PHLY Philadelphia Eagles Podcast - The Jeffrey Lurie Draft That Got The Eagles ROLLING | PHLY Eagles Podcast

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

The 1998 NFL Draft truly laid the groundwork for Andy Reid's early success, and on today's show Fran Duffy catches up with one of the architects of that draft class, Bryan Broaddus. Bryan shares stories from inside the draft room, the lead-up to the event after a disastrous season, the moment he was put in charge of the draft, and the selection of some of the franchise's top players in recent memory. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

from the Expinity Mobile Studio. It's the P.HLY Eagle Show presented by our friends over at Ashley. I am Fran Duffy. No Bo-Wolf today. No E.J. Smith today, but no worries. You still have me. And you're also, I'm very happy to be joined by Brian Broaddus.

This is a guy that I've had numerous conversations with, sometimes on camera, sometimes off camera. Every single time I walk away, Matt. Brian told some great stories there, and I'm so glad that we get to share some great ones here. And I'm excited to dive into some stuff here with you, Brian. We'll talk about the current state of the NFCs, but I want to get in some Eagles history stuff with you as well.

Oh, well, thank you, Fran. It's honestly a pleasure to be with you. Every time, you know, you reach out, I'm thinking, okay, how can I do this? How can I make this work? And I really appreciate you kind of working around my schedule to make it all happen. Well, I'm really excited for this because for those of you are not aware of Brian. He's a long time. It was here in Philadelphia, left here, went down to Dallas for a long time.

It was with the Dallas Cowboys, then went on. want to do some Dallas Cowboys content for Dallas Cowboys.com. Now doing stuff. And Kirkman wrong, Brian, you know, Ground Global Media was with 1053, the fan down there in Dallas as well. Anything else do you want to put up before we kind of get into the nitty-gritty? I'll tell you what. Yeah, Fran, we could go on all day.

You know, when you have a, when you have a child that goes to college, you take on about 17 jobs. So, yeah, we've, we're doing really well there. We got the Crown Global Media is stuff that we've, uh, uh, company that I've created here. Super proud of it. You know, we do a lot of stuff with draft. We are very Dallas Cowboy intensive, but we do a lot of things with team building, things like that, you know, but we do talk about other teams.

We'll break down the Eagles, going to break down the Giants and stuff, opponents and stuff, you know, weekly things. So, but really kind of if for Eagle fans out there, really our wheelhouse for you guys, would most likely be the stuff that we do, say, January 1st on with the draft. my partner and I, Vodge Lombardi, do a lot of work. We break down over 230 guys on a, you know, for the whole season. We have a lot of conversations. We get into fifth, six round guys.

So if you kind of want to learn about who your team, matter of fact, if you want to, if you're not really sure what you got in the draft, we've probably covered your Eagles draft. And you could go back on our YouTube page and go back and listen to what we were talking about with your players and stuff. So I'm very, very proud of that. proud of my work in 1053, 3, the fan. And again, proud to be with you here tonight.

All right. Well, let's get into your career with the Eagles as well. Take it through when you got hired and when you left. We'll hit on that before we get into like the really the meat of it. I want to talk about this 98 trap. But let's get into the, just like your timeline here in Philadelphia. Yeah, it was we'd won the Super Bowl in 96. I got my start on my 27th birthday in Green Bay with the Packers,

which was with the Packers five years, won the Super Bowl there with them in 96. And then, you know, was kind of dealing with, you know, some what do I want to do, you know, personnel-wise? Do I want to go on the road? Do I want to scout?

I was really, initially I was an in-house guy, coordinated where all our scouts went. The guys like John Dorsey, Scott McLuhan, you know, John Snyder. I mean, all these guys who are your general managers. Now, we were all came in the same. draft class. Matter of fact, John Snyder was my, the only intern I've ever had work for me was John Snyder. Now I call on my $3.5 million intern out there in Seattle. But yeah, we had a

really good scouting group. And for me to go, I wanted to go on and try and challenge myself in another way. You know, and I had a relationship with Ray Rhodes because of his time in Green Bay. And he was the head coach at the time in Philadelphia. I had a relationship with John Gruden. John and I are still close to this day. We've been together a couple of different places. And I was close to Mike Lombardi, who was working in the player personnel department at the time. Even though Dick Daniels was running it, it was kind of in a little bit of like a little bit of flux in which way that Jeff Fleury and Joe Banner wanted to go with it. So it was kind of a, it was a challenging when I made the determination when I was offered the job to come in and work.

And I was doing some stuff in doing some stuff in college scouting. I wasn't on the road or anything like that. But I was kind of in waiting. I was evaluating. I was doing a lot of things. And the first year was very, very difficult. And I say that in a way because Dick Daniels, who was the vice president of football operations at the time. And, you know, he wasn't too sure about me.

But he trusted Ray that, hey, bring this guy. he'll help us. Well, it just, the season was really, the season wasn't good. You know, we were, we had a losing season, you know, and then we were all trying to kind of figure out what, you know, what we were going to do in the off season. And so, you know, myself and Mike Lombardi, we kind of had an idea like we were dealing with Jeff Lurie, Joe Banner,

and, you know, and Dick Daniels was dealing with the coach. I mean, we were just, it was a mess. It really honestly was a mess. And so, Dick was relieved of his job. And when that happened, Jeff Lurie came to Mike Lombardi and myself and said, well, you guys are going to run the draft.

Mike was doing pro personnel stuff. I was doing college stuff. Had a bunch of scouts quit. Like scouts, there are guys that were working for Dick Daniels that didn't want to work for me or didn't want to work with me. I had Mark Ross, young scout, Mark Ross, want to be a general manager with him. Very first job he ever had was working with me there.

And it was him. Dan Shanker was a scout that stayed. Our lots, yep. Yeah, and Jake Hollum stay. That was it. That's, that's, it was us three, you know, well, us four putting together the draft board. And really the problem I went through, Fran, you know, the whole season, I did not talk to the defensive coaches at all. Defensive coaches wanted nothing to do with me.

So I felt outside, you know, and I just, I remember going to Emmett Thomas at the time. And I said, Emmett, if we're going to do any good in this draft, I'm going to need your help. I really am. And that's the first time that I really talked to him all season because they were very loyal to Dick Daniels. And they wanted nothing to do with me, not a damn thing. Even though you had a relationship with Ray, with Ray Roots. They didn't care. They didn't care.

Joe Witt, Mike Turgivac, all those guys wanted nothing to do with me. And it was really, really difficult because putting in charge of the draft, I was like, I can't pick these players if you don't tell me what type of players you want. Yeah, sure. And so, you know, I'd had a great relationship with the coaches in Green Bay. All our scouts did. It was a way that we built the boards and, you know, a way we built our team up. And I knew I had to try and do the same thing in Philadelphia.

you, you know, trying to help, you know, with the draft. And so I was, I just went to Emmett and I said, you got to help me. I mean, you got, you know, and he looked at me and he's like, okay, we'll work with you. You know, and then from that point on, it was, you know, that was, but I went a whole entire, I went a whole entire football season without ever being acknowledged by a defensive coach. I'd go in the practice field. I'd watch practice. No one would say a word to me. I would stand there and it was difficult.

It was really difficult because I was so used to having interaction. But we got the draft run. I lost all those scouts because they didn't want to work with me. But Mark did a hell of a job. Dan did a hell of a job. Jake did a hell of a job. And those coaches came around. And I give Jeff Lurie a lot of credit because Jeff Lurie allowed me to do some things

that weren't probably, you know, he was thinking, well, we could do, Jeremiah Trotter. The Jeremiah Trotter pick was all really Jeff Lurie. It was, you know, and Jeremiah Trotter had a knee issue. And we're sitting there. And I know the doctors at the time in Philly, we were like, doctor told me, I goes, we can't, I don't know if this guy's going to play 10 years or 10 games. I can't tell you that right now. And to Mr. Lurie's credit, he said, listen, Brian, if we think this much of this player,

let's draft him. Let's do it. So there was times, like I say, he fought me on Randy Moss. He wanted nothing to do with Randy Moss. And, you know, that was a decision. And he said to me, and he was very honest with this. He says, Brian, I do not feel comfortable. You know, I think we had the 11th pick.

11th pick. 11th pick. Yeah. The 11th pick. And so, you know, we had a chance to draft Randy Moss. We absolutely had a chance to draft Randy Moss. And he was our number one receiver on our board. And we knew all about the talent.

We knew all the stories. Butchie did a great job with all the security stuff, helping us out, you know, giving us the backgrounds and things like that. Mr. Lurie came in and said, he told me pre-draft or before the draft, he says, listen, Brian, just don't feel comfortable drafting Randy Moss. I just don't. And I said, Mr. Lurie, that's fine. And Jeff Lurie, to his credit, again, told me, he said, look, if Randy Moss turns out to be a hell of a player, I'll wear that one. I'll wear it. And to this day, every time I've seen Mr. Lurie, he's reminded me about Randy Moss.

He said, man, he said, but it was a long time ago, but Jeff Lurie, Joe Banner, those guys, they gave us a lot of rope to be able to do what we did. We just, unfortunately, though, we didn't get to finish the job because Tom Donahoe came in after. We did the 98 draft. We actually, Mike and I pushed, there were two things we pushed really, really hard. hard for outside the personnel stuff and we pushed really hard we were John Gruden was leaving to go to the Raiders and we pushed really hard I'd worked with Andy Reed and Green Bay and I was neighbors with Andy Reed and I knew Andy Reid and I was real close to Andy and we were trying to hire him

as a coach as the offensive coordinator and the Packers wouldn't let him interview that's the time where you can block coaches and all that stuff so but we did the leg work on that you know I mean we pushed, we pushed, we pushed, you know, and then it's funny when Mike and I left, who did they hire? They hired Andy Reid. So, you know, it kind of worked out nice. They got the right coach. I think he was there for 14 years where he, and so it worked out.

And another one, Michael Lombardi hired John Harbaugh. He got John Harbaugh from the college ranks. And John was our, was our special teams coach. And, you know, and got him started. So he identified, we were identifying the right coaches. But I'd say, Mr. Lurie, Joe Banner, they made the determination. They were thinking about the Packers way of doing things. And then it shifted to the Pittsburgh Steelers way of doing things.

And that's why Tom Donahoe got the job. At the time, I had somebody on Donahoe's staff tell me that at Philly in that 98 draft, he said, you just had the worst draft in the history of the National Football League. And I named the scout, he's no learner with it. this guy named John Goller. John Goller was director of college scouting with the, with the Eagles, for Donahoe. Came from Indianapolis. Goller told me, he goes, you used to have the worst draft in the history of the National Football League.

I looked at Goller and I said, you think you want to give that thing a couple years? He goes, oh, no, I know, I know. You had the worst draft. I'm like, okay, I guess we'll see. You know, and that was kind of my final goodbye, you know, after giving Mrs. Lurie a hug and saying, thank you for giving me an opportunity. We moved on. And, you know, and I look back at Philly.

It's funny, I went at the Super Bowl, you know, drafted, we drafted, I say I, we drafted Ike Reese. Yep. And now Ike Reese is doing radio. We traded for Hugh Douglas. Hugh Douglas is doing radio. So it was like one of those things where, you know, we, we did what we had to do to kind of, and then Andy came in and got Donna McNabb.

And they started really kind of getting it together. And it was a, you know, I thought. felt like that we kind of laid the foundation for those teams that had some success in the early 2000s, just by the drafts that we had. But I would have given anything to have stayed on board and seen this thing through. But again, I went up to Ike Reese. I said, hey, I just want to introduce myself. I'm Brian Broaddus. I drafted you in Philadelphia.

I'm sorry. I never got to say, you know, thank you for all you did. And he's like, come here, man. Give me a hug. Come here. Come here. Yeah. I know.

I know. I would react to that way. And Hugh Douglas. Hughes, the same way. I went up to Hugh Douglas. I said, hey, I was on the staff that traded for you from Philadelphia, you know. And it was really a funny, real quick story. I know I'm talking a lot, Fran.

I apologize. This is why you're here. Thank you. But, but, yeah, so we're sitting there. And, and Mike LaBardi walks into my office there at the vet. and he goes hey he goes we have a chance to get Hugh Douglas I say what do we have to give up he's a second round pick I said Parcells will give him for a two and he goes yeah I go Michael I don't have anybody on that board that's better than Hugh Douglas I just don't and if you want to move that

pick by all means move that pick and if it you know and sure enough like Parcells put us on a timeline he basically he he he said listen you guys got to till dinner. If you want to make this deal, you got till dinner. I'm going to dinner. When I come back, you either tell me you want this play or not. And we all were like, well, yeah, we'll take the players. So do you want to send the paperwork? How do you want to do this? So yeah, I was really fortunate and to be with some people. Like, again, I mentioned Mark Ross. I mentioned, you know, Dan Schenck. I mentioned Jay Collum. Thank you to Emmett Thomas for what he did for me, too. And then, you know, thanks to Michael Lombardi, but especially thanks to Jeff Lurie and

Joe Banner for having the faith that, you know, that was my 15 minutes of fame. That was it. You know, from that point on, I went on and never ever got another opportunity to do that again. But, man, it was a really, really cool time. Can I tell one real quick, quick, quick, quick story? I promise it'll be quick. One quick story.

We're getting ready to pick Trey Thomas, right? We're on the clock. And I'm sitting next to Christina Lurie. She's sitting right next to me. And so it's, it's, this Lurie, me, Mike LaBardi, Mr. Lurie Jovan. We're all sitting at Ray Roads. We're all sitting at this table. In the room there at the vet where it's pretty quiet, we're getting ready to pick.

You know, we're getting ready. We're getting ready to go on the clock. And this story leans over to me, goes, she goes, do you try the omelette station today? And I, and I, and everybody kind of went, was looking to her. And I go, ma'am, you know what I did? I didn't go for the omelet. I had the crepes. The crepes were excellent.

I don't know. Where did you get this guy? This guy, the way he was making it. And we were having this conversation. Her and I were getting, we're on the clock. You know, and everybody's just like,

like, you know, we know we're going to pick Tray Thomas, but everybody's kind of, it's that draft room, war room intensity, you know, and everybody's just kind of,

if the phone rings, people would jump and grab it, you know, and all that. And this is where I'm just having a conversation. and I'm just having a conversation about did you try the do you try the omit station? I said, man, the crapes. I tried the crepes.

They were really, really good. So she knew. She had a, I thought the world to her. I really, really did. She, she had this feeling about the right time to say things and do. And she was tough. I mean, tough as far as to deal with like business-wise. and stuff like that, but tough in a good way.

But man, get things done. That was her. That was my quick story there about that. And honestly, that story reminds me of that classic NFL films clip was Joe Montana in the huddle, the Super Bowl. Like, is that John Candy over there? Like, honestly, like, it's the, uh, bringing that levity to that situation. We knew, we knew we were going to take Trey Thomas.

We knew that. I mean, we'd done a lot of work on Trey. We will get into that because I want to ask you a lot about that Trey Thomas. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. But I'm sorry, I took 15 minutes of talking there. That's what I do for a living. You know that by now, right?

Well, that's why, like that, that's why you're here. I want to hear you talking to tell some of these stories. We are going to get into the Trey Thomas pick. Right here on the other side, we're going to get it to Jeremiah Trotter, some of the other aspects of this draft as well. Right here on the other side of this break. Mikey Lemon just signed a new contract this summer to keep him here in Philadelphia for up to five years.

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There were other options. I want to get into some of the other players that were kind of, you know, on the mind for you guys, you know, that you thought about taking with that selection. But when you look at this draft in 1998, it's remembered by a lot of people as like the Peyton Manning-Ryan Leaf draft, but yet two Hall of Famers go in the top four. where you had Peyton Manning and Charles Woodson go, first overall and fourth overall. You had, what was it, one, two, three. You had eight pro bowlers in the top 13, right? So it ended up being a strong draft at the very top.

You had Kyle Turley, you had Greg Ellis, who was a great player for the Calvillian. You know, Fred Taylor, Keith Brook and Keogh, Stikes. But what led you to Trey Thomas? What gave you the conviction there to take the left tackle from Florida State? Yeah, and it's funny you mentioned this, Fran, and the people that are watching, this was my actual board. from Philadelphia.

Look at this. This board, this was my board in Philadelphia that I actually drafted off of. I hope I'm doing a justice. The boards are coming. The boards have come a long way since that point. Yeah, this is my actual board. And you can see the highlighted ones, the highlighted guys are guys that got drafted. And if I can hold with my other hand down here, I'll hold it.

I see on the bottom quarter there you see Randy Moss off the board. Randi Moss off board, 21st pick, Minnesota. see that's phenomenal that's the the actual board that I used in to follow along the draft and when we went to when we our actual board that we had at the vet was this exact board and this was just the version of it that I that I used but you mentioned that number one player we had on the board was Wadsworth from Florida state that was our and that was the manning leaf draft and I'll give you another story real quick about that. if I could. Sean Peyton is to go get coffee coach, right? Sean Peyton is go get coffee coach. Well, I'm thinking, well, damn, Sean Peyton needs to do some evaluation here, you know, look, I'm like, so I gave him some quarterbacks. I gave him some quarterbacks. But Sean Peyton was, I mean, Liz, I'd say to go get coffee coach. He was really, he was, he'll admit it. He was the lowest player on the, he was the

lowest coach on the, on the staff. And, but super talented, man, you can tell. Being around him, you're like, man, this young guy, he knows what he's doing. So anyway, I give him these quarterbacks, and it's the Manning Leaf one. And he has, he says, listen, this is why I would take Manning. This is why I would take leave. If he gave me a choice to one of the other, I would take. So we're not, we're not going to get either one of those guys. I mean, it's going one, two.

And, you know, so we're not. But Sean, Sean's got it. I'm kidding. But Sean also looks at me and goes, he goes, hey, let me give you a guy though if we can get this guy if you can find a pick if you can find a pick in like the fifth round i like this guy this guy named matt hasselbeck at boston college and i said i said okay sean hey really appreciate you man thanks for you know and that draft had charlie batch and brian greasy and and sean was just adamant about about matt hassleback he goes man he goes there's this feeling i got about

this guy feeling I got and sure enough Matt has but played like 20 years. Sean, Sean was, Sean was really, really, really good at evaluating. Of course, just not that one time. I was with him later in Dallas. Right. I mean, there were times we had, I mean, there were, Sean is always, Sean's taking Bo Nicks and going to playoff games. You know what I'm saying?

I mean, Sean can evaluate quarterbacks. But, but yeah, that was a, that was a draft that we were, that we were really, we were really, focused in on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on we just knew we just knew we just knew with the current state of going through that 97 season the offensive line it just needed we needed a we needed a cornerstone player and you know dallas at eight as you mentioned took gregg eliz you know and so now you're sitting there and you're like okay well there They're drafting, you know, they're drafting these rush ends, you know, we got to find a way to block these guys. And, you know, within the divisions and stuff. And we just knew, we just knew that Trey was the right guy.

Now, we did a lot of digging on Trey. We did a lot of day. We had people down in Tallahassee that were digging on this one. You know, Mr. Leroy goes, do we have to really do? I'm like, Mr. Lurie, I'm about to spend millions of dollars of your money. Please, let me spend $25,000 to do this. he goes all right we're good so you know but that's that's we did but we we if you go back and look at it matter of fact i think the time the NFL was 15 minutes a pick or something like the first round

some crazy long number we handed in our card faster than anybody else in the draft we knew you know we let it we let like mrs lorry and i had a conversation about crapes and then we knew that was our guy but we it was it was clear that we needed to do something with the offensive line. What is it from a physical standpoint that like made you so convicted like, this is our guy? Yeah, it was, I think it was just the overall. When you watched Tray play, there was just so much. It's easy to say, oh, well, the guy's got power and he's a, you know, this guy was a power player, strong, athletic, you know, you just saw him in games where he was just a dominant player at his position, run or pass.

You know, just big body when he latched on to guys, he just would, he would block him off the screen. Like you'd be watching film and like, God, dang, he just took the guy completely. He'd be up on a lineback. Takes him completely off the screen. Takes an edge rusher. And he's like, widens the edge rusher.

But here's this big guy with incredible feet, incredible power, really outstanding length for the position. too. Just a complete package. You know, this Frandy, you do a lot with the drafts, so you understand this too. These drafts that we've had lately, there have been these tackles with this great length

and footwork and all. They might be, they might be really athletic, but not strong. And no, this guy had, this guy had it, had it all. I mean, if you look at it, it was that draft where we had him, there was, you know, you mentioned Kyle Turley was in that draft.

Yeah, we, we had, we had, we had Thomas ahead of Turley on our on our board. So yeah, it was it was never, there was never a doubt with the first offensive linemen and who it was going to be. And when we decided we made the determination, we were going that direction. We, we never looked back. Yeah, there's been a, there's been a lot reported and talked about with Jeffrey Lurie and how he's very invested in the draft process.

Like it was something that was a passion for him before NFL team. And so was that something that you felt? felt at that even at that time, you know, that he wanted to be involved. You felt a little bit different than what you'd experience seriously. Certainly in Green Bay where there was. Oh, no. I never, yeah. Bob Harlan, who was a club president, never, you know, Bob Harlan never ever questioned a pick that we made.

I mean, he just like, he was always very supportive. Jeff Lurray, the time I got to work with very supportive in the draft room for what we're doing. Now, I'll say this, there was a player at Penn State, Curtis Enis. You might remember the running back. Running back. And Mr. Lurie was like he walked up, he walked up to our board.

He walked up to the board and there at the vet. And he saw Curtis Enos Tegas tag. And we didn't have Curtis Enos as we liked, we liked Fred Taylor, Robert Edwards, Enis. We had Enis down the board. Yeah. And it was really, it was interesting because he was,

Mr. Lee gets that look on his face where he kind of goes, he's kind of, hmm, okay. So he sees, he sees the, he sees courtesy in his tag. And he goes, Brian,

you sure you guys are right about courtesyness? And it took every ounce of courage that I had. Yeah. I said, Mr. Lurie, yes, we are. We're absolutely.

Curtisinus, if you watch him play at Penn State, sir, he's a really big guy. He's already got a slow 40 time. He's a big guy. He's only going to get bigger. and he's only going to get slower.

That's not going to help us. Getting bigger and getting slower is not going to be what we need in Philadelphia. And he kind of goes, hmm, okay, all right. But you, I hate to say this to the crowd, but you couldn't have driven a nail up my butt. That was that. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be that graphic. But you literally, when he asked me, because I knew that he liked Curtisinas, I knew, but he wasn't forcing me to like Curtisiness.

You know, he was, he was talking about it in a way. And maybe he was talking to some other owners, you know, and, you know, sometimes these owners, they talk to other ones or the time. Maybe they know a guy or two in the league. And they're like, well, what about, what about, why do we not have this guy high enough? But yeah, the only Jeff Lurie was nothing but, and I'm saying this with all sincerity, because if he wasn't, I would tell you this. I would be honest because it happened a long time ago.

He was nothing but supportive for what we were trying to do. His wishes about Randy Moss, I totally understood it. You know, I'm going to say this. What happened with the Randy Moss thing, I think that helped him sign the quarterback from Atlanta from Michael Vic. Yeah. Yeah. I think that experience that go.

went through that kind of thing and it just happened later a little bit later life for him right a different deal but yeah but he he he he he he read the reports about randy moss but then you could see he treated he treated things a little bit differently when it came to michael vick and i think that i think he learned his lesson on that one he really really did but uh i have nothing but but nice things to say about about Jeff Lurie and what he did for us during the draft because he was actually a good he was a good resource

when it came to you know he's like hey if you want to do this do it don't look back do it and I appreciate that about it I would imagine that he was appreciative of the courage of your convictions right like you know just the and honestly a lot of the conversations I've had with whether it's like not necessarily owners

around the NFL but certainly with general manager decision makers is like you know if when they ask you about a player, they want your opinion. They want to just conform. They wouldn't be asking. So I kind of learned that after a few years of having those conversations. Yeah, that's the one thing about working with Dallas with Jerry Jones is when Jerry Jones ask you your opinion, you give your opinion and you live or die with it.

But they want to see people in those kinds of situations. They want to see how. how convicted you are into making that decision. All right. Well, we're going to get into a little bit more here on the other side. I want to ask you about a little bit more about Jeremiah Trotter Jr. I want to ask you about some of the other players in this draft and some other takeaways here. Also, we've got to talk about the current state of the NFC East.

That'll do it for the big takeaway presented by our friends at Xfinity. We're going to come back here on the other side. Like I said, we're going to talk through Jeremiah Trotter Jr. I want to follow up on the Hugh Douglas thing. We'll do more right here on the other side of this break. It's summertime, which means we are all just finding new ways to be, able to spend money. And we know that right now, everything is super expensive. Prices are sky high. So what I like is something that actually rewards the way that we spend our money. So if it's an

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You can wear them in hikes, concerts, on the boat, wherever. Shady Raise is eyewear that has your back. Go to ShadyR. and use code P-H-O-Y-S-R for 50% off two pairs of polarized sunglasses. Well, back here on the P-H-O-I Eagles podcast, excited to be joined again by Brian brought us. Brian, let's get into the Hugh Douglas trade. Now, you mentioned that you find out from Mike Lombardi that Bill Parcells might be willing to part with Hugh Douglas.

Pretty sure he will in defense rookie the year. Like, what was the year or two earlier than that, right? Yeah, sure did. Yeah. It was one of the better young defensive players of football, great pass rusher. The trade worked out great. Do you remember the player that the Jets took with the pick that you guys traded to them? It was another defensive end.

So it was a second round pick. It was another defensive end? Yes. Oh, Foley? Was it Foley? Oh, you know what? So, all right. So they actually traded this pick.

The Jets ended up trading this pick to the Steelers. Okay. All right. So they traded. Oh, so they traded down. All right. So the Steelers ended up taking a pass rusher in this spot. They took Jeremy Statt from Arizona State, which means that the Steelers or the Jets ended up taking, one sec.

Look through this. Here it is. They ended up taking a pass rusher as well. Dorian Boos from Washington State. I think that was one that Bill Parcells would like to have back. Well, we just, okay, I'm looking at my board, a Philly board. We traded, we traded, we traded Hugh Douglas. for a sixth round play.

They got a sixth round player on our board, and we got, and we got Hugh Douglas. I'd say I won that trade. I'd say we won that trade. Hang on, I got to show you something here. I got pictures and everything.

That's me and Parcells. There you go. I won that trade. I won that trade, Bill. That's you and I. We won that one. What got you so excited about Hugh? And obviously he turned into a phenomenal player for the Eagles for so long.

What made him the player that he was? Mike, I tell you what? Mike Lombardi, I got to give Mike full credit for this one, too, because we knew what Hugh Douglas was coming out of college. I remember, you know, within Green Bay and stuff, but we were, excuse me, we were, Michael is like, man, we need to get a little juice off the edge. We need to get a little, you know, I mean, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, we had good players. I mean, the whole thing with Mike Mamula and all that was just. just, you know, I mean, it was just, we're trying to. We were trying and we knew we needed the help.

And the thing with Hugh, Hugh just the way that he attacked blockers, the way that he played and the way that he kept blockers off him, the way he was able to extend, get rid of the quickness, Hugh never gave you any kind of hitting surface. He was always, he could get real small, get through cracks, get up field. He could run over you. he could get around you. He was always playing with his hands. The foot, the footwork, the ability to kind of,

like I say, get small and get through cracks and then, or chase the ball, make plays at the point of attack. He was really complete in a lot of ways. You were talking about, you know, Trey Thomas being a complete blocker.

Hugh Douglas was you could turn on tape and watching him beating up on NFL guys. And again, Parcell's, thanks, you know, helping, well, he helped the Eagles. Yeah. Me and Mike were, you know, like, we were watching from afar, like going,

damn, we didn't do a very bad job doing that building this football team, did we? But, but, but yeah, it, it was, it was, it was really, like I said, it was a no-brainer because I just, I didn't. I go, I go down this board. I look down that board on the second round and I'm thinking, okay, well, what kind of, what kind of edge rushers are. we talking about, you know, I'm talking about guys like Grant Wistram. That's the kind of, you know, if you're talking about, well, Grant Wistram or Hugh Douglas.

You know, what are you going to do? What are you going to do there? And so that's, that's kind of where we were at. We, the depth of that position wasn't really, you know, like how you thought, I mean, it might be. I mentioned Foley and mixed. There were some guys in that draft, but it wasn't like Hugh Douglas. And that made it really, really simple for us to have to have to navigate. Well, I will say that I was, at the time of the trade, I was 11 years old.

And I went on to my AOL instant messenger coming out a few years later. My AOL screen name was Eagle Fan 53, 53 for Hugh Douglas. Hugh Douglas. One of my favorite players. So the younger version of myself, thanks you for Mike Lombardi. Well, yeah, hey, thank, thank Jeff Lurie and thank Mike Lombardi because they definitely had the vision for the player. And, you know, with the scheme fits and stuff like that, I mean, they did a great job. And once we were, once we were gone, they did a great job with the player, Andy and the staff, man.

They, Jim John, with Jim Johnson, would that would have been that back then, man. I mean, so that they had a really, really good plan for the, for the point. Well, you had a lynch pin on offense with Trey Thomas. You had a linchpin on defense with Hugh Douglas. And you could do it again on that side of the ball with Jeremiah Trotter in the third round. And you alluded to it earlier. There were questions about the knee. If he was, if he had a clean bill of health, where do you guys think he would have ended up in that draft?

And, you know, how worried were you when you did make that day? Well, like, we had, we had, we had, uh, Ticchio spikes. was our number one linebacker, our number one inside linebacker. And then Jeremiah Trotter was, was number two. And then, so we,

we, we had, we had an idea. I was, I'll tell you what, Fran, I was doing my best to try and put him on the board

where I wanted to take him. And I know that sounds funny to say, but I didn't want Mark Ross and I didn't want Dan Shanka. and I didn't want anybody to, I mean, I'm a Texan. I'm a Dallas Texas. I'm sorry, folks from Philadelphia. By the way, I can tell a real quick story.

Yeah. When I work for the Eagles, I never ever told anybody where I was from in Texas. I never did. People think, you're from Texas, right? Yeah, I would, uh, Waco, Austin. No one knows. Yeah. I never, I never, one day.

I never said one day that I was from Dallas, Texas. and and because I thought, man, I'm not going to be that guy. I'm not going to be that. But anyway, but yeah, the thing with, you know, Jeremiah playing at Stephen up, Austin, I know the school well, you know, I mean, it's, it was a smaller school, but man, those kids down there in South Texas are so tough, physically tough, middlely tough. Work out in the summer and heat and humidity and just, just old school.

drink, you know, and that's what Jeremiah Trotter was. He was a man's man when it came to. You're watching him and, you know, Stephen F. Austin, the competition level is not Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State and, you know, LSU and all these places. It's, it's a lower level, but he was such a dominant player. And so it was really the only thing that I was worried about was the doctor. the only thing I was worried about. And again, thank God for Jeff Lurie because Jeff Lurie, he gave me the confidence to like, listen, if we like this guy, let's take him.

Let's not mess around here. Let's, you know, and I'm like, well, you know, Mr. Lurie, he's got a knee, you know, the doctors are saying this, doctors are saying that. And he goes, we, let's take him. This right here is fine. This is good, good spot. Good spot to take him. And I'm like, to this day, man, I mean, Jeremiah Trotter, you got to go up and give Jeffrey Lurie a hug because he is one of the reasons why you had the career you had in Philadelphia. Now, he had the career in Philadelphia because he's just a badass.

But Jeff Lurray, it's fun to see his kids play now. Yeah. It's fun. It's fun to see the kids. And like the last couple of drafts, we've had a Trotter involved in a draft. I'll tell you that kid, the kid of Clemson's a little bit smaller guy. Yep. The one at Missouri is like the old man.

Yeah. The one of Missouri. No question. I was, I made a comment. This is going to sound terrible. The one in Clemson's probably like his mom. And the one that went to Missouri was like his dad. They're really good players, though.

The Trotters are, they're good players. Don't get me wrong. But they're physically, they're different. The other son that was just in the draft, he's, he's built a little bit more like his dad, that thick, big kind of guy. You know, and Junior, we were talking about on the show earlier this week. Has that had a nice spring. So we'll see if he did carve out a roll for himself.

You know, like I can say, I am, I am totally pulling for the Trotter kids. I'm pulling for all those kids that like that I scouted their dads, you know, and then I, you know, it makes you feel kind of old in a way. Sure. But it also makes you appreciate life. like, damn, that Marvin Harrison can have a kid to play wide receiver like that. That's impressive, you know, but it's, it's crazy that it's happening like so fast. You're like, yeah, I remember like when Saniel Jr. is coming on.

It's like, are you kidding? Like his dad was just playing here like, you know, like six years ago. But we have a, we have a bunch of those like Drake, Drake, Patrick Jr., you know, Chris Henry Jr. Like, Winfield. I remember Winfield. Antoine Winfield. I remember his dad at Ohio State and his dad playing at Minnesota Vice. Vikings. His dad was a mean

SOB too, you know, and then you watch his son play and you're like, okay, I see, I see, I see what's going on here. I do. Let me ask you quickly about Alan Rossum, the other third round pick there. Yeah, he ended up having a pretty long career in the NFL. He played for over

a decade, a lot of it's special teams. But what did you see? Yeah, that was to me when we were, when we, with Alan, we were hopeful that we were going to get some nickel stuff from him. You know, we're hopeful. He was a little bit smaller guy, but what, where Alan Rosson was really good was as a returner.

Yep. And we were trying to kind of figure out, well, maybe we get a nickel player. You know, maybe we get a, if we get a nickel player that plays, okay, but we get a big time returner, then that's kind of where we were, we were trying to go that route. I was, you know, I was, that was one of those where, uh, as a group is collectively, we were, we were really, we were really excited about, you know, having, you know, having Allen play for us. I mean, we were excited when he was on the board there, you know, we were, we had a vision for the player, but we thought it, we thought it was going to be more of a special team's role than it was going to be. And it might be, you know, it might be a little bit rich to draft in where we did.

but we're like, I remember sitting there thinking, and we've done so much work on him, I didn't want to lose the player. I didn't want all of a sudden, we're like passing the guy, and then all of a sudden, someone takes him, and then we all look at each other,

and then I feel like I kind of let the team down. I let the scouts and the coaches down because we didn't take the player in the right spot. And I would have rather gone early on him than have gone late, and I think it worked out okay. It worked out fine, because I made this point about other players in the past, but if you spend a late third round pick on a player

and he sticks for multiple contracts as a backup, the guy played 12 years in the NFL. The first three picks, 12 years from Trey Thomas, 11 years from Trotter, 12 years from Rossum. Like, that's outstanding. Well, yeah, just real quick on the board here, you can see right there, as you're looking, okay, we had him there in the third round.

We had him in the third round on the special teams category. And Tim Dwight was underneath him from Iowa. Iowa. So we thought we had Rossum more in that special teams category. Again, that's on the far, as you see it right there, that's on the far right of my board. And I had him there in the third round or we had him there in the third round. And it was like, let's go get this guy. Let's, and I wanted to make sure, and I think as a staff, we wanted to make sure that's that we had him in the right spot. So when it came time for us to pick that we knew that we could go get that guy. We've got one more break. I want to ask you about one play, another former, another future pro bowler. Okay. And then another player who is a pivotal piece in a huge trade for the Eagles down the road. We'll get to that after this break.

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sponsors. Thank you. Wawa. I miss living at 17th in Kallow Hill. I miss that so much. I had the best Wawa. I missed the mac and cheese at the

Wawa. I used to go, I'd lead the vet. My son's favorite. Go down there. And I would always find a way to like, before I went into the, before I went into my apartment,

I'd go in the Wawa. There was always, I never, for a year, I didn't have anything in my refrigerator. I either lived at, I'd walk to all these places and eat. That's a great Philadelphia, great walking around eating place. I used to walk all over the place.

One time I was walking, and this guy goes, hey, hey, he's in that, you know, like in a stoop, you know, sitting there, you know, the t-shirt on. He goes, hey, you're that guy, you're Phil Martelli, or you're that guy that works for the Eagles. I go, I'm Phil Martelli. he goes, no, you're not, you're that guy from the Eagles. And I go, yes, sir, I am. And I stopped off. But yeah, I used to walk around all over.

I used to love to jog downtown Philly. I know it's got a crazy probably to say, but I used to love it just going all. I had a nice little route. But man, I miss my Wawa. I do. I really, really miss my Wawa. Those folks were super nice to me over there. Momentous occasion when I was working with the Eagles, when they put in a Wawa right over,

right over, right by the platform. bridge so it was literally like oh jeez yeah right over there uh because there was not one anywhere but in that vicinity uh before yeah all right so fourth round the eagles select a player uh brandon whiting uh defensive end who ends up being the only player that the eagles would have to send to the san francisco 49ers along with a fifth round pick in exchange for terrell owens i don't know if you uh if you do that but i yeah brand brandon way and brandon wading was a was a solid player for a long time here in Philly, a handful of years here with the Eagles. It's a strong side defensive end out of Cal.

But he was a he was the piece that the Eagles traded over to San Francisco. You know what? And I appreciate you, Fran. You're very kind to say a solid player. Had a lot of, had a lot of hope for him. I mean, had a lot of hope for him as that as a defensive end. And you mentioned solid. I, of the picks they were making, you're kind of, if you go back and you're

Like, you know, maybe you're sitting there after the draft and, you know, and you're, you're, you're just waiting for, you know, you're just kind of talking with the coaches and the scouts. You're looking at your board. You're like, who's the guy, who's the guy, you know, that you think? And we're all kind of looking at it. And like, I think, I, I, like, Brandon Whiting, man, Brandon Whiting. That's going to be the one that they're going to be talking about Brandon Whiting one day. They're going to be talking about that guy. Trust me.

They're going to, you know, and he, he was. He was solid. but he never was what like the other the contributors like ike ruse were and and and and and and and and and and rossum and what we did with hugh and thomas and trotter it just it was it was a it was a good it was good but man i just thought it was going to be i thought we stole one i really really thought we stole one and he was he was he was it was good But man, I was hoping it was going to be even better. And yeah, I didn't know he was part of the trade for that Owens trade worked out pretty good for Andy and you guys. For a year and change. For a year, we'll say. Yeah, that was.

That worked out. Worked out okay there for a little bit. So yeah, I think, I think the hope, I think the hope for, for Brandon Whiting was a lot more than really how it, how it went. And I don't mean any disrespect. I'm smart kid I guess cow football you kidding me come on you know I mean is this kid was really he was really athletic I just thought we were going to get a lot more out of that I really really did when I look back well you you talked about the selection of Ike Reese and catching up with him at the Super Bowl the Ripper I've talked with like about like his his journey from from college

to the NFL and like his you know the way he was utilized and some of you know like just his college career going into the pros and he was kind of like a hybrid player when he was coming out of Michigan State, right? What did you see from I crease when you made that pick? I'll tell you what, man, you saw a guy that was always around the ball. You saw a guy that was a violent tackler. You saw a guy that had a feel for how to find the football. He was one of those guys that was extremely aware. He didn't get fooled. He played at a very, very high level there in the Big Ten. He was, you know, the weather conditions were crummy at times, and he's playing some of his best football. You never questioned his toughness.

You never questioned his instincts. You never questioned his, like, this guy loved football. That's the biggest problem we have nowadays is evaluators. And you and I, when we do evaluations, we get to watch the film. But we don't get to talk to these coaches and trainers and equipment guys and gals. we don't get to talk to these, about these players. Like, who really loves football? You put on Ike Reese's tape, you could tell he loved playing football.

And he was going to do it at a very, very high level. And yeah, it was, it was one of those things, too, when we were going through the draft. And it was like almost a blinking light. And we got to that pick. And it's like the tags, where the tags were. And his was right there. And it's like, that's our guy. The draft gods are smart.

violent at us right now here, guys and gals. You know, guys and gals, I swear, the draft gods are smiling us. We're about to draft. We're drafted, but draft a really, really good football player. And we were super, super happy because everything about him screamed, I love playing football. You mentioned it earlier, the fact that, you know, I agree stuck around. It was, you know, has done work with the team and is, you know, put doing local radio here in Philadelphia.

Jeremiah Trotter said the same deal, like stayed in the area, did, work with the team very involved the organization. Trey Thomas involved the organization after football. You talk about Hugh Douglas, like his involvement with the organization after football. Like the four players, four of the top six players that you guys took in this draft are wired in this draft were like big part of the fabric of the organization. So she'd be very proud to me. I don't need to tell you.

It's just like awesome that you guys are able to do that. Consideringly, you guys were kind of like put on the spot to do that in kind of short order. I wish they would do a 30 for 30 on it. No, because it was, it was crazy. It was like, you know,

like me and Michael Lombardi, they hated us in the building and nobody would talk to us. And, you know, when we tried to talk to people, they wanted no part of us. And, you know,

Dick Daniels was like, you know, he was mad at me. And everybody was mad. Everybody was mad at each other. And we were trying. And, and,

you know, half the damn scouts. They quit. They just quit. They left. They said, no, we're not going to do this. We're loyal to Dick. We're not going to, you're not going to do, you know, we're not going to have you run the draft and be a part of this.

And that's cool, man. The guys had stayed, Mark Ross, Dan Shanka, Jake Hallam, God bless you guys. Because, you know, you guys were not, you were not afraid. Listen, I think Mark, Mark was just starting his career. So he didn't have a choice. Mark was true. But the older, if we had,

I'll tell you, we had some knock out, drag out fights about players, all while smelling like garlic crabs from chicky and Pete's while, you know, they bring in dinner and we're eating these garlic crabs and we're watching film and we're breaking down these players and stuff.

And, and literally just yelling at each other. No, man, but put on another game. You know, you were wrong yesterday. about and and I I can't tell you how much that helped me in life that those that to have that experience but like I said I'm so proud I'm so proud and I never got to see I mean I got to see

those guys perform and they perform for a long time but I never got to go into a locker room and shake their hand after a game and tell them nice job way to go to this day this day I've never talked to Trey Thomas. Never, never talked to him. But he was one of the most important players I ever drafted in my life or, you know, was part of the one of the most, because that was the, that was the one. And that was my, if that was my 15 minutes of fame, I'll match all those guys up that I had on this board, you know, with anybody else.

Because again, I felt like what we did was by getting the players, the base, and then going and getting Andy Reed, going, you know, that. That turned the franchise, I think turned the franchise around. It really gave it stability for all those years. And Andy and them did a great job of afterwards the right coaching staff, using the players, going and drafting players, signing players, Brian Westbrook. I mean, they finding guys. I mean, you know, they did a great job.

And that's why, you know, I felt like that we at least got that started for the Eagles. always, as much as being a Dallas Cowboy employee at one time and being a Dallas Cowboys fan all my life, I, you know, here I am. I helped the Philadelphia Eagles, but you know what, honestly, Fran, it was the best damn time. It was the best year I ever had in my life doing that. Because that was what it was all about, man, because we were struggling with eternally we were struggling, but man, we kind of put everything aside and was able to have it. And the Eagles, I think Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner and the city benefited from that first step.

Every time you say something, I get more questions popping in mind. I do have. Go ahead. I'm going to do it right now in overtime function around, you know, like basically like the lack of communication between both sides of the building and the scouts all leaving. do you feel like that the early stages of that for Jeffrey Larylary owned the team now at that point for a couple of years he was getting he had do you think that that kind of laid the groundwork for him I'm like all right like I know how I don't want

this to look and how I don't want this to exist like we're we're going to kind of start fresh and move forward here and that kind of also laid the groundwork for what has turned into one of the pinnacle franchises in football no question they're one of the franchises I think when you look at nowadays uh through his stewardship you look at what they've done, I think the front offices, when you start to talk about the best built teams, best front offices, the Rams, the Eagles, they are at the top of the list. No question. And I think Jeff Lurie is a big, big part of that.

I think he had a vision. You know, I think that when we, when I started with him, he had owned the team for about four years. I think he only started to own the team in 1994. Was it? Yeah, right? 94. 94. Was it 94?

96. Was it 94? I thought it would have been a couple years. Yeah. Yeah. So he, but yeah, he was really trying. And it's funny because when I've run into him at other times, and it's very, very quick. It's like, you know, he's at the cowboy game.

And I'm coming down the elevator. He's standing there on the field. I don't want to bother him, but I say something. I say hello and all that. And the things that he, you know, the things that we talk about is funny because he hired, Doug Peterson and I were together. in Philadelphia. Oh, excuse me, in Green Bay.

Doug was our quarterback during our Super Bowl team. And so Doug, we're at the Senior Bowl, and it's kind of a funny little story. Mr. Lurie is standing there with Doug Peterson, and I walk up, I walk up on him. And Doug has this look on his face like, please don't tell all the stories when you used to drive the quarterbacks around

when they were drunk. Doug Doug is just starting out And Doug had this look like Please don't come up here And tell about the time that Brett Farb threw up all over the suburban When we were when him and Jim McMahon I was an Uber driver for quarterbacks in Green Bay I was I would be sitting in my office at Lambeau Field

And we would like Brett Farb would come by and go Quarterbacks are going out tonight you're driving good deal. I got you covered. Some would say that that's as important of a job as what you did when you were here in Philly. I've had important jobs. I would say that was very important. But Doug Peterson was part of this.

So Doug, we go out and the quarterbacks would have a great time. Jim McMahon, great time. Doug, great time. Brett, great time. And then I'd get them home, you know. And then the next day they'd go out there spinning passes like they'd never add a beer in their life. It was amazing how these guys function. but I walked up on Doug and he had that look like,

please, Brian, don't tell stories on me. Don't tell stories. So I'm like, you know, Mr. Lee,

you hired a great one here. Yeah, so, but yeah, that's, that's the kind of thing I think with, with Jeff Lurrie. He seems to hire the right people.

You know, I mean, I know they're having a little bit of some with the offensive coordinator stuff and all that, but, you know, or the coaches change and all that. But overall,

that is a very well-run franchise. And it starts at the top. I admire them. I'm sitting here in Dallas, Texas right now. And I admire what that Howie and that crew does on a daily basis to make their football team better. And I think it starts at the top. You spent a lot of this century working with Dallas, you know, following Dallas. If you had to pick one guy, it was going to be tough.

but you had to pick one guy that you're, whether you're a Cowboys employee, cowboy supporter, Cowboys follower, whatever. It's Eagles Week. This guy is keeping you up at night. You're most worried about it. It's like,

you know, I'm doing my, my pro rapport, this is the guy I'm circling. Who is the one guy that had you the most worried? It doesn't need to be like over the course of, you know, 18 years, but it's like, man,

like this one season, this one guy, he was the one that sent the biggest shiver down my spine. That Brian Dawkins was, was an MFER. I'll say this. I'll say this. I'm very good friends with Darren Woodson.

And matter of fact, on the Doing All Right podcast tomorrow with myself in Vodzlin Barty on Crown Global Media. I know this does nothing for Philadelphia Eagles fans, but Darren Woodson will be our guest. And Darren Woodson is, you know, attempting to get into the Hall of Fame.

One of my favorite players I've ever evaluated. But with you, and I've been with three of the best. I've been with Darren Woodson. I've been with Brian Dawkins and I've been with Leroyd Butler. And if you had to the closest to Darren Woodson in my eyes was our guy, Hugh was our guy that I was just talking about there. Dawkins, yeah.

I mean, that, that's Dawkins was as tough. I, I love being around Brian Dawkins. I'll tell you I love being around Urban Fryer when I was there. I mean, but now, I mean, if you, if you, if you, I think Brian Dawkins could play in any era. I think Aaron Woodson could play in any era, you know, no face mask, face mask, doesn't matter. Whatever era you had to play, these guys were these hybrid tough, you know, nowadays we're talking about, you know, Caleb Downs gets picked by the Cowboys. Boys are a hybrid, you could play linebacker, you can play Slotty. That's what these guys could do.

And these guys were 20 years. had at the time is what they were. You know, there were, the guys like the Red Reeds and the Troy Palomalos and all that, what a great run, a great era for safeties. That damn Brian Dawkins, I swear to you, he was a problem, a problem when you watched him play. And I mean that in all respect, that like, wherever that number 20 is, we better figure it out. Because that guy is about to, now I was very blessed to be with Reggie White in Green, Day after after after uh and and i know the love that the fan base in Philadelphia have for reggie

white and folks you are not wrong you were not wrong if if you have in your mind who reggie white was as a person as a player double that more than that's that's what he was when he came to green bay we we had really in green bay we were trying to turn a program around we were trying to turn a program him around. And Reggie White, we said, we thought it was the cheddar biscuits. You know, they made it at the red lobster. They got it done there in Green Bay. We thought it was the cheddar biscuits.

But in actuality, it was the four years, $12 million contract that we gave him. And, you know, and we, we never dreamed. We never dreamed we were going to get Reggie White. Yeah. But, man, that just shows you what Philadelphia and some of the players that they've had through their history, the history of that organization. I mean, there's a lot of guys that kept you up at night. That damn Jerome Brown, you kidding me.

Yeah, but Brian Dawkins was one of those guys that I always, when you're watching and play, you're just going, God, that's a difference maker right there. I figured that would be the answer, but I felt the need to ask it regardless. Brian, I had questions about like the current state of the NFC and the Cowboys. Yeah, but honestly, this was. Everything that I would have hoped for. You were phenomenal.

And honestly, we'll do it again just to kind of like talk through the state of this team, maybe before the season starts. But thank you for joining us here. And honestly, like we've had versions of this conversation. It was good to be able to have this one unfiltered, I will say. Oh, thank you. I appreciate. No, I appreciate Fran.

You and Lindsay, thank you again for making time on our, for my schedule and to work around. I'd love to come back with you guys. Maybe there's during the season we could break down the game. and talk about what's good, what's bad with our football teams. But I thank you for again, allowing me to live that again. I really, yeah, this is my board from 1998 right there. That was in the war room right there at the vet. So, but again, thank you guys so much for giving me this platform.

It's awesome to be with you. Well, Brian, thanks so much for joining us here on the PHLY Eagles show. Look, next week for all of our viewers, for all of our listeners, we get started with the top 26 Eagles of the 2000s. So we've got our show that's, I believe, Lindsay, correct me if I'm wrong, debuts Monday. We're talking defense first and offense, myself, Bo Wolf, Tim McManus from ESPN, and Cous Anthony Gargano, we're going to be breaking down.

We're going to start the conversation on the top Eagles of the century. So this was a nice little precursor to that, the draft that really laid the groundwork for some of these great Eagles teams. Brian, thanks so much for joining us. for everybody here thanks to Lindsay thanks to Bo who's out thanks to EJ who's out I'm always going to say thank you to those guys thanks to all of you out there we will catch you next week and as always we love you like the mayor