoughts," I'll let it rip with a column full of nostalgia...
So often, and rightfully so, fans across all sports talk about old players who could not cut it in today's game. That's true a lot of the time, but certainly not all of the time. One guy I know who last suited up in 2010 who would absolutely torch defenses today is Brian Westbrook.
The 2007 campaign was a bit of a forgetful one for the Birds, as they missed out on the postseason, but Westbrook was a monster, nabbing First-Team All-Pro honors at running back and leading the NFL in yards from scrimmage with 2,104. He caught 70-plus passes in a season three times. He was dynamic as both a runner and as a receiver. Who can forget his punt return heroics too?
Where were you when Brian Westbrook housed this punt return in ‘03?#TBT | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/M8onPu91nj
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) May 23, 2019
He was a bad matchup for both linebackers and defensive backs in the passing game and was supremely underrated as a pure rusher, too. He was just awesome. The black Westbrook jersey was the hottest item in Philly for Christmas 2003!
Westbrook was frequently bitten by the injury bug as his career went on, as McCaffrey has been, too. It's a good comp!
When talking about Weapon X's best hit in a playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons, everyone is obviously going to point to the Alge Crumpler moment from the 2004 NFC Championship Game. Brian Dawkins' most devastating pop against the Falcons, however, really came two years prior at Veterans Stadium on Michael Vick in the Divisional Round of the NFC playoffs:
Here’s another unforgettable moment against the Falcons in Philly
— Eagles Fan Central (@PhilaFanCentral) September 13, 2024
2002 Divisional Playoff - Brian Dawkins absolutely levels Michael Vick at the goal line
Vick would go on record to say this was the hardest hit he ever took in his life pic.twitter.com/JtsOtvIi1c
I turn 31 next week. I realize I'm not quite young anymore. I assume our readership skews a little older than me, but for people who might may be on the younger side, you cannot fathom the pandemonium that occurred when Terrell Owens came to the Birds in 2004.
In his first game as an Eagle, Owens electrified Lincoln Financial Field with a three-touchdown day against the New York Giants. Philly was euphoric that season.
The sky was the limit. The Super Bowl was in everyone's sights. They got there, but didn't finish the job, another moment of disappointment that would only make those eventual championships that much more sweet.
The actual "Silver Linings Playbook" book is my favorite novel of all time. I've read it a handful of times, my first time being in Jan. 2018 during that magical march through the playoffs to the Super Bowl. If you are a deranged (complimentary) Eagles fan as I once was, I truly, truly could not recommend it enough. It's perfect.
The film? Eh, it's fine. Pretty good maybe. Definitely not great. Sometimes, it's as if the movie is laughing at us rather than with us. It's not as authentic as the novel.
Anyway...
My wife and I did, however, take a note out of their dancing playbook (terrible pun intended) for our wedding dance. We slow-danced to "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes and then abruptly cut the track. We then jammed out and went wild to "Fell in Love with a Girl" by the White Stripes, as Pat and and Tiffany do in the movie during the big dance-off.
I don't hate it. I'm just hyper-critical of it!
"Greatest" is just such a subjective term. It's well within reason if you said one of Reggie White or Jason Kelce is the greatest Eagle of all time given that they are probably the best ever at their respective position. Chuck Bendarik is iconic. No one may be more beloved than Brian Dawkins, too. For all all we know, the answer could be Jalen Hurts in a decade.
Despite all this, I think back to Max Kellerman saying he'd rather have Andre Iguodala take the final shot over Steph Curry in a hypothetical basketball game where the aliens are about to destroy planet Earth. Who's the most important Eagle ever? Who would you want most in a situation where the chips are done, hope appears lost and your life is on the line? Who changed everything for this franchise and this city?
"I WANT FOLES!"
Before you can become the multiple-time Super Bowl-winning juggernaut it appears the Eagles are turning into like a midnight green Voltron, you have to win your first Super Bowl. Everything has to go right and coalesce in the most perfect of ways and outcomes to see your team host the Lombardi Trophy for the first time. That was all Foles.
I've written it an umpteen amount of times over the years, so I'll close with it once more:
On his best day ever, Nick Foles out-dueled the greatest quarterback of all time, who had his greatest statistical game ever in his own right, and put up 41 points on the biggest defensive mastermind in the history of the sport.
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