Mitch Mania
Posted: July 8th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 46 Comments »Brian Mitchell played for the Eagles for three years, 2000-2002. If I’m picking my all-time favorite Eagles, Mitch is the returner. I loved that guy.
If you’re an older fan, watch this video for a great trip down memory lane. If you’re younger, educate yourself on the greatness of Brian Mitchell.
I thought this was a great sign, but alas it was one of the few bright spots in a bad, bad day.
Joe Buck is awfulll. '02 NFCCG, opening kickoff. Brian Mitchell returns it for 70-yards and he can barely muster any enthusiasm: pic.twitter.com/vCAuVmOMsM
— KSkyhook33 (@KSkyhook33) December 16, 2016
And I agree about Joe Buck.
Mitchell is proof that the best free agent signings aren’t always the biggest names or the biggest contracts. Find the right guys for your team. I don’t think the Andy Reid era is the same without Mitch. He brought leadership and toughness to the STs units. John Harbaugh made that group a key in the team’s success.
*****
MY 5 FAVORITE EAGLES WHO PLAYED MOSTLY ELSEWHERE
RB/RS Brian Mitchell
DE William Fuller
WR Irving Fryar
RB Herschel Walker
QB Jeff Garcia
- Mitchell is covered above.
- Fuller is a player I’ve always loved. He was tough and physical, but also a productive pass rusher. Terrific LDE from 1994-1996.
- Fryar was the first true West Coast Offense WR for the Eagles and boy was he exactly what Jon Gruden wanted. Fryar was willing to work the middle and take big hits. He would also give out some of his own and was a very good blocker. Great player in 1996 and 1997.
- Walker was supposed to put the Eagles into the Super Bowl in 1992, but Jerome Brown died and that team had some issues, on and off the field. Still, Walker ran for more than 1,000 yards that year and delivered some big plays over the next couple of seasons.
- Garcia was so much fun to watch when he took over for Donovan McNabb in 2006. He brought intensity and emotion to the huddle. That wasn’t always a good thing, but he led the team to the postseason and a win over the Giants. Garcia did his part in the loss to the Saints, but the defense stunk that day and the Eagles fell 27-24.
I could have listed some all-time great players like Norm Van Brocklin or Claude Humphrey, but wasn’t able to watch them enough for them to become favorites. I wasn’t old enough to see Van Brocklin at all, but even through highlights and stories…he’s just not a player that I loved. He will be that guy for some older fans who remember him as the last QB to bring a title to Philly.
_
Brian Mitchell, by virtue of being the greatest return man in the history of the game and second to ONLY Jerry Rice in totaly yards, should be in the HOF.
Amazing that he can’t even get a sniff.
He’s also a really cool guy with whom I got to hang a few times while he was on the team as he was doing some promotional work fro the brother of a friend of mine.
But at least Morten Andersen got in, right?
Ha! You’d figure there’d be an even push for all types of special teamers…………..
Definitely should be. I mean Reno Mahe at least should scratch the bottom of ballots…
man you are one dumb human
you’re an Einstein. or an ishstain.
Garcia? Wow, I thought he was a diva who never took accountability for anything and actively worked to undermine McNabb. I remember a car commercial he did for a dealership on Roosevelt Blvd; a lot of the same artificial “emotion” was on display. He was a good promoter of himself.
OTOH, I loved Mitchell. One of the few who made ST on the edge of your seat fun.
Darwin Walker was one of my favorite fringe guys along with Hollis. Love Hollis.
Booooo
TO?
I agree about Garcia. He was fun to watch and did well when he took over, but I couldn’t believe how quick the fan base was to start clamoring for him over McNabb. Also, I seem to remember him underthrowing a receiver who was open deep for what would have been a long TD pass in the first half of that Saints playoff game and thinking that Mcnabb would not have missed the throw.
So Sixers just announced jersey #s for the two free agent signings. I am ecstatic that Reddic and Alshon are the same name numba. Similar top tier at their specialty free agents, both on one year deals. Both offensive studs. Fact that the # matches current year, just gold plated cherry on top.
Couple that w both Eagles and Sixers, in consecutive years compound trading up in draft for a top two pick to draft potentially special unique studs with one syllable names ending in “nt”..
Shhhhheeeeeiiiiiitttt… The symmetry gods are smiling on my two favorite Philly teams. Fo sho
Do what
??
Mitchell … Mitchell … Mitchell …
I remember reading somewhere that Buck did this an homage to Pat Summerall. I can still hear Summerall on a slant to Jerry Rice that was going for a long touchdown: “Rice…Rice…Rice…”
Having Madden and Summerall do an Eagles game was the ultimate sign of respect from CBS.
I remember early on Joe Buck saying in baseball games “that’s the end of the inning” in the middle of innings. It was a reoccurring issue for awhile. I didn’t think he would last long. Unfortunately we’ve had to endure his arrogant, unenthusiastic announcing for years now. Additionally, Fox inexplicably pair’s him with Aikeman, where they compete on air to see who is the most corpse- like.
Corpse-like is better than Collinsworth’s stories that go nowhere. I don’t want to hear about your fucking grandkids, Cris.
I couldn’t stand him when he first started either. He basically got laughed off the panel when he was on the Fox pregame show, but then as an announcer it was so obvious that he didn’t like the Eagles it seemed like he was enjoying if things didn’t go their way. Recently, I think he calls more of a “fair” game but that doesn’t make his voice less enjoying.
Some get cholera others get dysentery. Buck is virulently anti-Philadelphia across multiple sports and it comes across rather clearly. He’s also guilty of talking over Aikman, who I think happens to do a really good job analyzing games and is really fair to all 32 teams.
Collingsworth is every bit as brutal as you say. It seems in addition to his nonsensical story time that the game turns into a 3 hour infomercial for his fake “analytic” web site.
Favorite Eagle who mostly played somewhere else….Leonard Weaver. Loved watching that guy rumble. Still haven’t forgiven my father (Packer’s fan) for them ending his career. Weaver Fever, baby!
That might be the worst injury that I’ve seen on TV. At least in terms of permanency of the injury and importance of the player injured.
I thought for some reason you were writing an article on Mitch Williams- and I thought, “nope, not doing this to myself at 7:30 on a Sunday morning.”
I’m glad to see it was Brian Mitchell- weirdly, watched part of the 2001 playoff game vs the Bears last night; Mitch was returning kicks for us.
15 years later, we have another special player in Sproles. Glad both are/were part of this franchise.
Considering how badly the Buddy / Kotite teams sucked at special teams, we’ve really been lucky under the Reid / Chip / Pederson group to have such great special teams play. Outside of Reid letting the roster get all out of whack towards the end, we’ve generally killed it on special teams. The only time I can really remember being livid at special teams over the last block of time was when Akers shanked us out of the 2010 season playoffs vs. Green Bay.
Two muffed punts vs Green Bay. I was at that game. :-/
Didn’t Reid put Greg Lewis back to field the first one?
I thought Lewis muffed both of them before Reid finally put Westbrook back there to field one, but I could be misremembering.
You may be correct- but I think he put Mahe back there
That Akers one was tough, but if I remember correctly- he had found out the day before that his child could have cancer, or something horrible along those lines.
Not an excuse, and it turned out to be alright for his child- but clearly, he was a divided man that day.
Loved hearing “Green Acres” at the Linc every time he made a field goal.
Wild Thing was a huge part of the 93′ Phils success. That homer to Carter in the WS was not on Williams. It was obvious his arm was beat at that point. Fregosi had a responsibility to take him out.
Shady, MeSean, Jevon Kearse, yes Leonard Weaver,
No Derek Landri??? I don’t know who you are anymore Tommy
My god, Joe Buck is a human Quaalude. That was the worst play by play I’ve ever heard.
“Mitchell….Mitchell….Mitchell, Down to the 25”
Favorite Eagle that mostly played elsewhere: Darren Sproles.
Man, I did love me some Brain Mitchell. He was electric. I have some great memories of watching him.
Whenever he was lined up for a return, you knew to stay glued to the TV as he could take one to the house from anywhere on the field.
However, my favorite game that he played in was not when he was an Eagle.
It was when he was forced to play QB in the Body Bag game. Here a video of some Randall highlights and of course from the BBG. Enjoy.
game.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSfCbC6KKF8
EPIC game!
What you knew about Brian and know about Darren is that their first steps were/are straight ahead, or a fake first. It makes the most sense since the gunners are streaking down toward the returner from an angle for the most part. It’s like Brady stepping up in the pocket as it collapses on him. There are so many dancers who lose yards just futzing around.
Top NFL safeties of all time according to Gil Brandt, Dawkins comes in at #11:
http://www.nfl.com/photoessays/0ap3000000816254/gil-brandts-top-nfl-safeties-of-all-time
I don’t even know who half of the people on the list are, so I can’t comment on them, but he has Dawkins ahead of Rodney Harrison, Lynch, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, but behind Ed Reed, Polamalu, and Ronnie Lott. I guess I can’t take issue with that, but the real head scratcher is Eric Berry at #9??
Berry is a good player, but I wasn’t aware we were witnessing one of the ten best safeties to ever play the game.
Also, #1 was some guy named Emlen Tunnell who played in the 50’s. It’s difficulty to have opinions about players who retired 30~ years before you were born, so I guess I’ll trust Brandt on this one?
He does list super bowl championships under the achievements of the players though, which seems even less relevant a criteria for safeties than it does for quarterbacks.
It seems crazy to list Reed at #9 at this point. Dawkins should be ahead of him and also ahead of Polamalu, who was good, but extremely overrated because he played for Pittsburgh and had cool hair.
Oh this was my point exactly about Polamalu. I just hate the hype around that dude.
His Tackles list was almost all 5’11 230lbs dudes who played a billion years ago.
Did he list championships under his criteria for the tackles too? I bet he did.
One thing that always annoys me is how Polamalu gets so overrated. Of course he was very very good, but you get the very strong feeling that playing on an exiting Steelers team and having ridiculous hair is distorting people view of his onfield feats. On a list like that, he should be way further down. You can begin by putting him squarely behind Dawkins. Just look at their production for a second throughout their careers.
[…] It was fun to watch clips of the players and their returns, as well as looking up all the numbers. That’s what made me put up the post about Brian Mitchell on Saturday. […]
Also a fun player who spent the majority of his career elsewhere: William Fridge Perry
Great Article. Thanks Tommy.