Eagles: A birthday tribute to Duce Staley (that he may never read)

Duce Staley celebrates another year of life, so it was only fitting one of our editors, who shares similar beginnings, pays tribute to an Eagles legend.

Once upon a time in the Philadelphia Eagles last-ever home game at Veteran’s Stadium, a trip to the Super Bowl was on the line. After Brian Mitchell returned the opening kickoff to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ 25-yard line, Duce Staley caught a pass on first down and then rumbled into the end zone on second.

The ‘Duce’ chant reverberated through the stadium and then there was a crescendo into a loud cheer and all-out pandemonium.

Take a look (be forewarned that you only want to watch the first minute of this game).

Clip provided by the NFL’s official YouTube page

Why the first minute you ask? It’s simple. The Eagles lost that game, and nothing went right after that.

You see, despite the fact that this may have been 52 of the most exhilarating seconds of any Eagles game, the result was heartbreak. That wasn’t Staley’s fault.

You see, if Philly would have had five more guys like Staley on offense, they might have birthed a dynasty. For seven years ’22’ gave everything to the Eagles organization as a player. He’s one of the most beloved players in team history, so no one was hurt when he came back to coach.

He spent two seasons (2011 and 2012) as a special teams quality control coach before becoming Philly’s running backs coach for four years. In 2018, he was promoted to the role of Assistant head coach and running backs coach. No one batted an eyelash. Why?

Just as he did as a player, he worked his butt off as a coach. Three coaches have led the Eagles since Staley was given a headset. Each one kept him around. That’s saying something. We, at ITI, could say a lot about Staley and how we loved watching him play, but instead, we’ll, simply, say something else.

Happy birthday ’22’. On February 27th, he turned 44 years young and we just wanted to salute him,  just as the Eagles organization did.

Take a look:

Typically, you don’t write these types of stories in first person narrative, but As February draws to a close, I just have to thank Duce myself. As a man who was also hails from Columbia, South Carolina and loves the South Carolina Gamecocks, it’s nice to see one of our own do well.

ITI salutes you. So does ‘The Metro’, and so does ITI.