Gone Too Soon
Posted: June 13th, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 84 Comments »I was flipping through the Eagles 1997 Calendar this morning (like normal people should) when I saw a photo of Chris T. Jones. That name won’t mean anything to young fans, but some of us remember just how much talent he had.
Jones was a 3rd round pick in 1995, but barely played. The Eagles had veterans Fred Barnett and Calvin Williams. Those guys left after the season. The Eagles needed bigger, more physical receivers for Jon Gruden’s WCO. Irving Fryar was signed as a free agent. And Jones, 6-3, 209, was promoted to starter.
Fryar and Jones were terrific in 1996. Jones was especially effective on slants. He finished the year 70-859-5. The future for the passing game looked pretty bright. Unfortunately Jones hurt his knee in August 1997. He reportedly “strained a ligament” and then tried to play through it, but the knee was continually swelling up. Jones played 4 games that year and caught just 5 passes. He obviously damaged the knee since Jones never played in another NFL game. He had a very promising career cut short.
Let’s take a look at some Eagles of the last 20 or so years who had careers ruined by injury after just a season or two.
QB – There is no QB that we’ve lost to injury, unless you call Andy Hall getting smacked in the face by reality an injury.
RB Heath Sherman – I’m cheating with this choice. Heath played 5 years in the NFL. The first 3 were pretty non-descript. He had a breakout season in 1992. He averaged 5.2 ypc. He ran for 5 TDs. He caught a 75-yard TD pass. In the playoff win over the Saints, Sherman was 21-105-1. He also caught 3 passes. I was optimistic that he and Herschel Walker would be a good 1-2 duo for a few years.
Sadly, Sherman’s extremely physical and aggressive style of running caught up to him. He played in 1993, but posted marginal numbers. He had 2 TDs and averaged 3.5 ypc. His long run was just 19 yards. Sherman was a compact, punishing runner that was fun to watch, but that style led to injuries that shortened his career.
TE Cornelius Ingram – Ingram never even played in an NFL game. He was a star at Florida, but tore his ACL. He declared for the draft and looked good in his workouts. Teams were concerned that his ACL hadn’t been properly repaired, though, and he fell to the 5th round. Ingram was a revelation in Training Camp. He looked like another offensive weapon for Donovan McNabb. Until those worries came true and Ingram re-tore his ACL. He came back the next year, but just wasn’t the same player.
WR Chris T. Jones
OL Bernard Williams – Is smoking pot and liking to play basketball an injury? Only the Eagles could lose a franchise LT to such a dumb decision. Other teams have players that you have to drag off the field. We had a star in the making, but he was too busy dreaming of jump shots and bong hits.
I considered listing Bubba Miller and Shawn Andrews. Miller was a backup for 3 years and then became the starting C in 2000. He got hurt in the summer of 2001 and never played again. I just don’t remember if Bubba was an adequate starter or player that had a chance to get better. As for Kid…his situation is complex and confusing. He did have legit injuries, but also wanted out of football. He loved the perks (fame and money), but wasn’t so keen on actually playing the game.
DE Jerome McDougle – It is easy to make fun of Jerome since he was so unproductive, but people forget that he got hurt in the preseason of his rookie year. We never once saw the real Jerome McDougle. We saw flashes. If you watch the GB or NO games from 2003, you’ll see hints of his explosive pass rush ability. That’s it. His hip and ankle injuries ruined him that year and the future was even worse. McDougle was unblockable in the Penn State-Miami game of 2001. I know he had some serious ability. Eagles fans just never got to see it.
DT Sam Rayburn – Truckdriver, as he was affectionately known, was very much a player on the rise. He had 6 sacks one year. How many people remember that Rayburn is the guy that SF wanted in the TO trade? The Eagles said “No way”. Unfortunately, Rayburn had shoulder injuries that ruined his career. He later developed an addiction to painkillers.
LB Ray Farmer – NFC Defensive Player of the Week in early December of 1996. The Eagles shut out the Giants, 24-0. Farmer had an INT, a sack, 2 FFs and a FR. I think that is more takeaways than the 2012 defense had all year. Farmer started 11 games as a rookie, 5 the next year and none after that. He only played in a couple of games in 1998. A knee injury took away his athleticism, which was a huge part of his game. Farmer was a SS in college and didn’t have the bulk to be a physical LB. He was a speed guy…without the speed.
ILB Stewart Bradley – It really is torturous to think about Disco Stu. He played sparingly as a rookie in 2007 and then lit it up in 2008. He showed the traits of being a Pro Bowl MLB. He then tore his ACL at Flight Night in 2009 and missed the year. He came back in 2010, but wasn’t the same player. He was tentative in terms of cutting on his knee, but also in terms of contact. He seemed nervous about anyone hitting him in the lower body. The 2009-2011 period could have looked a lot better with a healthy Stu at MLB.
S JR Reed – Showed so much promise in 2004. Outstanding KOR. Looked like he could play FS as well. And then he jumped a fence to get away from a dog. That tore a nerve in the back of his knee and Reed has never been the same. He did make it back to the NFL and that alone makes him an inspiration, but his speed and agility were limited.
CB Ben Smith – Buddy Ryan never got the Eagles defense where he wanted it. He built a great DL. He had very good LBs (Willie T. was added after Buddy was fired). He had a great CB/SS/FS…but he never found the other CB. Smith might have been that CB. Buddy drafted him as a Safety and that’s where Smith started as a rookie in 1990. About midseason Smith was moved to CB. He played there the rest of the year and in 1991, when Gang Green was so great. Smith tore up his knee 10 games into the 1991 season and was never the same. He missed all of 1992. He started 3 games in 1993. He then spent time in Denver and Arizona, but was a mediocre player.
* * * * *
Did I miss anybody?
I’m not counting guys like Andy Harmon and Byron Evans that were established star players. I was focused on young guys that had that good year or two and that’s it.
_
Leonard Weaver
We signed him to a good deal as a free agent. He was an established player. But yeah…losing him to injury did suck.
WOW! Great article.
A few comments:
What was that “thing” on Chris T. Jones’ neck?
Sam Rayburn was a DUI bum who got out of charges by claiming he “bumped his head” when he fled the scene of a crash
Jerome McDougal doesn’t get a pass for being the idiot handing out in the hood who got shot in his stomach when he should have know better to have been hanging out in such a bad place in Miami.
Heath Sherman sucked at life because he’d always fumble in Tecmo Super Bowl. I’d often swap in Robert Drummond for him.
Ben Smith was a stud, but that knee injury was brutal.
Again, great article.
McDougle was a victim. He was in his hometown and got shot. I don’t know the specific spot where it happened, but if he was visiting family or friends, he’s got every right to be there.
Guys that are asking for trouble are ones that are hanging out with troubled friends. McDougle was minding his own business when 3 kids came up and tried to steal his car.
I’m not sure about where you live, but armed teenagers aren’t running up and down my street jacking cars. Miami, hometown or not, is part of the big 3 of off-season no-no places along with Atlanta and Vegas that players should avoid. The number of bad headlines for athletes coming from those locations if off the charts.
I live in NC. Cities here aren’t always as defined by neighborhood as they are in the North. You can have good and bad neighborhoods a block apart.
McDougle did nothing wrong.
Interesting note about Southern living. Again, I’ll stand by my view that there are certain places one should not go if they’re able to be avoided. Miami, as a city, generates such a countless number of celebrity and athlete negative incidents that it should be avoided.
OK. Maybe a person should avoid certain places. That does not make a person at fault if they are shot when they happen to be at a certain place. That’s correlation not causation. If Jerome McDougle got shot during a drug deal gone bad you have an argument.
It’s like saying ” My friend died in a plane crash, that’s his fault though, he knew planes have crashed before and he still took that risk.”
What part of NC. I just moved down here and was wondering if there are any Eagles’ bars.
Yes. McDougle should have stayed near the stadium on the crime-free streets of South Philadelphia.
That way, he would’ve avoided Miami street thugs like this notorious gang:
Stop or my mom will shoot…x 4. No one could survive that.
That movie was written by Blake Synder, who we also lost too soon (pulmonary embolism).
While I don’t think anybody is going to canonize his two “big” movies (“Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot” and “Blank Check”), he has posthumously become famous for writing THE book on screenwriting: “Save the Cat.”
If anybody ever has an urge to try your hand at writing a screenplay, GET THAT BOOK. It really is great. In fact, even if you have no interest in writing, it’s still an amazing look at the structure of movies.
https://www.blakesnyder.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1
I concur with “Save the Cat” it’s a good read. Though I will add that much of the problem with Hollywood is that they stick with the formulas he dissects so well.
Yes, though we can go further to the root of that problem and why “Hollywood” sticks to formulas. “Hollywood” in this instance really means the studios, which employ executives who are primarily concerned with keeping their job… Kind of like the discussion we had about NFL head coaches who worry more about keeping their job than going for it on risky 4th downs.
As a result, their goal is to change any movie or TV show just enough so that they can claim responsibility for it if it does well, but, at the same time, blame the writers, actors, audience, etc., if it fails. The irony, of course, is that when you make “small” changes like adding in a poker scene or making a character a cupcake bakery owner because that’s “trending”, you most often ruin things.
When you remove the executive, you get purer results. HBO – as an example – which thrives on subscribers and not weekly ratings (or advertising dollars), does their homework on the front-end when buying shows and then lets the showrunner sink or swim on his or her own, with minimal intrusion (Think Robert Kraft vs. Jerry Jones).
Now I’m boring myself. Sorry.
Nice insight MediaMike! Thanks for adding to the comments here, but I think you typed the web address in wrong; this isn’t the comments section of Philly.com
Be nice.
I thought you would say that π
That’s why I was on my best behavior, I’ll drop it now
Funny story, now that’s its about 7 years in the rear view mirror… I was vacationing in Dublin and parked my rental car on a side street (no parking on the main street) to get something to eat with my friends. When we came back out of the restaurant the back window was busted and all the luggage was gone. Guess I was in “the wrong neighborhood” for that type of behavior, and I guess since I have Irish roots I shoulda known better!
I like this Logic. First off it ignores math, which always kills me. Secondly it blames the victim. As if when you got to bad parts of town you are automatically going to get shot. Duh.
It’s like saying to someone who got robbed “Man if you hadn’t bought such nice things you wouldn’t have gotten robbed what’s wrong with you?”
T-Law:
Would you put OLB Alonzo Johnson on the list? Buddy’s second 2nd round pick in ’86 from U-FL . . . and like Bernard Williams, had a drug problem, was cut by Buddy in ’87 and never heard from again.
What’s interesting about AJ’s problem is it opened the door for Seth Joyner, also drafted in 1986 (Rd 8), to become the Eagles’ starting RLB.
Carter kinda fits.
I’ll do another list later on about Eagles that didn’t pan out here for a variety of reasons, but were real good elsewhere. Carter. Derrick Burgess. Jimmy Smith. Raheem Brock.
JIMMY SMITH . . . You’re Killing Me!!!!!!!!!!
The absolutely WORST move by Kotite. WORST.
At least Jimmy Johnson’s excuse was he had Irvin and Harper plus Kelvin Martin.
What was Kotite’s excuse? None.
Drugs.
That list is going to be a lot more hurtful. I was in attendance at the Eagles / Jags debacle in 2002 in Jacksonville when Bobby Taylor spent the entire game not covering and not tackling Jimmy Smith. And it was the original McNabb puke game. Great use of my travel dollars!
Charlie Garner.
I wouldn’t say he didn’t pan out here, but he was always underutilized. Then went on to SF and had to huge seasons then on to Oakland and had two more excellent seasons.
Man I HATED when Garner left as well. I always thought he was so talented and fun to watch. One of my favorites and underutilized is right!
I had forgotten about Smith; at least we would have had 1 offensive weapon during that time period.
Didn’t Ryan name Johnson his starter straight after drafting him, like Buddy always did? He took him before the Giants then took another linebacking Johnson named after a condiment IIRC.
Seth Joyner was also originally cut too was he not? He may make the list of Players who came back from the waiver wire.
Also, how about a no name, did nothing, but stuck around for quite a time list?
I have a player from BYU and one from Virginia, of which one played for Buddy and the other for Reid. The BYU guy obvious played for… Buddy! Steve Kaufusi The other, Billy McMullen, but maybe he isn’t a no name.
Kaufusi appeared in only 2 NFL seasons . . . ’89-’90. He was one of “Buddy’s Boys.”
As for Alonzo Johnson — who tested positive for cocaine use at the Combine — Buddy held off making him a starter at ROLB until August of his first TC, just before the first preseason game. After suffering a hamstring injury in Game 9, Johnson surrendered his starting job (to none other than Joyner). Then in ’87, Johnson — whom Buddy penciled in as a starter again during OTAs — went to rehab during TC and stayed inactive through October. Then, after 3 games back on the active roster (but no starts), he flunked another test and landed on the non-football injury list for the remainder of ’87. Johnson came to the ’88 TC but didn’t make the cut.
And a great note on Seth Joyner. He initially didn’t make the cut his rookie year. Buddy brought him back two games into the ’86 season after cutting the Eagles 1985 leading rusher, Earnest Jackson (who broke the 1,000 mark).
And, after Buddy suspended Johnson, Joyner moved into the starting line-up and left it until leaving the Eagles after ’93 to rejoin Buddy in Arizona.
Joyner’s story is an amazing one. Talk about a highly motivated, self-made player.
He would’ve fit perfectly on the Lombardi Packers.
My perceptions of both Joyner and (Wes) Hopkins changed dramatically for the worse after reading Bowden’s “Bringing the Heat” about that period. Seth comes across as an anti-leader/troublemaker in the locker room.
Off topic, but DJax appeared on the Rich Eisen Podcast this week. Very good stuff
I’ll try to check that out.
He was also on the NFL draft tracker podcast. Why didn’t Jimmy Bama book him for helmet 2 helmet. I think you two need to have a discussion about his lack of quality guests on the show. It really does seem like the team has bought in and DJax seems excited, although he did get caught breaking the Chip Kelly diet. He gave in to the ever irresistable slurpee and funyan combo.
http://richeisen.nfl.com/2013/06/11/rich-eisen-podcast-ian-rapoport-desean-jackson-michael-silver-and-aaron-rodgers/
They covered a ton of different things including the documentary coming out on Father’s Day, players buying into Chip Kelly (seems clear that DeSean has bought in), playing on the 2nd and 3rd teams, and Mike Vick vs. Foles. As aub32 said, it was a great interview and DeSean gave great answers throughout the interview.
JR Reed ripped his peroneal nerve, the only thing that seems to affect is the ability to lift your ankle up and down. You can still move your ankle from side to side or lift your foot from the knee. I had a similar injury, but in my case the nerve was pinched off, not torn, and after a couple of months mine healed. There was no halfway.One day it didn’t work at all, the next it worked as if nothing had ever happened to it. Strangest injury I can remember having.
Were you jumping a fence to escape from a dog?
lol… not so much. Just lost my balance when I had a sinus infection and twisted it up.
I’d lie and mix in a fence, dog, lumberjack, assassin, ninja and sleazy truck stop waitress.
Got any manly excuses I could use for when I blow my back out sneezing every 6 months?
I’ll one up you GEagle—- I threw my back out tying a garbage bag around a garbage can………. Apparently Garbage Can is now responsible for people going on the IR
Ernie “The Shark” Sims would be impressed.
thats impressive! lol
I thought he was jumping the fence to get his dog; but I don’t remember exactly
Re: WR Jimmy Smith
T-Law:
Kotite cut Smith at the end of ’94 TC to make room for special teamer and ex-Jet, LB Ken Rose. ANOTHER EX-JET. QB Pat Ryan wasn’t enough.
Kotite then cut Rose after 8 games in the ’94 season.
In the meantime, JAX signed Jimmy Smith . . . where he had a spectacular career.
Sorry for harping on this, but I remember when Smith was cut . . . and I couldn’t believe it. The kid was big, fast, and a former 2nd Rd pick by Jimmy Johnson in ’92 from Jackson St — but he’d filed a grievance against the ‘Boys and Jones cut him loose just before ’94 TC.
HATED THAT MOVE.
Ken Rose……….bad LB bad haircut. Good special teamer.
One of Reid’s 1st free agent signings was TE Jamie Asher. I remember being
somewhat optimistic about him, but he wrecked his ankle in the
preseason and never played another down.
I thought about using Asher.
nice pitch.
Like Cris Carter and Buddy, Smith’s drug problems probably didn’t leave Kotite with a whole lot of options. It speaks well of both Buddy and Kotite that the underlying causes behind the move(s) remained mysterious for so long, although I’m sure some of the local media knew and decided not to write about it at the time.
Hey, T-Law . . .
When you go do your post on “Players Who Didn’t Pan Out Here,” how far back will you go?
I have serious concerns about my mental state if I start remembering all the screw-ups.
Just your mention of Jimmy Smith has sent me racing to the edge . . . .
Seriously, that will be a great post. (Remember to include Bob Kuechenberg. And throw in Mark Moseley, too.)
I’ll do the recent years. Maybe I’ll get with you for the all time list. We can be depressed together.
Norm Snead
why not start with the most current and then work your way back in time. that way, whenever you get sick of it, you can stop : )
Doesn’t exactly fit but I do wonder how good the Eagles could have been if Correll Buckhalter didn’t get hurt.
He came back and played well at times but I wonder how much better he should have been.
Buck not playing the 2nd half against the Rams in the 2001 playoffs killed our chances to win that game.
That and the obvious “no calls” for us on offense, and their “all calls” for the Rams offense. We should have been in the Super Bowl that year.
I’m really hoping that certain current Eagles, Brandon Graham and Nate Allen in particular, don’t end up on this list in the future.
Yep.
I know this doesn’t really fit the topic, but the injury to Randall Cunningham in ’91 really tore me up. It was such a promising season that felt like it was flushed down the toilet with on crazy hit. Frankly, I can’t see how that team wouldn’t have won the SB if Cunningham stays healthy. I’m still not over it.
I was 9 years old when Randall got injured, and I swear I remember that game day like it was yesterday
Yup, I remember thinking about that season and how good we looked; our Defense was top notch, offense had play makers, and Randall was the “it” factor. Couldn’t believe it when he got his knee blown out. That was the beginning of the end of that era
Its hard to say – if RC was playing, perhaps the defense doesn’t feel quite the urgency to shut out every team, which was a factor in why they finished 1-1-1 on D that year. In ’92 they did have Randall back, plus the emotional crusade to “win one for Jerome” and still lost in the playoffs.
Tom..you kinda fooled me. saw this headline and got excited thinking it was a Jerome Brown article lol. I was young, would loveto hear some of the Jerome stories from back in the day.
Rayburn was very promising player. I hated McDougal since college. Why don’t I remember JR Reed? Conelius could have been a heckuva player
Oh man I never knew what happened to Big Country. I liked him because he brought size and a tough mentality to the field. We were pretty soft around that time. What a bummer. For some reason I thought he just wasn’t resigned.
**edit** Sorry we were “bend but don’t break”. To me we just didn’t defend the run until the redzone.
The Eagles 3-4 defense under Vermeil with Campbell as DC was a “bend but don’t break”, and they were perfectly happy to describe it that way. They ranked at or near the top in giving up points but were only so-so in the ranking for giving up yardage.
When Buddy Ryan came into town to install his 4-3 defense, he ridiculed the notion of a “bend but not break” defense, and I think because Buddy’s defense was exceptionally aggressive and very effective, the fans have forever held onto that ridicule of a “bend but don’t break” defense; but that defense was effective here for some time.
The funny thing is that that D didn’t really realize their potential until Buddy was gone. It was Bud Carson who took the personnel and wielded them into a top defense. Buddy was always OK with the possibility that they might get burned with the big play, he just figured they’d get to the QB before that happened more often than not. Carson took away that risk with his coverage schemes, while retaining the pass rush effectiveness.
What about Victor Rehabiamiri? He looked promising after he beat out Juqua for the starting LDE spot.
Damon Moore?
On the kid, Mental Health is a legitimate issue. I still wish on occasion to go the alternative universe that has him and Peters as bookends. I pretty sure DEs look wearier there.
Would be a fun place to visit.
Andy Harmon’s loss sickened me. He was a great pash-rush tackle–hurt his knee, and never recovered. 11 sacks in both 93 and 95. From a tackle!
An undersized one at that. Just had the knack for slithering through the OL.
GREAT article man. Soon as I read Chris T Jones name I had so many memories flood back it was crazy.I remember bragging to all my Giants fan friends that he was gunna be great. I was just old enough to go to the bars, had what I THOUGHT was the worlds greatest bachelor pad and had every good USA TODAY article about the Eagles plastered all the wall over my desk in a warehouse I ran (alone. Lol all those memories from just his name. I’m sure no one gives a crap about them(who could blame em?). But I do, so thanks for that Tommy.:)
Ed Blaine, all-pro guard, and Bill Bradley, All-pro safety, both left to become doctors. Bill had a longer career–but Ed quit in his prime.
Interesting.
Carlos Emmons?
Trevor Laws and Mike Kafka, both left and went on to get cut.
I can’t believe you, Tommy, or the “knowledgeable” Eagles fans for your omission of one of the saddest cases of injury impairing a budding career. I’m talking about the safety from THE Ohio State University, Damon Moore.
If memory serves me correctly, he incurred a freak rug injury (a seam?) in St. Louis in the first of a string of playoff games in the decade. An aside: People talk about the home playoff loss against the Bucs the following year as the hardest to swallow. I disagree strenuously. The Eagles were the team of destiny, IMO, in the 2002 playoffs. They had mojo and played the Rams mano a mano, but they lost Buckhalter and Moore to injury in the game, and, as I recall, Troy Vincent was hobbled and should not have played. I had many sleepless nights after that game going over the shoulda coulda scenarios. I attended the Bucs’ game in the last year of the Vet and wasn’t at all surprised (certainly disappointed) that the Eagles lost. That year, McNabb had his first serious injury and his understudies stepped up, but he was not in game shape at playoff time. Yes, he had won the previous game to get to the NFC final, but he had first-game back adrenaline working for him. It’s always game 2 of a recovery that brings the recently recovered back to earth.
There is one reason alone that I loved Damon Moore. In 2001 as the Eagles were struggling to qualify for their first trip to the playoffs since the mid 90s, Moore saved the late season game for the Eagles on the kick-off return following a late Eagles’ score to take the lead. His hustle and closing angle just a few yards from the goal-line prevented the kick-returner from scoring the winning touchdown for the Giants. I can still picture the precise angle that he took along with amazing closing speed that came from nowhere, but his determination.
In the cruel impersonal world of the NFL, he was cut by the Eagles and signed with the Bears, but was out of football before the 2002 season ended, I believe.
He fell on very hard times and wonder about his life in 2013.
Big omission, guys and gals!!!
I was just about to post Damon Moore. Huge omission to the main post. For a time there in 2001, it looked like he would team with Dawkins at safety for years to come. I was reading something online about how he was working in a Nextel store as a sales associate in 2006. Very sad..
What happened to my post???
Oops, sorry. Didn’t realize that the order was last to first scrolling down.
I suspect Nate Allen could fall into this category if he doesn’t up his play. Ditto on Graham, with a split between not-being-the-same-guy-after-injury and scheme change. They were both having good rookie seasons before they got hurt.
The more recent version of Ingram was probably Ricky Sapp, 5th rounder in ’10 who some draftniks had projected as a potential 1st rounder. His knee just never came around.
Buckhalter was part of the 3-headed rushing monster attack, with Westbrook and Staley, but could never seem to stay healthy.
Lester Holmes was arguably the best of Kotite’s high OL picks, but blew out a knee and couldn’t come back from it.
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One under the radar aspect of all these Eagles whose careers were cut short was what kind of medical care these guys were getting. While other teams were getting their players operated on by James Andrews and other docs who seemed to have a track record of getting players back on the field. Most (all?) of the players in Tom’s list were probably operated on by Art Bartolozzi, who was an orthopedic surgeon and the birds team doc for a very long time.
Once Bartolozzi’s name was involved, you knew that guy was never getting back on the field. My friends and I took to calling him Art “The Butcher” Bartolozzi back in the early nineties.