The starting defensive tackle for the Colts suffered fractures to his nose and the orbital bone near his left eye. His season was over, but Reagor was lucky to be alive.
Last week, the Eagles signed the 29-year-old to a three-year contract worth nearly $6.5 million. Dungy said that Reagor likely needed to get his weight down, but that the Eagles had gotten a good player.
"He's got the drive to come back, and the doctors have cleared him to go ahead and go to work," Dungy said. "I'm hoping we'll see something special, because he's a unique guy.
"We were all so sad at how that all turned out, but he hung with us down the stretch and really helped us. You just don't know. I don't know . . . what kind of history we have with people coming back from something like that."
In 2004 and '05, Reagor had 101/2 sacks and pressured the quarterback 51 times. At a news conference last week, he said he had full vision in his left eye even though it was swollen because of cosmetic surgery.
New rules. Yesterday at the NFL meetings, owners voted, 30-2, to make instant replay a permanent part of the game. As a result, teams must spend as much as $300,000 upgrading to high-definition replay equipment.
The owners unanimously passed a rule granting a second interview window for assistant coaches vying for head-coaching jobs during the playoffs. The new window is during the off week before the Super Bowl.
Surprisingly, the owners shot down a rule that would have allowed one defensive player on each team to wear a device in his helmet during games to communicate with coaches on the sideline. Ten teams voted against the change.
