Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles, one the prominent American football teams, that plays in the top flight of the American professional football, achieved more in pre-NFL merger than post-merger, 3 versus just one in the post-NFL-AFL merger. Currently, the Eagles are placed in the NFC’s East division. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, their current home ground is the Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia. They won 2017 Super Bowl out of 3 appearances and 3 NFL league championships during the Pre AFL-NFL merger; they also won 4 conference championships and 13 divisional titles.

Current Team Roster

Quarterbacks: Luis Perez, Carson Wentz (11)

Running backs: Josh Adams (33), Corey Clement (30 ), Jordan Howard (24), Donnel Pumphrey (35), Boston Scott (49 ), Wendell Smallwood (28)

Wide receivers: Nelson Agholor (13), Carlton Agudosi,Shelton Gibson (18), Mack Hollins,Johnny Holton, DeSean Jackson (10), Alshon Jeffery (17), Charles Johnson,Marken Michel, Braxton Miller (89), Darren Miller (84), Greg Ward Jr.

Tight ends: Zach Ertz (86), Dallas Goedert (88), Joshua Perkins (83), Richard Rodgers (82), Will Tye (85)

Offensive linemen: Brandon Brooks G (79), Tyreek Burwell ( T ), Anthony Fabiano (C, 63), Kaleb Johnson (G ,No. 78), Lane Johnson ( T, 65), Jason Kelce (C, 62), Jordan Mailata (T, 68 ), Jason Peters (T, 71), Matt Pryor (G, 69), Isaac Seumalo (G, 73), Halapoulivaati Vaitai (T, 72)

Defensive linemen: Derek Barnett (DE, 96), Fletcher Cox (DT, 91), Vinny Curry (DE), Brandon Graham (DE , 55 ), Daeshon Hall (DE, 74), Bruce Hector (DT, 98), Treyvon Hester (DT, 90), Malik Jackson (DT), Chris Long (DE, 56), Joe Ostman (DE, 95), Josh Sweat (DE, 75)

Linebackers: Asantay Brown (LB, 52), B. J. Bello (OLB, 59), Nigel Bradham (OLB, 53), L. J. Fort (MLB), Nathan Gerry (OLB, 47 ), Kamu Grugier-Hill (OLB, 54 ), Alex Singleton ( LB), Paul Worrilow (OLB, 51 )

Defensive backs: Ronald Darby (CB, 21), Rasul Douglas (CB, 32), Deiondre’ Hall (FS, 36), Josh Hawkins (CB, 48), Malcolm Jenkins (SS, 27 ), Sidney Jones(CB, 22), Cre’Von LeBlanc (CB, 34), Avonte Maddox (CB, 29), Mercy Maston (CB), Jeremiah McKinnon (CB, 38), Rodney McLeod (FS, 23), Jalen Mills (CB, 31), Andrew Sendejo (SS), Chandon Sullivan (CB, 39 ), Tre Sullivan (S, 37), Rick Lovato(LS, 45)

Summary of History

Formed by taking over the bankrupt remains of the Frankford Yellow Jackets franchise for only $2500, in 1933, by Bert Bell and Lud Wray, where Bell being the key and dominating partner. Upon formation, Bell became their first president and Lud Wary their head coach, who coached them until 1935.The Eagles played their first ever match on 15th October 1933 with New York Giants.

Their enthusiastic owner Bell (1936–1940) succeeded as the franchise’s second head coach, who has the worst record for an Eagles coach of record 0.196 winning percentage. In 1940 Eagle’s half ownership of Lud Wray’s was sold to Art Rooney and later the Steelers Brand was swapped for the Eagles brand. In this case, only the brands were being swapped not the teams, resulted in Alexis Thompson (1941–1949) ending up with the ownership of the Eagles. Until Greasy Neale held the helm of the team in 1941 and before 1943, their record was nothing but a streak of losses. Greasy Neale was appointed Eagle’s head coach by Alexis Thompson. Neale did remarkably better than his predecessors and many more yet to come; though many of his successors might have better statistics but considering what he had in hand, the situation the team went through, the player scarcity during the ww2 period due to the military draft and team just rebranded and swapped. Neale had 7 winning seasons, reached NFL championship game but lost to the Cardinals by 21–28 before the season’s divisional championship and finally back-to-back 1948 and ’49 NFL championship titles. Some quite outstanding players played under Neale, like Steve Van Buren, Alex Wojciechowicz, end Pete Pihos, Chuck Bednarik and Tommy Thompson.

The post-Neale 1950s Eagle couldn’t hold on to the team’s level of performance, the decade was a mixed one and supervised by 5 different coaches. In 1960, the Eagles won another NFL title and conference championship under the guidance of Buck Shaw. The following year the Eagles placed 2nd in their division with a 10-4 season record. In 1963, Jerry Wolman bought the injury and inner turmoil-ridden club from the ‘Happy Hundred’ and appointed Joe Kuharich in 1964 as head coach for a 15-year contract. Wolman couldn’t retain his ownership for much longer, as his investment was diversified over many kinds of sports teams. Finally, Wolman sold the Eagles to Leonard Tose in 1969. Upon assuming the ownership Wolman immediately replaced Joe Kuharich with Jerry Williams. Upon the AFL-NFL merger the Eagles were settled in the NFC East division with the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. The Eagles didn’t get a berth in the playoffs apart from 1960 appearance, which was their last for the next 18 years, a mediocre and dismal performance by a then 3 times NFL champion.

In 1971, the Eagles moved to the Veterans Stadium. Before the appointment of Dick Vermeil in1976–1982 the team seemed to unable to find their way toward major or at least respectable successes. Before Vermil, in the 70s the club was guided by 3 different head coaches, Jerry Williams (7–22–2), Ed Khayat (8-15-2), and Mike McCormack (16-25-1). Dick Vermeil was able to spread his enthusiasm contagiously among his fellow disciples, the young ones began delivering, for example, Wilbert Montgomery got passed the 1000 yards, not only that in the most other fields like passing, defense, etc. they began earning reputations. In his third season, 1978, the Eagles berthed the playoffs and succeeded to manage 4 successive seasons’ playoff berths up to 1981. They won the divisional and conference titles but lost their Super Bowl matchup against the Raiders 10-27. Though in the next season they did manage a playoff berth but eventually knocked out of it and in 1982 they had a losing regular season of 3-6 resulting in a disappointing coach, Vermeil, to quit the team. In 1985, Norman Braman bought the Eagles for $65 million and prior to commencing the season they signed two key players quarterback Randall Cunningham and Reggie White and in 1986 appointed Buddy Ryan, who rejuvenated the team and adopted more defensive play. The Eagles did manage three successive seasons (1988 to 1990) berth in the playoffs but didn’t manage to move ahead except 1988, when they won the divisional championships. The Eagles did better in the first part of the 90s, berthed the playoffs in 1992, 1995, 1996, but the later 90s they performed dismally and In 1994 the ownership changed hand to Jeffrey Lurie.

In 1999, Andy Reid was appointed their new head coach, with a record 130-93-1 and winning 0.583, Reid managed to bring the team on winning track again, swapped the aging veterans for new ones, which in the long run proved to be a right decision, Between 2000-10 the Eagles got 9 playoff berths, Lost the Super Bowl XXXIX to the Patriots in 2004, won 2004 NFC conference championships and won 6 divisional titles, 2001 to 2004, 2006 and 2010. Chip Kelly (2013-15) succeeded Reid, also had a winning percentage of over 0.5 and won the divisional title in his opening season with the Eagles. Finally, under Doug Pederson, the Eagles won their ever-elusive Super Bowl LII in 2017 season by beating the mighty Patriots by 41-33 and along the way to their Super Bowl victory they also won their divisional and conference titles. The following 2018 the Eagles performed averagely, a 9-7 regular.

Championships of Philadelphia Eagles

League championships (4)
NFL (pre-AFL–NFL merger): 1948, 1949, 1960
Super Bowl: LII (2017)

Conference titles (4):
NFL Eastern: 1960
NFC: 1980, 2004, 2017

Divisional championships (13):
NFL East: 1947, 1948, 1949
NFC East: 1980, 1988, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2017

Most Notable Players

With the Eagles, over its long history, many distinguished players played in the team, among some few standing out players are:

Sources :
https://www.profootballhof.com/teams/philadelphia-eagles/team-history/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philadelphia-Eagles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Eagles