Philadelphia Eagles news: Unsung hero from Super Bowl team retires

One day, we’ll all be old and grey, and we’ll talk about how the Philadelphia Eagles beat the greatest dynasty in the history of American sports to win their first Super Bowl. We’ll talk about Corey Clement and Nick Foles’ unflappable performance. We’ll talk about the Philly Special, Zach Ertz diving into the end zone, and Brandon Graham’s strip-sack of Tom Brady.

We probably won’t mention guys like Stefen Wisniewski and Halapoulivaati Vaitai, and that’s unfortunate because they have their fingerprints on the Birds’ only Vince Lombardi Trophy too.

As a matter of fact, the argument can be made that this team doesn’t win that game without them. They cleared holes for LeGarrette Blount and kept Nick Foles upright, and they did so admirably. On August’s final Friday, just one day before the Birds meet the New York Jets for the final preseason game on both teams’ slates, ‘Wiz’ announced his retirement.

It was a moment that wasn’t missed by this franchise. Take a look.

Here are thoughts on one of the wise decisions the Philadelphia Eagles have made.

Prior to being drafted in the second round, 48th-overall by the Oakland Raiders in 2011, Wisniewski cut his teeth at a program that’s very familiar to Philadelphia Eagles fans, the Penn State Nittany Lions. There he earned two First Team All-Big Ten nods (2009, 2010) and an AFCA All-American nod in 2010 before he notched Pro Football Weekly and Sporting News All-Rookie Team honors in 2011.

He appeared in 61 games for Oakland and started every single one of them before he inked a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles on April 4th of 2016. On March 10th of the following year, he signed a three-year contract extension. Both of those moves were among the smartest this team has made.

Wiz started 27 of 51 in-game appearances for Philadelphia, including 14 regular-season games in 2017 and all three games in the postseason. He’ll never be elected to the team’s Hall of Fame. His contribution to the Eagles’ only Super Bowl-winning roster is often forgotten, but trust and believe that he was one of that team’s unsung heroes.

Then, for good measure, he went and won another one with Andy Reid at the end of the 2019-2020 season as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. Not bad for a young man who will always be one of Pennsylvania’s beloved sons.