Wilbert Montgomery

6 Wilbert Montgomery. It was the run. Jan. 11, 1981, Eagles vs. Cowboys, a berth in the Super Bowl on the line. On the Eagles' second offensive play, a woozy Ron Jaworski, fresh off a hammering from Randy White, handed off to Wilbert Montgomery, who ran left, then right, then straight through the frigid air into the end zone. Montgomery ran 42 yards, but the distance seemed so much greater. A sixth-round draft choice, Montgomery had been so painfully shy, so humble, so scared he wouldn't even make the Eagles team when he arrived as a rookie in 1977.

No fewer than 11 people say hello to Wilbert Montgomery as he stands near the entrance to Showcase Sports in the Deptford Mall. Two get handshakes. One gets a hug. All get smiles and a wave, coming from a man whose glory days with the only Philadelphia Eagles team to go to the Super Bowl are nearly a decade in the past. Today, Wilbert Montgomery still is a very recognizable name, a businessman, a South Jersey resident, and someone who would rather be taken seriously as a merchant than as a retired football star.

A litte more than a week after being approved as a volunteer assistant football coach by the West Deptford school board, former Eagles running back Wilbert Montgomery has officially joined the team's coaching staff. Montgomery was approved at the Aug. 23 board meeting, but then told coach Clyde Folsom that he wouldn't be able to take the job, citing a conflict with his regular work schedule. Montgomery works for former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, overseeing sporting goods stores in Deptford, Moorestown and Philadelphia.

Terry Bradshaw, Walter Payton, Wilbert Montgomery and Widener's Billy "White Shoes" Johnson were among the first group of players from the NCAA's Division I-AA, II and III and the NAIA named to the College Football Hall of Fame yesterday. Bradshaw, who won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers, passed for 6,568 yards from 1966 to 1969 for Louisiana Tech. Payton, the NFL's all-time rushing leader with 16,726 yards in 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears, played for Jackson State from 1971 to 1974.

Wilbert Montgomery is not going out in a blaze of glory. But he is going out on his own two feet. And that is just as important to the Eagles' all-time rushing leader. "I watched 'Rocky IV,' " he said. "I saw Apollo Creed. I didn't want to end up like him (in the movie, boxer Creed was killed). You can't play forever. You have to know when it's time to come out of the ballgame. "I can walk now. If I decided to play another year, maybe something severe would happen to me. " Montgomery, 31, who was traded to the Detroit Lions last summer after eight record-breaking seasons with the Eagles, has not yet officially announced his retirement.

LeSean McCoy wants the truth. He yearns for it. In this age of the modern-day athlete when superstars - or would-be superstars - surround themselves only with yes men, McCoy wants nothing more than an honest answer in his quest for greatness. So when the topic is "Who are the best running backs in the NFL?" - as it often is - the Eagles running back wants it straight. It's not really an ego thing, although there's a tinge of that. McCoy knows he's good, real good.

Wilbert Montgomery, the star running back who led the Eagles to their only Super Bowl appearance in 1981, will join former NFL greats Terry Bradshaw and Walter Payton as inductees into the College Football Hall of Fame. The group of 10 former players and four coaches will be inducted on Aug. 16-17 in South Bend, Ind. Montgomery, who held the all-time collegiate record with 76 touchdowns at Abilene Christian (1973-76), led the school to the NAIA championship as a freshman with 37 touchdowns.

Here are some things to look for when the Eagles visit the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday:   Coughing it up The Eagles' league-worst 35 turnovers are the most the team has had since the 39 they committed in 1999, Andy Reid's first season as head coach. They are on pace to finish with 40, which would be the most in franchise history since the Eagles coughed up 43 in 1991.   The Babinator Just three games ago, Jason Babin stood at a very respectable 10 sacks.

St. Louis coach Dick Vermeil criticized assistant coach Wilbert Montgomery for telling Chicago radio listeners some Rams players lack heart. The running backs coach was a guest on the radio show "The Score" Tuesday and answered questions from hosts Mike North, Dan Jiggetts and Walter Payton. "On our team, we have a lot of guys that don't have a lot of heart," Montgomery said. "But that's true throughout the league. " When Montgomery was asked if many of the Rams had "football smarts," Montgomery said: "To tell you the truth, when you're talking about 53 guys out there, you're roughly speaking about 10 or 12 guys.

On their honor, the two newest members of the Eagles' new Honor Roll were asked for an assessment of how far away the current team is from success. And Harold Carmichael and Wilbert Montgomery disagreed. "I'll say (they're) about six years away from having that unity," Carmichael said. "As you know, they have a bunch of young guys right now . . . guys who have been with the team two years. It didn't take us one or two years to really get that unity. "I started in '71. John Bunting in '72. Guy Morriss in '73. They were here four or five years before Dick Vermeil was here.

LeSean McCoy wants the truth. He yearns for it. In this age of the modern-day athlete when superstars - or would-be superstars - surround themselves only with yes men, McCoy wants nothing more than an honest answer in his quest for greatness. So when the topic is "Who are the best running backs in the NFL?" - as it often is - the Eagles running back wants it straight. It's not really an ego thing, although there's a tinge of that. McCoy knows he's good, real good.

Here are some things to look for when the Eagles visit the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday:   Coughing it up The Eagles' league-worst 35 turnovers are the most the team has had since the 39 they committed in 1999, Andy Reid's first season as head coach. They are on pace to finish with 40, which would be the most in franchise history since the Eagles coughed up 43 in 1991.   The Babinator Just three games ago, Jason Babin stood at a very respectable 10 sacks.

YOU WANT TO know what the difference is between you and me and LeSean McCoy, other than the business about McCoy having 20 touchdown this season and a spot in the Eagles' franchise record book? It is this: You and I have pored over the standings and the upcoming NFL schedules, and taken notes with a Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencil and a pristine yellow legal pad, and determined that after the Giants lost their 1 p.m. game yesterday, and after the Eagles won their 4:15 p.m. game, what all of the playoff scenarios might be. But McCoy?

Each time the Eagles do this, each time they find a jewel of a game amid a junkyard of a season, the opportunities they have wasted become all the more frustrating. There were two reasons that the Eagles were able to dismantle a New York Jets team that thought it was pretty good by a 45-19 score on Sunday. The first reason was the Jets, who were plain awful, but the second was what the Eagles did to grab the game by the throat. It wasn't a perfect game, by any means. The Eagles could have put the thing away by halftime, but committed four turnovers in the first half alone.

Each time the Eagles do this, each time they find a jewel of a game amid a junkyard of a season, the opportunities they have wasted become all the more frustrating. There were two reasons that the Eagles were able to dismantle a New York Jets team that thought it was pretty good by a 45-19 score on Sunday. The first reason was the Jets, who were plain awful, but the second was what the Eagles did to grab the game by the throat. It wasn't a perfect game, by any means. The Eagles could have put the thing away by halftime, but committed four turnovers in the first half alone.

ONE OF the great shames of this disappointing Eagles season is that it likely is going to waste what could be a record-breaking year by running back LeSean McCoy. While we've been rubbernecking at the wreck on the other side of the ball, and contemplating the number of losses it might take for Jeff Lurie to pink-slip Andy Reid, and debating the all-inness of DeSean Jackson, and wondering how high the Eagles' turnover total will climb, McCoy has quietly put together one of the finest performances by a running back in franchise history.

SEATTLE - So, this is how two 4-7 teams start a game after four days' rest. The Seahawks were called for an illegal shift on the first play of the game, and on third down quarterback Tarvaris Jackson dropped a shotgun snap before running into a sack. Not to be outdone, however, quarterback Vince Young made a head-scratching decision of his own on the Eagles' first play, as he threw an interception to Seattle safety Kam Chancellor. That set up a Seattle touchdown by running back Marshawn Lynch, who emerged from a swarm of players to score from 15 yards out. Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha appeared to make the stop on the play when Lynch entered the swarm but couldn't make the tackle, and the back emerged.

AFTER 8 YEARS, it has become clear that the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame may never run out of qualified candidates. Class VIII was introduced yesterday morning at the Sheraton Society Hill. It included one member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, a newly elected member of the Hockey Hall of Fame (who came with his father, who is included in any discussion of the greatest in his sport's history), a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a recently elected NFL Hall of Famer, another certain Basketball Hall of Famer, a pair of Eagles from the 1981 Super Bowl team, a legendary broadcaster and a basketball coach who is not that far from winning 1,000 games.

6 Wilbert Montgomery. It was the run. Jan. 11, 1981, Eagles vs. Cowboys, a berth in the Super Bowl on the line. On the Eagles' second offensive play, a woozy Ron Jaworski, fresh off a hammering from Randy White, handed off to Wilbert Montgomery, who ran left, then right, then straight through the frigid air into the end zone. Montgomery ran 42 yards, but the distance seemed so much greater. A sixth-round draft choice, Montgomery had been so painfully shy, so humble, so scared he wouldn't even make the Eagles team when he arrived as a rookie in 1977.