The Philadelphia Eagles are one win away from a Super Bowl appearance, and a franchise legend will be on hand Sunday to bring the energy needed for their NFC championship showdown against the San Francisco 49ers. This week, former Eagles goaltender Brian Dawkins will be Philadelphia’s honorary captain.
Dawkins played 13 seasons for the Eagles from 1996 to 2008, quickly becoming one of the fiercest and hardest hitting ball peddlers in the NFL. In 183 career games played for the Eagles, he recorded 914 combined tackles and 34 interceptions, which tied with Eric Allen and Bill Bradley for most interceptions in an Eagles uniform. Dawkins was a five-time All-Pro, nine-time Pro Bowler, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018. After football, Dawkins actually played a role with the Eagles as director of football operations for some years.
While Dawkins didn’t get a Super Bowl ring during his playing career, he did appear in Super Bowl XXXIX, where Philly fell to the New England Patriots, 24-21. In December, Dawkins spoke to CBS Sports about his Eagles and what the X factor might be for a Super Bowl run.
“Usually the X-factor is the people you don’t necessarily pay attention to,” Dawkins said. “Usually there’s a young guy or a man who you don’t expect to be ‘the guy’ who all of a sudden comes up and has a terrific game. So that means that this individual throughout the year has learned, and they’ve done a good job of pouring out on that person – whoever it is – and then all of a sudden they come to this game and they become one X-factors that you don’t expect to see. your stars are stars, but it’s usually someone you don’t pay attention to who has maybe their best game of a career, in the big game.”
