Highlights as Eagles legend Harold Carmichael achieves immortality

It’s a great day to be a Philadelphia Eagles fan. One can only imagine how great it is to be Harold Carmichael. Sure, Brian Dawkins probably knows how Harold feels right now. They even posed for a flick following Harold’s induction speech, but though many of us have had dreams about what we’d say during our own Pro Football Hall of Fame speech, we know we’ll never know how Dawk and Harold feel right now.

Still, there’s a part of all of us that feels like we share a small piece of Mr. Carmichael’s moment, even if we know that isn’t true. Philly’s all-time leader in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns has finally achieved football immortality, and ladies and gentlemen, it’s about time.

Here are a few highlights as an Eagles legend achieves football immortality.

It seems like we waited for his speech for three years. We learned that Harold Carmichael would enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January of 2020, more than 35 years after he took his final on-field snap in the NFL, but thanks to a global health crisis, his induction and the induction of everyone else in the 2020 class was postponed until August 7th. 2021.

It was well worth the wait. One of the most beloved Eagles of all time put the exclamation point on an on-field football life and career that includes four Pro Bowls, being named to the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 1970s, and winning an NFL Man of the Year Award in 1980.

Those achievements alone would be enough to write a story about, but they barely scratch the surface of Carmichael’s brilliance. He’s also a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame
the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the SWAC Hall of Fame, and the Black College Football Hall of Fame.

Harold Carmichael is a member of the Eagles 75th Anniversary Team and the Eagles Hall of Fame. His speech is enough to make you crack a smile that you didn’t see coming and shed a tear. Take a look.

Here are a few more highlights of the legend’s big day.

Maybe we’ve been wrong all of these years. Maybe nice guys don’t always have to finish last. Carmichael lives among the football immortals now, and even though we can argue that this honor took much too long to arrive, maybe we can look at it another way. Maybe moments like these are the ones we’re referencing when we say “better late than never”.