Well, Harold Carmichael may not have gotten everything he wanted for his birthday, but every Philadelphia Eagles fan still hopes he had a good one.
This might make for a doggone good question if you’re ever playing a little Philadelphia Eagles trivia, but how many of you would have guessed off of the top of your heads that Harold Carmichael was a seventh-round draft choice in 1971?
That was back when the NFL Draft had what seemed like 30 rounds.
Carmichael went 161st overall after a career at Southern University that would eventually land him in the Black College Football Hall of Fame in 2018. Only the Good Lord in Heaven knows why he isn’t in Canton.
Four Pro Bowl nods would be the result of his introduction to the NFL (1973, 1978–1980). So would an NFL Man of the Year award (1980). After a career that produced 590 receptions, 8,985 receiving yards, and 79 touchdowns (he’d actually record one catch as a member of the Dallas Cowboys), Carmichael would retire as the all-time team leader in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns.
He’s a member of the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team, the Philadelphia Eagles 75th-anniversary team, and the Eagles Hall of Fame, but before all of that, he was something else.
He was simply a young man born on September 22nd of 1949 who had a dream. That dream began in Jacksonville, Florida. It led him to the NFL and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and now, that young man has turned 70 years young.
His team gave it all they had on his birthday, and their tight end, Zach Ertz, got a little closer on that Eagles all-time receptions record, but his team wouldn’t be able to deliver what would have been one of the best presents of all, a dramatic come from behind victory on Mr. Carmichael’s birthday.
Well, be that as it may, we all can surely agree on one thing. We all hope he was able to enjoy his day anyway.