Former Eagles Tight End Trey Burton reflects on ‘Philly Special’

Former Philadelphia Eagles tight end Trey Burton still has strong feelings for Philly after their miraculous 2017 Super Bowl run.

For the first time since signing with the Chicago Bears, Trey Burton will face his former team. When the Philadelphia Eagles signed Trey Burton in 2014 as an undrafted rookie, there weren’t many expectations from him. The Eagles still had Brent Celek on board, who seemingly had some gas left in the tank, while Zach Ertz was shaping up to have a promising role on the team for the future moving forward.

Burton ended up spending three seasons in Philly playing for the Eagles. Although he was a rotational piece at a very skilled position, Burton made a name for himself in 2017. Sure, not a lot of outsiders knew who Trey Burton was throughout the season, but one play last year earned him a lot more popularity than he could ever imagine.

The ‘Philly Special’ will easily go down in Philadelphia sports history as one of the most prominent plays of all time. A direct snap to the undrafted rookie Corey Clement, eventually led to a quick toss to Trey Burton coming the other way, who was able to throw a perfect pass on the run to a wide-open Nick Foles for a second-quarter touchdown on fourth down in the Super Bowl. It was a remarkable decision by Doug Pederson to go for it, and the execution was perfect.

Trey Burton recalls the moment before Sunday’s matchup

Trey Burton never wanted to leave Philadelphia. In fact, when the Eagles allowed Burton to test the free agency market at the end of 2017, the veteran tight end seemed a bit disappointed when he found out that the Eagles were not going to make him an offer. The Eagles were strapped for cash and had much bigger needs in other areas. Burton was a rising star, who was going to earn himself his biggest contract yet and the Eagles simply wouldn’t be able to match it.

Although he was a bit upset that he would have to leave Philly, Burton has found himself a home in Chicago and has been a rising star throughout the 2018 season. The Bears attempted to give Burton the opportunity to run the biggest play of his career once again with Chicago, but the emotional memories were just too much for Burton to handle.

Now, we’ll see how Burton responds to playing his former team for the first time. In a do-or-die playoff situation, both teams are going to have to be all-in this week. Will the emotions of playing the Eagles be too much for Burton to handle? Or will he treat this as a revenge game to prove to the Birds that they should’ve made him a deal at the end of the year in 2017?