Shitty Day Gets Shittier, Dawkins No Longer an Eagle

I started my day yesterday at 1:00 in the afternoon when I woke up with a ridiculous hangover. This was no normal everyday hangover, this was one of those rare ones. My unique tolerance for the drink usually keeps my hangovers rather mild and short lived, but since my Rangers once again could not win to save their coaches life, I decided to indulge a bit more than usual. After boozing during that horrific Rangers game and then sitting my ass in the Pub for who knows how many beers, I went home and instead of calling it a night I decided to polish off some shots of 92 proof Sailor Jerry Rum and pop open a bottle of red wine which I drank from the bottle to the bottom. Needless to say I think it was the mixing that did me in. So I awoke completely disoriented and nauseous, and this lasted for most of the day. I did not have to work until 8pm so I had plenty of time to sit around and be worthless. I had been watching season one of “The Wire” for the past two weeks on HBO on Demand. I had watched every episode and only had one to go so I figured I would finish up the season and watch the last episode, but when I had finished watching episode 12 I was just confused. Nothing had really been solved and there were a lot of loose ends that still needed to be tied. Maybe it was just the hangover, but something was missing. It was. Upon investigation I learned that there are 13 episodes in “The Wire” season 1. On Demand only had 12. Still hungover and confused, I tried to find a logical explanation why on Demand would show the entire first season except for the finale. I could not. The only reason I could fathom was spite. Confusion now turned to anger. I had been fully engaged in this season for the past two weeks. I would come home from work at 4am and watch an episode. I would get hammered , watch an episode and then have to watch it again in the morning because I couldn't remember. I was hooked. How the fuck can these assholes not give me the final episode! You motherfuckers! I would have called Comcast to vent if I would have thought those trained monkeys could actually do something about it. I hate Comcast. My entire past two weeks have now been ruined. I finally calmed down and started flicking through the rest of my 500 worthless channels and started watching “There Will be Blood”. Fitting for the mood I was in. This is the second time I have seen this movie and I still have no clue what the fuck is going on. Anger turning back to confusion. The only thing I'm sure of is that Daniel Day-Lewis and the mustache were made for each other. If you're ever making a movie and need to fill the role of mustache, look no further. So the three hour long movie of whatever ends and I am now lying face down on my couch staring at a brown spot on my floor rather lifelessly.

Somewhere in between the confusion and the anger and the vomiting I get a text from Fontiz. Brian Dawkins was no longer a Philadelphia Eagle. Confusion once again. As a fellow fan of the green, Fontiz would know that there are certain things that just aren't joking matters like loss of employment, deaths of relatives, Dawkins leaving the Eagles, so I knew he couldn't be searching for a laugh. Maybe his information was wrong or maybe a little hasty I thought. But no, it was true. Brian Dawkins, the emotional and physical leader of the Eagles for the last 13 years was gone, signing a 5 year 17 million deal with the Denver Broncos. Sadness. Just when my day couldn't get any worse, I lose my and most Eagles fans' favorite player. It is hard to put into words what Dawkins meant to Eagles fans. In a city that loves to hate its star players, Dawkins was never booed, even if he was completely burnt on a play (which rarely happened). Dawkins embodied what it meant to be a Philadelphia Eagle, the passion and the heart to play every down as if it were the last. His on field numbers speak for themselves. A seven time pro bowler, 898 total career tackles (703 of them solo tackles), 34 career interceptions, 21 career sacks. But it was his emotion and leadership we will remember him by. The ability to lead the team by example, on the field and in the locker room. When it comes to defensive bad asses, only Ray Lewis comes to mind other than Dawkins. Whenever the team (or the fans) needed a boost, a big play, a big hit, Dawkins was always there to heed the call. Whether it was lighting up Mushi Muhammad in the endzone or flying horizontally thought the air to strip Ben Roethlisberger late in a tightly played fourth quarter, Dawkins was there.

I cannot believe the Eagles really let Dawk go. Dawkins and most of the Philly fan base had thought he would retire in midnight green and maybe even stick around the organization as a defensive coach of some sort. We do not know what the Eagles offered Dawk to stay but it must have been a pretty low ball move to send him packing from the only team he knew and loved. Especially since the Eagles are a huge 40 million under the cap. Are you kidding me, you can't toss a little bit to Dawk to keep him around! What a slap in the face to him and the fans. I'm not sure what the jersey sales numbers look like either but I'm willing to bet number 20 is not far behind number 5. At 35 we all know his NFL career was near over anyway, but I don't think any of us wanted to see him in another uniform. I personally wouldn't care if we had to designate someone in the secondary to push Dawkins' wheelchair for him while on the field, just as long as he is out there. Who am I kidding, Dawk would wheel himself out there and probably dive out of the chair to make a tackle too. Thats just the player he was and just what he brought to the rest of the team. He made everybody else better on both sides of the ball. Nobody wanted to let Dawk down. During this years improbable run to the NFC championship game, many players expressed the feeling in the locker room that they needed to get that ring for Dawkins. It was Dawkins himself that started the playoff beard late in the regular season as a symbol of what they were playing for, something to remind them every time they looked in the mirror. The beards were soon copied by the entire team including the coach and owner. Asked if he would have grown a beard at the request of any other player other than Dawkins, Andy Reid said “No, just Dawk or McNabb, this things real itchy”. And could you blame him. That beard was awful, all scraggly with white and red patches. Coach kinda looked like a really fat lion roaming the sidelines with a dead baby lamb in his mouth, but since Dawk asked...

Well now Dawk is gone and fuck the Eagles for letting it happen. Now we are left with only memories. I guess my favorite memory would be Dawkins' hit on Alge Crumpler in the fourth quarter of the 2004 NFC Championship game. Sitting ten rows back in freezing Lincoln Financial Field (I mean really freezing, our disposable cameras froze and our beers would freeze if we didn't poke holes through the frozen foam on top and chug them) with two of my best friends. Micheal “who can take a puppy by his puppy ears, fuck him in the ass till he cries puppy tears” Vick delivers a shitbag pass to Crumpler who makes a turn after the catch only to get absolutely drilled by a flying Dawkins. Words cannot really describe it. I thought he was dead. That hit pretty much killed Atlanta's hopes of making a comeback and sent the fans into a celebration that we would never forget. I'm not sure how to post videos on this site yet, but youtube has everything from last years madden intro with Dawkins to this years playoff footage of Dawkins just diving head first into players like a torpedo. Really, how do you get rid of someone that even at age 35 is always looking to run or dive through someone to take them down. There is also an awesome video entitled “Dawkins – Weapon X” up there too.

Every game I was lucky enough to attend, I would make sure we left our tailgate early to be sure we did not miss the player introductions before kickoff just because I'd hope it was the defenses' turn that day. Every home game alternates the introductions from offense to defense. I would always hope it was the Defense just to see Dawkins. The stadium would be buzzing, everyone on their feet because they knew the last player to fly out of the tunnel was always Dawkins. The announcer would shout his name, the fireworks would blast, and the fans would go into a frenzy reminding the opposing team they were in Philadelphia in case they had forgotten. I can't believe I have seen the last time Brian Dawkins will come crawling out of the tunnel on all fours like a crazed animal and sprint down the field sending the fans into that Philly chaos. Dawkins brought a meaning and passion to this team that none of us had ever seen before, and that simply can never be replaced.

- Bows