Happy Birthday To Eagles Legend Brian Dawkins
By Ray Boyd
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia has a blue-collar reputation that is often embodied by the city's all-time favorite athletes. That hard-working mentality may not have been seen in any Philly athlete more than in Brian Dawkins.
Today, Dawkins celebrates his 42nd birthday.
Weapon X defined Eagles football for a generation of fans. Not to age myself too much, but growing up, if I was playing football outside with friends, when I was playing defense, I was pretending to be No. 20.
Who can forget Dawkins famed flying tackle against the Giants?
Extraordinary plays like that were common for Dawkins.
There are those athletes that we tell children to emulate if they truly want to see the game played "the right way." Dawkins could have written the book on it.
Beyond the X's and O's, he carried a passion for the sport that seemed to leave the whole franchise when the Eagles allowed Dawkins to leave as a free agent. When Dawkins left following the 2008 season, he played three more seasons in a Broncos uniform, but in one writer's humble opinion, that should have never happened.
Dawkins defined midnight green and to a certain extent, he still does.
Exhibit A, the Eagles hype up video for this season is narrated by B-Dawk. It's been seven years since Dawkins played representing this city and the fan base still responds to him like no other player, past or present.
How can we forget the way he took to the field? He might have used up more energy taking the field than most players used during the game. That's how passionate he was. That's how much it all meant to him and the fans in Philadelphia were fully aware of that.
Dawkins' former teammate at 94 WIP host Ike Reese wished Dawkins well on his birthday:
Dawkins shared some of his fan's birthday wishes on Twitter as well:
Of course, the two franchises that Dawkins played for wished him a happy birthday as well:
