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 WILL retire Brian Dawkins' No. 20 jersey at a ceremony on Sunday night when they play the rival New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field. The safety played 16 years in the NFL, the first 13 years with the Eagles. He was a second-round pick of the Eagles in the 1996 draft. He played college ball at Clemson. He was not re-signed by the Eagles after the 2008 season. On Feb. 28, 2009, Dawkins signed a 5-year, $17 million contract with the Denver Broncos. Former Eagles president Joe Banner said the handling of Dawkins was one of his biggest regrets.

Former Eagles Pro Bowl safety Brian Dawkins will join ESPN as an NFL analyst, the network will announce on Wednesday. Dawkins, a nine-time Pro Bowler and a fan favorite with the Eagles, will appear on studio programs throughout the year, such as SportsCenter, NFL Live, Audibles and NFL32 . He makes his debut on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m., when he will appear alongside former NFL standouts Jerry Rice, Keyshawn Johnson and Marcellus Wiley on Audibles . Dawkins spent 13 years in Philadelphia and played in 18 playoff games, the most in team history.

DOVER, Del. - Brian Dawkins warmed up for his number retirement ceremony at Sunday night's Eagles-Giants game by serving as the AAA 400's grand marshal. Addressing the estimated crowd of 80,000 at Dover International Speedway, Dawkins pumped his right arm and said, "Can you feel that?" Then he offered "these inspirational words, drivers, start your engines!" Earlier, referring to the Dover race scene, Dawkins said, "I'm in awe. Seeing things from behind the scenes is a lot different from seeing it on TV. But some of the things that these guys have to go through and the mentality that they have to keep in order to represent their sponsors before the [race]

FROM HIS vantage point on the Eagles' sideline that Sunday at Three Rivers Stadium in 2000, Ike Reese could see the play unfold. A big hole opened up in the Pittsburgh offensive line and into it rumbled Jerome Bettis, the 5-11, 252-pound running back who was affectionately known as "The Bus. " Reese was certain Bettis would pick up 15 or 20 yards. But Brian Dawkins charged up from his safety position, launched into the air and stopped Bettis cold. Reese remembers that it was "one of the loudest hits I have ever heard.

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.

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.

Donovan McNabb said on his NBC Sports Radio show on Monday that he will officially retire as an Eagle this fall and that the team suggested he do it on Sept. 19 when former coach Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs visit Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles did not comment on the matter. Attempts to reach McNabb on Monday evening were unsuccessful. He first told a Syracuse radio station earlier in the day that he would retire as an Eagle, although that has always been the plan. The former Eagles quarterback has not played since 2011.

Earl Wolff already has mastered one aspect of winning the approval of Eagles fans. The safety cited the franchise's icon at that position as his inspiration. "Before I even started playing safety, I watched Brian Dawkins," said Wolff, the Eagles' fifth-round pick out of North Carolina State. "Once I made that move to safety, that's when I fell in love with him. Honestly, my first couple of years, that's what I watched before the games. I'd put on a Brian Dawkins highlight film, and now I'm here.

CHIP KELLY'S first game as Eagles coach will be on a Monday night. But his third game will be just as intriguing. The Eagles' 2013 schedule came out on Thursday and they'll kick things off with a visit to Washington on Monday, Sept. 9. Ten days later, former coach Andy Reid returns to Lincoln Financial Field when the Chiefs play the Birds. Here's a look at the Birds' 2013 slate. Week 1 - Monday, Sept. 9 at Washington, 7:10 p.m., ESPN All-time series: Washington leads, 81-71-6.

Philadelphia will be the site of the 2013 Beyond Sport Summit from Sept. 9 to 11, Mayor Nutter announced at City Hall on Wednesday. The Eagles, who won the Beyond Sport award in 2011 for their work in the community, will host the annual event for the global organization that promotes and funds sports as a vehicle for social change. "I think we're the greatest sports town in the United States of America, and we know that sport has a tremendous impact, especially on our young people," said Nutter, who was joined at the announcement by former Eagles safety Brian Dawkins and former 76ers center Dikembe Mutombo.

In 2004, the Eagles started Brian Dawkins and Michael Lewis at safety. Both reached the Pro Bowl. Both were also second-round picks - Dawkins in 1996, Lewis in 2002. Those picks were the highest the Eagles allocated on a safety since Jesse Campbell in 1991, and the Eagles' evaluations proved to be correct. Replacing them has been an ongoing issue. Other than Quintin Mikell, who was a four-year starter and one-time Pro Bowler, the position has been a revolving door in Philadelphia.

Players on the Eagles walk through a rotunda in the team's training facility every day, with motivational quotes encircling them as they pass. One is an anonymous quote about leadership, a topic that's become a popular discussion point during the Eagles' seven-game losing streak and leading into Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys. Before last week's loss to the Carolina Panthers, Troy Vincent identified locker-room leadership as the biggest difference between the good teams and bad teams he played on. One day later, Brian Dawkins said on ESPN that the Eagles' current plight would not have occurred on his teams because "of the character guys we had in our locker room, the leaders we had in our locker room, and the amount of the accountability that was there.

This story originally appeared in the Daily News on Sept. 10, 2008. We asked our writers who had covered Eagles-Cowboys games for their memories. THE STORY OF the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry has been told a thousand different ways since grudges and long memories began seeping into the bloodstream of this matchup between two lifetime members of the NFC East (and before that, the NFL Capitol Division). It's accepted that we get more whipped up about the series than the guys deep in the heart of Texas during the weeks that lead up to the two regular-season games.

Join the conversation after every Eagles game with the Daily News. Send reactions by email to bausmac@phillynews.com ; use the hashtag #eaglesaftermath on Twitter or visit the Daily News Facebook page and leave a comment. Here is a sampling of your comments after the Eagles' win over the Giants:   GRADE IT a W for Win, anything else is not acceptable. - Frank Hutton, commenting on Daily News' Facebook page   On a night to honor Weapon X, the Eagles played inspirational football.

MICHAEL VICK was pretty calm for a man who had just salvaged his reputation on national television. But then, this 19-17 victory over the New York Giants was the game Vick told us all week he was going to play - decisive, strong and turnover-free. "I take pride in protecting the ball and I always have," Vick said in a Lincoln Financial Field corridor after the Eagles' latest great escape. "I know the reasons why I turned the ball over," with six interceptions and three fumbles the first 3 weeks.

OF THE 69,144 "Cats" who incessantly chanted Brian Dawkins' name at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night, a few things can be said with much certainty: Not all of them will make it into work on time Monday morning and not all of them will make it into work at all. Of those who do, not all of them will be productive for their entire workday, and maybe some will even check out early. This does not mean they are bad people, any of them. It just means they are not Brian Dawkins.