Brian Dawkins

5 Brian Dawkins. A demon with a killer's instinct. That is Brian Dawkins. He has, as Bill Bergey described it, the entire package. "He's got a nose for the ball," Bergey said of the 12-year safety who was a second-round draft pick in 1996. "He breaks for the ball. He anticipates real well. I have watched Brian Dawkins for many years now. If I want to know where the ball is going, I watch Brian Dawkins. " Dawkins' resume is Hall of Fame worthy. Regular-season games played: 157. A franchise-record 15 playoff appearances, including eight wins.

The Eagles' football season, which kicks off tomorrow in Houston against the Texans, couldn't come soon enough for free safety and team leader Brian Dawkins. Now entering his 11th season with the Eagles, Dawkins has made no secret of his desire to rid himself of the aftertaste of a disappointing 6-10 year one season after the Eagles played in the Super Bowl. With five Pro Bowl selections on his resume and a contract extension through the 2008 season, Dawkins is thinking of nothing else but returning to the postseason, where he has been six times.

One reason Eagles coach Ray Rhodes asked some of the veteran players not to report early to training camp was so he could watch his rookies work with selected veterans before there's a logjam. Rhodes and defensive coordinator Emmitt Thomas had their eyes on safety Brian Dawkins yesterday in various drills, including 11 on 11. What they saw was a little speed, a lot of aggressiveness, and some anxiety. Though just 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds, Dawkins is a vicious hitter. But since no one was wearing pads, he was frustrated because he couldn't hit anyone.

YOU CAN REDUCE Brian Dawkins' career to numbers on a sheet of paper, if that is your preference: Pro Bowls (eight), sacks (26), interceptions (37), forced fumbles (37). For some, that undoubtedly is all he was. Even the people who saw him on television sometimes, while living in Yuma or Utah or the Yukon, and saw the way he could simultaneous unite one team while dismembering the other, did not entirely understand. You really did have to be here. As arguments go, it is kind of weak.

Donovan McNabb has spent the last couple of weeks telling anyone listening that he belongs in the Hall of Fame, and while he was at it, to take the time to discredit a couple of his contemporaries who have already made the Hall. A couple of days ago, when presented with the possibility that he might go to the Hall of Fame, Brian Dawkins got choked up. And therein lies the difference between an Eagles player universally accepted by the fans as one of their all-time favorites, and another who will forever be on the outside looking in. Brian Dawkins officially retired last week from the National Football League.

He is an amusement park on the football field. Brian Dawkins isn't just the roller coaster, he's all the other rides, too. The Eagles' free safety is a maze of fun and entertainment from the moment he steps out of the tunnel for pregame warm-ups to the moment he disappears into the locker room at the end of a game. He has more energy than the sun and an endless range of emotions. Last Sunday's ride at Lincoln Financial Field was a particularly thrilling one, and Dawkins no doubt will attempt an encore performance in tonight's NFC championship game against the Carolina Panthers.

Andy Reid said he still thinks the Eagles can win the Super Bowl, even without Brian Dawkins. "You can take the team we have today and go compete for a championship in the National Football League," the Eagles' coach said. "Now, you may have to move some people around to do some things there, and we have to get a little bit more depth at some positions, but with the people we have here, we know we can compete for a championship. " Reid's comments came during a discussion with an Eagles employee and were posted on the team's Web site yesterday.

The eager rookies who charged into the first day of full-squad, full-contact workouts have their careers ahead of them. The enthusiastic free agents who treated Day One like a starting gun have just weeks, or maybe days, to make the most of their opportunity. But neither group - nor anyone else in a green or white jersey yesterday at Eagles training camp ? seemed to seize the day like the 34-year-old safety with 12 NFL seasons and six Pro Bowl berths on his resume. "At times, I felt like I was a little too hyped up," Brian Dawkins said after the morning workout at Lehigh University.

The Eagles' defensive players have seen the horror flick. See Joe Run, starring Indianapolis rookie running back Joseph Addai, played in all the tiny theaters inside the NovaCare Complex earlier this week. It was even scarier than the previous week's feature film, Travis' Long Runs, starring Tennessee running back Travis Henry. A few weeks before that, it was Freddy Finds the End Zone, featuring Jacksonville's Fred Taylor, that frightened the Eagles' defenders into covering one eye as they watched the carnage.

The level of angst is always directly proportionate to the quality of the player. When quarterback Donovan McNabb goes down with an injury, there's a natural tendency among the inhabitants of Eagles Nation to dismiss the season as lost. We know from experience that the Eagles can survive, even thrive, without their franchise quarterback, but panic would no doubt set in again if McNabb went down this season. And what about the Eagles' six-time Pro Bowl safety and undeniable defensive leader?

BRIAN DAWKINS did not limp into retirement. There were lots of things the Eagles' all-time greatest safety expressed gratitude for Saturday at the NovaCare auditorium, and that accomplishment was near the top of the list. "I know I'm shedding tears because I'm thinking back and reminiscing, but this is a happy time for me. I chose to walk out the way that I'm walking out," Dawkins told a group that included about 15 former teammates, a bunch of Eagles employees from all levels of the organization, team chairman Jeffrey Lurie, dozens of reporters, fans from the season-ticket advisory board, his wife, Connie, and their four children.

Donovan McNabb has spent the last couple of weeks telling anyone listening that he belongs in the Hall of Fame, and while he was at it, to take the time to discredit a couple of his contemporaries who have already made the Hall. A couple of days ago, when presented with the possibility that he might go to the Hall of Fame, Brian Dawkins got choked up. And therein lies the difference between an Eagles player universally accepted by the fans as one of their all-time favorites, and another who will forever be on the outside looking in. Brian Dawkins officially retired last week from the National Football League.

Connie Dawkins didn't know what to expect. Her family was flying back to Philadelphia from Colorado for some sort of Saturday news conference at the NovaCare Complex, because her husband was retiring from football. They'd been in Denver three years. This seemed like a lot to go through just to pose for pictures and talk to reporters. "He's been gone for a while. I just said, 'I hope they haven't forgotten you.' We're in Denver, we don't hear the [Philadelphia] radio or see the papers," Connie said Saturday, after the Eagles announced they will retire Brian Dawkins' No. 20 in a Sept.

The first quarterback drafted by Andy Reid went down the corridor one way at the NovaCare Complex on Saturday as the most recent one was headed in the other direction. If Donovan McNabb took note of Nick Foles, a 6-foot-5 doorstop from Austin, Texas, and the University of Arizona, who is kind of hard to miss, that note went unrecorded. "I saw Donovan in the hallway but didn't have a chance to speak to him," Foles said. McNabb was in the building to lend his presence to the retirement news conference of Brian Dawkins.

Sometimes, coaches can exaggerate about players they've just drafted. But Andy Reid wasn't kidding when he said defensive end Vinny Curry "might be the biggest Eagles fan ever. " When the second-round pick from Neptune, N.J., met reporters Saturday, he displayed all the emotion, passion, sense of history and pride of the thousands he'll soon play in front of at the Linc. His eyes welled as he talked about meeting Brian Dawkins and Mike Vick. He name-checked Randall Cunningham and Troy Vincent, and insisted that it was Freddie Mitchell who originated the championship belt celebration.

Despite the open invitation, Brian Dawkins said he had not yet decided whether he would retire as an Eagle. It was almost as if he were saying to the Eagles: "You had your chance. " Yet Dawkins, 38, spoke with Philadelphia-area reporters during a conference call organized by the team and agreed to travel to the NovaCare Complex for a Saturday news conference, which showed that the wounds were healing. Dawkins, who announced his retirement from football earlier Monday, said there was "always going to be pain" over the end of his 13-year run with the Eagles when he departed for Denver via free agency three years ago. "You forgive and you forget or you forgive and you still remember and it does not hurt as bad as it did at the time because you're in the moment," Dawkins said.

YOU CAN REDUCE Brian Dawkins' career to numbers on a sheet of paper, if that is your preference: Pro Bowls (eight), sacks (26), interceptions (37), forced fumbles (37). For some, that undoubtedly is all he was. Even the people who saw him on television sometimes, while living in Yuma or Utah or the Yukon, and saw the way he could simultaneous unite one team while dismembering the other, did not entirely understand. You really did have to be here. As arguments go, it is kind of weak.

Here is a sampling of reaction to Brian Dawkins' announcement that he is retiring after 16 seasons in the NFL. NFL comissioner Roger Goodell: "Congrats Brian Dawkins on a successful 16-year career. Great player, great family. More importantly, great man in community and locker room. " Broncos head coach John Fox: "Brian Dawkins is one of the best to ever play the game, a future Hall of Famer who changed the way his position is played. In many ways, he helped my job as a coach with his great leadership and preparation.

DeMeco Ryans finally loosened the mint-green tie he had grabbed hastily to accent his green-checked shirt and navy suit before an unexpected flight to Philadelphia on March 21. His voice had gone dry and scratchy, despite swigs from a nearly empty water bottle that crinkled in his grip as the questions kept coming. On his first day as an Eagle on March 21, Ryans sat in the team's offices finishing the final round of a gauntlet of interviews with reporters and radio hosts.

The Eagles are deep at cornerback, need to upgrade at linebacker and should get younger on the defensive line. But what about at safety, where the directive is much less clear? For that answer look to Nate Allen. The Eagles, before they launch their plans at the position, must gauge their confidence in the third-year safety for next season. Do they believe in the Allen that aggressively made tackles all over the field at Buffalo and finished last season on the upswing?