It’s never a happy day when one of the greatest players to take the field for one of your favorites sports teams will no longer be a part of said team anymore.
And so we’ve reached the end of the road with Brian Westbrook. His days of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles are over.
As sorry as I am to see him go, I can’t say I really blame the Eagles. $7.25 million for a guy who can’t stay on the field more than 10 minutes really isn’t a smart use of money. In fact, depending on which sources you read, Westbrook’s left knee could be so messed up he might not be able to pass a physical with any team. So not only are the Eagles not interested, no other teams may want him either.
I find that last possibility unlikely (someone will take a flyer on a guy who used to be one of the most dynamic playmakers in the league), but whether he’s played his last game for the Eagles or forever, his career deserves some retrospective praise.
Where would the Eagles have been this past decade if Andy Reid hadn’t wandered over to Villanova from his house and watched Westbrook tear up Division I-AA, basically stealing a first round player in the third round? Quite a few less division titles and playoff wins I imagine. His value to the Eagles and their success under Reid cannot be understated.
In his prime, Westbrook was perhaps the most feared player in the NFL. Anytime he touched the football, something spectacular could and often did happen. Even when they didn’t give him the ball, his presence as a decoy helped Donovan McNabb make good use of a grab bag of bums at wide receiver. I’ll have two lasting impressions of Westbrook, the first being the nonchalant way he scored almost all of his 68 touchdowns: Handing the ball to the official and jogging back to the sideline with a look of dissatisfaction, as though he could have been better on that scoring drive.
The other way I’ll remember him is from the 2004 NFC divisional playoff game against the Vikings—more specifically, from the NFL Films recap of the game. In the footage, Minnesota’s defensive coaches are constantly telling their players (and the players telling each other), “watch out for 36,” juxtaposed against footage of the Vikings’ total inability to contain the one player they were completely focused on stopping. That was vintage Westbrook.
Westbrook retires as the franchise’s all-time leader in yards from scrimmage (9,785), second in rushing yards (5,995) behind Wilbert Montgomery, third in receptions (426) behind Harold Carmichael and Pete Retzlaff, and third in touchdowns behind Carmichael and Steve Van Buren. He also holds the franchise’s single-season record for most yards from scrimmage (a league-leading 2,104 in 2007) and most receptions in a season (90 in 2007).
The Eagles have only had three great running backs in the history of the franchise: Van Buren, Montgomery and Westbrook. So I ask you, where does he rank?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Andy Reid, Brian Westbrook, Donovan McNabb, Eagles, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.