April 29, 2020
There are no sports to watch right now, but that doesn't mean sports aren't alive and entertaining still.
The NFL Draft added some real-time drama (especially in Philadelphia) over the last few days, and reruns of games on TV have been on every sports channel for weeks now.
But sometimes simply looking at the numbers — because as sports fans we love our numbers — can provide some very interesting anecdotes about the teams we have loved in the past.
And so, we took it upon ourselves to dive deep into the box scores and record books of the local pro sports teams to find some wacky and strange-but-true stats. These facts range from individual accolades to team accomplishments to things that were just plain funny. Some of these you may have seen before, but most of them you probably haven't. It's also worth mentioning that we paid no mind to qualifying minimums for these.
With that being said, here are 10 of our favorites for the Eagles franchise (we'll link back to the other teams in the next few days):
Eagles have a 27% all-time win percentage (3-9-1) against the Bengals, their worst of any NFL opponent. The second worst is the Bears, against whom they have a 31% win percentage (13-29-1).
In 1989, Randall Cunningham punted a football 91 yards, the longest boot in team history. That is good for third longest in NFL history behind Steve O'Neal (98 yards) and Shawn McCarthy (93 yards).
BONUS: In 1986, Randall Cunningham completed 111 passes. He was sacked 72 times.
Sam Baker was the Eagles placekicker for six years (1964-1969) and attempted — and completed — one pass for 58 yards. His 58 yards per completion is the highest among any Eagle ever.
BONUS: How about four and done? Keith Byars was an Eagles running back in the late 80s who ran for 2,674 yards. In 1990, Byars threw four passes and completed all four for touchdowns. In college, he once ran out of one of his shoes to score a touchdown.
Ever hear of Adrian Burk? Well, from 1951-1956, he was the Eagles quarterback ... and their punter. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in 1954 (the first of two in a row he'd make) after leading the entire NFL in touchdowns, passer rating and in total punts. At 7-4-1 they finished in second place that year.
Five Eagles players have had kickoff returns of 100 yards or more, but none is longer than Josh Huff’s 107-yarder as a rookie in 2014.
During his Eagles career, David Akers kicked off 958 times for 60,739 yards, or approximately 34.5 miles — which is more than the distance to drive from Lincoln Financial Field to Trenton, NJ.
BONUS: If Akers' 60,739 kicking yards were square yards, they would be equivalent to 12.5 square Akers acres.
There are a lot of different Eagles players to have scored in either four or five different ways over the spans of their careers, but just two ever have scored in six. In the 1930s over two seasons, Jay Arnold did it (2 rec TD, a fumble TD, an INT TD, a blocked FG for TD, 3 EP and 1 FG) and in the 1940s, Joe Muha did it (1 rush TD, 1 rec TD, 1 Fumble TD, one INT TD, five EP and 2 FG) in three seasons.
In 2002, Brian Dawkins caught a 57-yard touchdown pass, his only career reception ever. It’s not the best yards-per-catch number in the team’s history, however, as another defensive back — John Mallory — had a 58-yard touchdown catch in 1968, which was also his only career reception. However, the game in which Dawkins caught his lone touchdown will forever be in NFL record books, as on that day he became the first player in NFL history to record a sack, an interception, a fumble recovery and a receiving touchdown in the same game.
BONUS: Brian Dawkins leads every Eagles player who has ever played in pass deflections, forced fumbles and assists on tackles. He is tied for first with 34 interceptions, is second on total interception return yards, fifth in total tackles and sixth in tackles for loss.
There are five Eagles players who have a 100% interception rate (including DeSean Jackson and Jake Elliott). Each, obviously, has thrown just one pass.
Terrell Owens had 14 touchdown catches in 14 games in 2004. Tommy McDonald had 13 in 12 games in 1960. They are the two top receiving TD seasons in Eagles history.
*Most of the stats listed above were discovered on ProFootballReference.com.
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