He may be wearing blue and orange, but he'll always bleed green.
So I'm sitting here today just minding my own business, when I hear Creed come on behind me. My roomate was sitting in front of his computer, blaring "My Sacrifice." I didn't think much of it other than, oh, good song but upon further investigation found that he was watching a Brian Dawkins tribute on Youtube.
A big Dawkins hit to every drum hit of Creed's "My Sacrifice" creates a great video, and one that really had me thinking about Brian Dawkins and his departure from Philadelphia.
When the offseason hit, I anxiously waited for a text from one of my inside guys telling me that the Eagles had re-signed Dawk, or to read about it on the internet. However, it just never happened. Then one day I'm sitting in my living room, watching ESPN, when I see the Breaking News story.
"Brian Dawkins Signs 2-Year Deal With Denver Broncos"
Honestly, it's enough to bring a tear to your eye. For 13 years, Dawkins has been the heart and soul of not only the Eagles, but possibly of the entire city. When he left, it was like he took the heart of the city with him. You could hear every jaw in the city hit the floor, as well as some other inanimiate objects hitting walls and floors.
Quite honestly, I believe the Eagles took more heat for letting Dawkins walk than they did for signing Michael Vick. That's certainly not to downplay the (ridiculous) outcry that the Vick signing has created, but just a show of the love that this city had for Dawkins.
As I've said before, it's tough to be mad at the Eagles for the move they made. He is slowing down, and had become a liability in coverage. However, the mistake they made was not having a serviceable replacement before they decided to let him walk. They thought Demps was that replacement, but that's not exactly working out.
The free safety spot is still up for grabs heading into the fourth preseason game, which is usually bad news for any team, but especially for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. For me, Sean Jones would be a great replacement, but for whatever reason it appears the Eagles want to keep him as Quintin Mikell's backup.
But, I digress.
This isn't about the state of the free safety position, it's about Brian Dawkins.
It's about Weapon X.
As Eagles fans, we never saw Brian Dawkins on the field. The jersey that read "Dawkins" on the back was incorrect in many ways. When he stepped foot on the field, it should have just read "X".
The soft-spoken, charitable man off the field was Brian Dawkins, the man playing like a pissed off super hero was Weapon X.
You spoiled us, sir, and we miss you, Weapon X.
