Speaker 1: So what's this mean to you? It's just something you've
Speaker 1: ever thought about seeing some of your former teammates kind
Speaker 1: of go away and Dark and stuff. Um, it's a
Speaker 1: It means a lot to me. It means a lot
Speaker 1: to my family as well. UM worked hard to be
Speaker 1: honored like this, and I played with a lot of
Speaker 1: guys that that got me to this place. I just
Speaker 1: mentioned out there that you know, they said, how did
Speaker 1: you get to the Hall of Fame? I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I played with an awful lot of good players, and
Speaker 1: they made my job a lot easier. And for me
Speaker 1: to just go out there and make people missing, you know,
Speaker 1: game yards, it was the easy work. But those guys
Speaker 1: in front of me, of course, my offensive line and
Speaker 1: those guys outside block and helps me a lot. Um.
Speaker 1: But this is a this is a great honor. I
Speaker 1: never really thought about it. You know. I've seen guys
Speaker 1: like Dark and Donovan, those guys who carried this team
Speaker 1: for so long get inducted to the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: and I believe you get there their number retired, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and of course I congratulate it and I
Speaker 1: celebrate those guys because I know that they were great players. Um,
Speaker 1: never really knew if I was going to get the opportunity,
Speaker 1: but my day came, and it's a blessing. When you
Speaker 1: played and we asked you about your numbers, you always
Speaker 1: said that's something I'll think about when I can retire.
Speaker 1: Now that you've retired, to you look back at the
Speaker 1: stats to catches, the yards. I think you're one of
Speaker 1: only six players ever with thirty receiving touchdowns and thirty
Speaker 1: rushing touchdowns. And what does all that stuff mean to you?
Speaker 1: What it means a lot. You know, you put a
Speaker 1: lot of hard work into just being able to play
Speaker 1: and being able to be good at multiple things in
Speaker 1: your NFL career as a player. But it just means
Speaker 1: a lot, you know. And when when when I have
Speaker 1: people come up to me now that are saying that
Speaker 1: rattled off my stats and say I watch you when
Speaker 1: I was young, things like that, it still amazes me
Speaker 1: just a bit because you know, I don't look at
Speaker 1: myself that way. I look at myself with just another
Speaker 1: guy that that worked hard at his job and grind
Speaker 1: it and good things happen when you work hard. And
Speaker 1: I was fortunate run when you came out of Nova.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get your mindset. Did you had ever
Speaker 1: envisioned something like this happening. Did you have a certain
Speaker 1: certain irrational arrogance that you were good enough even back
Speaker 1: then or not. Well, I think when you go to
Speaker 1: a smaller school, you never are quite sure and until
Speaker 1: you get out there and do it. And you know,
Speaker 1: it was my end of my first year, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm good enough, but I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: going to ever get the opportunity. Deuce was still here,
Speaker 1: Buck was coming back from an injury, and so you
Speaker 1: never are quite sure that you'll get the opportunity to
Speaker 1: show what you can do. My second year, we split
Speaker 1: time me bucking Duce a three Headed Monster, which was
Speaker 1: a great experience for me because it allowed me to
Speaker 1: get on field experience as well as played special teams
Speaker 1: and things like that. And then my third year I
Speaker 1: was able to get some starting experience and that was
Speaker 1: when I was able to kind of take it to
Speaker 1: the next level and kind of commend coach Reid for
Speaker 1: bringing me along slowly. Even though you want to play
Speaker 1: when you're younger, but he did a great job of
Speaker 1: bringing me along slowly and allowing me to develop as
Speaker 1: a player to stand out, you know, when you call
Speaker 1: on the team accomplished, like well, I think making making
Speaker 1: it to the super Bowl means a lot to me.
Speaker 1: Even though we didn't win. There's not a lot of
Speaker 1: people that can say that they made it to the
Speaker 1: super Bowl, you know. Um, so that that's a big accomplishment.
Speaker 1: I think personally, the pump return against the Giants means
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, winning those playoff games, beat in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: beating Atlanta here to go to the NFC excuse me
Speaker 1: to go to the super Bowl meant a lot to me. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I just you know, when when I think
Speaker 1: about the memories of playing football here, you just think
Speaker 1: more so about the time that you share with your teammates. Uh,
Speaker 1: those times in the locker room, was times on the
Speaker 1: practice field where you're really just messing around, just guys
Speaker 1: in the locker room, guys playing around, hanging out. Um,
Speaker 1: those are the things that you think about. But you
Speaker 1: also think about the games that you won. And we
Speaker 1: won an awful lot of games while I was here,
Speaker 1: And um, you know there's some guys like I talked
Speaker 1: to Tekio Spikes all the time and he said that
Speaker 1: he never made it to the playoffs, and for us
Speaker 1: making it to the playoffs, that was that was that
Speaker 1: was expected, that was something that we were supposed to do,
Speaker 1: and we were part of a winning tradition here in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia and it feels good to be a part of
Speaker 1: something like that. You always preached your level in the
Speaker 1: playoffs and your playoffs numbers are really good. How much
Speaker 1: pride you have in particular that you were able to
Speaker 1: kind of shine in the biggest games, Well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you know. It's been always my mindset that the
Speaker 1: best players play play the best when they needed the most,
Speaker 1: and your team was never going to need you more
Speaker 1: than in a scenario where if you lose, you go home.
Speaker 1: And so that's the playoffs, and your mentality has to
Speaker 1: take it to a different level. There's a there's a
Speaker 1: level of training camp and many camps things like that,
Speaker 1: and then when you go up to the next level
Speaker 1: to regular season games, there's a little bit higher level
Speaker 1: than the playoffs. Is an ultimate high and you got
Speaker 1: to take your game to the next level. And that's
Speaker 1: what coach Reid priest to us. But that's what we
Speaker 1: also priesch to each other, and we were able to
Speaker 1: go to the next level and win a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of playoff games. It looks like they're going
Speaker 1: to have a three headed monster here again. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about the challenges Metslinkers. I remember you sometimes, you know,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to football when you're a running back, and
Speaker 1: how do you deal with that. Well, it's tough, and
Speaker 1: especially with these guys. Ryan Matthews, he was a starter
Speaker 1: out there in San Diego, DeMarco was starting, so they're
Speaker 1: used to being on the field most of the game
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a little tough because when you're
Speaker 1: you know, for me, it was different because I was
Speaker 1: coming from not playing very much to playing a little bit,
Speaker 1: which felt pretty good, and you weren't as hungry to
Speaker 1: play as much because you were kind of working in
Speaker 1: the system. But these guys have been playing seventy five
Speaker 1: eighty percent of the time, so it's a little bit
Speaker 1: different if they get that knocked down to fifty and
Speaker 1: fifty percent of the time. So it's going to be
Speaker 1: a learning process for them, but they will stay fresh.
Speaker 1: It's just it's hard to stay involved in the game
Speaker 1: when you're in the sideline. Some of the plays where
Speaker 1: you think you should be out there, so it becomes
Speaker 1: frustrating just a bit. But I think over time they'll
Speaker 1: figure it out and they'll run enough plays here to
Speaker 1: make sure everybody gets their opportunity. They could have chosen
Speaker 1: any game to bring this and have this chose the Giants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you find that to be ironic obviously. Yeah, when mister
Speaker 1: Laurie called me, he said, you know, we couldn't have
Speaker 1: chosen a better game to kind of induct you to
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame than uh, when you play against
Speaker 1: the Giants, and you know, he just mentioned you took
Speaker 1: so much pride in h playing well against those guys.
Speaker 1: It was it was you know, for me, it was
Speaker 1: this great matchup. It was a great opportunity to show
Speaker 1: people close to what we can really do here and
Speaker 1: what I could do as a player. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of fitting that I'll go into the Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame against the Giants. When you guys introduced out there,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you noticed, but the volume level
Speaker 1: for you know, Correl and you and even a j
Speaker 1: when you retired, did you did you have a sense
Speaker 1: of the legacy that you guys loved here or does
Speaker 1: that kind of give to take a little time away
Speaker 1: before you realize where you did it permanent later, I
Speaker 1: think you have a good idea of what you've done.
Speaker 1: But I also think that as time continues, you get
Speaker 1: a better sense of how special winning all those games
Speaker 1: that we've won. You know, even before I got here,
Speaker 1: a couple of years before, the span between two thousand
Speaker 1: and two thousand and eight or nine two ten, we
Speaker 1: were able to win an awful lot of games. And
Speaker 1: so when when your team doesn't do as well, they
Speaker 1: haven't made it to the playoffs and won games like that,
Speaker 1: it makes it, you know, what you did in the
Speaker 1: pass a little bit more special. Um, it's a hard feat.
Speaker 1: You know. We had a really good football team, and
Speaker 1: we had guys around me that that were great. But
Speaker 1: at the same time it's hard to do. We did, um,
Speaker 1: and I think for us in the city, we kind
Speaker 1: of take it for granted just a bit, and we
Speaker 1: didn't realize how how important and how easy I mean
Speaker 1: not not easy, how hard it is to get to
Speaker 1: that point. And now I think because of the winning,
Speaker 1: we haven't won as many playoff games, of course as
Speaker 1: we are expected to. Um. You know it now you
Speaker 1: can see a little bit better. How special that team
Speaker 1: was away that you guys weren't able to win the
Speaker 1: big one. It's time trying to heal that or you
Speaker 1: still kind of have that burn. I don't think time.
Speaker 1: Time never heals it. It just doesn't. Because you watch
Speaker 1: the NFL network and they showed a game and they
Speaker 1: showed up the playoff at the Super Bowl, and that's
Speaker 1: a game that you should have won. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the game that we had in our hands. A few
Speaker 1: a few too many turnovers hurt us, but you know
Speaker 1: that that losing it never goes away. It never stops
Speaker 1: eating at you. Because when you say you're a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl champion, that's something that no one can never take
Speaker 1: away from you. Now, of course, playing in the game
Speaker 1: is special, but winning it, that's the estimate goal, the
Speaker 1: estimate prize, and unfortunately we weren't able to do it
Speaker 1: against the Giants and what it meant for your legacy
Speaker 1: and I would kind of jump started. You're kind of
Speaker 1: persona as someone who performing the clutch, so well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think about it all the time. Um,
Speaker 1: I kind of labeled that game in my mind the
Speaker 1: game that it was kind of my breaking out game,
Speaker 1: my coming out game where where people they kind of
Speaker 1: knew where I was. But because not until you make
Speaker 1: big plays like that consistently that people can you know,
Speaker 1: know that the teams can depend on you, but also
Speaker 1: know that you had that capability as a player. And
Speaker 1: it really wasn't until that point that people actually saw
Speaker 1: the talent that I was able to have and as
Speaker 1: a player that that boost is your confidence. That takes
Speaker 1: your confidence to a whole nother level and allows you
Speaker 1: to kind of play a little bit more freely and
Speaker 1: allowed me to open up my game just a bit
Speaker 1: as well. Style personality. What do you think of about
Speaker 1: you resonating Well, I think you know, just like Rocky,
Speaker 1: they love the underdog. They love a guy coming from
Speaker 1: a small school that's willing to work his butt off
Speaker 1: to dedicate himself to the game. But also um that
Speaker 1: can relate to the public. You know, the people understands
Speaker 1: that's me, That's who I am. You know, I see
Speaker 1: how they love Brian Dawkins, and I know why because
Speaker 1: he put his heart and soul on the field and
Speaker 1: he left it on the field and he was able
Speaker 1: to get everybody insided. And I'm not a raw rod
Speaker 1: guy like dark was on the field, but you know,
Speaker 1: I left everything I had on the field and everything. Um,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just because of the team. It wasn't just
Speaker 1: because we wanted to win, but it partly partly had
Speaker 1: to do with the fans as well. They inspired us
Speaker 1: to win. And when you walk out into the stadium
Speaker 1: and invent my rookie year and you hear the fans
Speaker 1: screaming and yelling, there's two degrees outside, and whether it's
Speaker 1: ninety nine degrees outside, they're still giving the harder money
Speaker 1: and they're out there acting crazy, and that tocites you,
Speaker 1: and that makes you want to do the things that
Speaker 1: we were able to do and make me want to
Speaker 1: work a little bit harder, especially during the week, to
Speaker 1: get to the point where you can play well out
Speaker 1: there on Sundays. And so, you know, it's just meaningful.
Speaker 1: You think about those odds lazy in your career, like
Speaker 1: throwing your touchdowns lazy. You never probably things you need
Speaker 1: to do like Miami when you got a chance to
Speaker 1: do that, like ter come up with those when I'm
Speaker 1: talking to my boys and they talking trash and my
Speaker 1: friends they don't really have any mercy on me at all,
Speaker 1: And so you can't do this and you can't do that,
Speaker 1: and those are the times that I have to remind them. Now,
Speaker 1: I threw a touchdown pass, and I was able to
Speaker 1: play against some of the best players and have good
Speaker 1: games against them, and so those are the times I
Speaker 1: think about that the most. And you know, my my girlfriend,
Speaker 1: she's not she she's Panamani, so she wasn't into football
Speaker 1: like that, and so she doesn't quite understand with throwing
Speaker 1: and catching the house special it is sometime for running
Speaker 1: back to be able to throw a touchdown and how
Speaker 1: rare it is, and um, you know, she still doesn't
Speaker 1: believe it. So I have to actually show her to
Speaker 1: take to make her understand it. Well, I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the talent's there, the talents there, and then
Speaker 1: you know, in the NFL you can have an awful
Speaker 1: lot of talent that doesn't necessarily translate to wins. Um,
Speaker 1: this team has to go out and proof her. So
Speaker 1: just like every other team, I think it's a lot
Speaker 1: easier when you had like a team like we had
Speaker 1: back in the day, where you you knew Donovan was
Speaker 1: gonna be there, you knew Doc was gonna be there,
Speaker 1: you knew I was gonna be there in Trey and running.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be there. And you kind of understood what
Speaker 1: this team was going to be all about. I think
Speaker 1: this year, uh, you just don't know quite yet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to see exactly what this team is going
Speaker 1: to be all about. I think that's why all the
Speaker 1: fans are here today. They want to see what the
Speaker 1: Marco Murray is gonna look like in the Eagles uniform
Speaker 1: and how he's going to perform. Same thing with Bradford,
Speaker 1: the same thing with Maxville. They want to see how
Speaker 1: well these guys can play. And I know that they
Speaker 1: were good on the other teams, but we also have
Speaker 1: seen guys that have you know, free agents that haven't
Speaker 1: played as well in the new team. So it's a big,
Speaker 1: big question mark. But if you're talking about talent, this
Speaker 1: is one of the most talented teams in the league,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately for talent potential, sometime it goes to the
Speaker 1: other way. So, uh, you know, players play, and if
Speaker 1: you get better on that football field you win games,
Speaker 1: then people here in the Philly area, people around and
Speaker 1: league will respect you a little bit more. What does
Speaker 1: it like means is when you're watching an Eagles game, right,
Speaker 1: do you feel yourself being like a fan? I do,
Speaker 1: you know, because I work with comcasting, do the pre
Speaker 1: and post game, you know, you have to be a
Speaker 1: little bit objective. But yeah, I want the Eagles to
Speaker 1: win every single game, you know, because they're my team.
Speaker 1: This is this is where I grew up at, this
Speaker 1: is where I learned how to be a professional, and
Speaker 1: so I want them to win and I want them
Speaker 1: to do well. So when I see to Marca Murray
Speaker 1: out there, I want him to have two thousand yards rushing,
Speaker 1: the same thing with Bradford, I want him to have
Speaker 1: three thousand and four thousand yards passing um. And that's
Speaker 1: what I wish for this football team. But it's always
Speaker 1: exciting to h to be around it, and I'm excited
Speaker 1: to be here. There's been a lot of talking culture
Speaker 1: locker room and stuff. Can you get care of what
Speaker 1: it was like in your locker rooms? You know where
Speaker 1: it made me like? Now it different? You know, I
Speaker 1: really I can't speak to what it's like now in
Speaker 1: the locker I just don't know. I'm just not around
Speaker 1: enough to know what's going on in the locker room.
Speaker 1: I kind of read the papers and watch the TV,
Speaker 1: just like everyone else. But I know what it was
Speaker 1: like in our locker room, and I know that Andy
Speaker 1: Reid preached respect. I knew that he expected the veterans
Speaker 1: to lead, lead the younger guys in that. Um, you
Speaker 1: had to respect everybody and if you stepped out the line.
Speaker 1: Brian Dawkins didn't have a problem putting you aside. Troy
Speaker 1: Vincent didn't have a problem putting you aside. Running didn't
Speaker 1: have a problem and so and as I got older,
Speaker 1: I didn't have a problem me. They're pulling those younger
Speaker 1: guys inside and saying, listen, that's not how we do
Speaker 1: things here. And UM, I think as time goes on,
Speaker 1: this team will be able to do that as well.
Speaker 1: It's just no one exactly what Chip wants and allowing
Speaker 1: that to transfer in the locker room as well as
Speaker 1: on the field. Right, Jimmy Rolms back in town to
Speaker 1: like Dodgers you guys, You guys that seven kind of
Speaker 1: both a year, you guys, a big year. Did you
Speaker 1: guys know each other at all? And tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit? Yeah, we hung out a little bit a
Speaker 1: couple of times here and there. What's it like? Kind
Speaker 1: of at the end of your career. I mean he's
Speaker 1: kind of gone out with a different team. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was difficult. Um, it was difficult for me in San
Speaker 1: Francisco because no one's gonna love you like the team
Speaker 1: that drafted you, especially if you play well there, no
Speaker 1: one's gonna love you that way. And so you go
Speaker 1: to a different team that people treat you a little
Speaker 1: bit different. I'm not sure how the Dodgers are as
Speaker 1: far as they're fan base, but San Francisco's fan base
Speaker 1: was nothing, nothing like Philadelphia. I mean, yeah, could walk
Speaker 1: around the grocery store downtown San Francisco and nobody would care.
Speaker 1: I can have a San Francisco I gotta have my
Speaker 1: jersey on literally and nobody would care. Um, But you
Speaker 1: go to the grocery store, you go to seven eleven,
Speaker 1: the Wahwa here, everybody wants to know Hasma nab doing,
Speaker 1: what's what's the game plan for this weekend. It's a
Speaker 1: different love for the game here in Philadelphia, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure Jimmy's probably feeling it. Um, it's just different. It's different.
Speaker 1: The fans here they love the sport, and um, you
Speaker 1: feel that love, and I think that's something that you
Speaker 1: try to translate from a player's perspective onto the field,
Speaker 1: just to show the fans of respect that they deserved.
Speaker 1: It take you time to learn that that their passion
Speaker 1: went both ways. That sometimes would be annoying as hell
Speaker 1: and other times it was great. But if all just
Speaker 1: exuded from their passion for the game. I went to
Speaker 1: school of Villa Nova, so I saw it firsthand. I
Speaker 1: saw it on Sundays when I watched the Eagles games. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know, I also felt it as the pressure
Speaker 1: as a player, the pressure is to win is great. Um,
Speaker 1: this is a what have you done for me lately? League?
Speaker 1: And the fans kind of feel that way too. You
Speaker 1: did good last week, but what are you going to
Speaker 1: do this week? You had to testdown last week? How
Speaker 1: many testdowns can you score this week? And the expectations there,
Speaker 1: But that also is the same thing that pushes you
Speaker 1: to be a better player, and that that that passion,
Speaker 1: those expectations pushed me to be the best player I
Speaker 1: could be.