Troy Aikman almost became a Philadelphia Eagle
Former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman revealed to the Times a very interesting tidbit this weekend. Back in 2002, when Donovan McNabb went down with a broken ankle during Week 11, he was contacted while broadcasting a game to replace him.
“I was in San Diego working a game, and we did a game-break in the second quarter saying that Donovan McNabb looked like he might have broken his [ankle],” Aikman recalled in a phone interview. “All of a sudden a producer says in my ear, ‘Hey, I need you to call somebody at halftime.’ I said, ‘What?’ He had never done that. He gave me a number and said, ‘It’s Andy Reid.’”
Aikman stepped out of the booth at halftime and called the Eagles’ coach, who explained the situation. He wanted Aikman to make a beeline for Philadelphia in hopes that he would be ready to play the following week, in a Monday night game at San Francisco.
“Andy was giving me all the reasons why this would be good, why this would work,” said Aikman, who was 35 at the time and had retired from the Cowboys after winning three Super Bowls in large part because of concussion problems.
The Philadelphia situation was all happening too fast for Aikman, who explained to Reid he was in the middle of a broadcast and promised to call after the game. Aikman had plenty of time to chat too, because he and his wife were driving from San Diego to their home in Santa Barbara for a mini-vacation.
When Aikman dialed back Reid, the quarterback said he wanted to sleep on the decision but promised to call the coach the next day.
By the time he reached Santa Barbara, Aikman had a pretty good idea which way he was leaning.
“So I went to bed that night and said, ‘I can wake up tomorrow and spend a nice couple of days in Santa Barbara. Or, I can be in frigid Philadelphia getting my brains kicked in,’ ” he said.
The next day, he called Reid and politely declined the offer. The Eagles did fine without him, reaching the playoffs behind the strong play of reserve A. J. Feeley.
Back to the 2002 injury to McNabb. It was the third play of the game that McNabb broke his ankle; however, he remained in the game and finished 20 of 25 for 255 yards passing and 4 touchdowns. It was revealed after the game that he had broken his fibula in three different places. McNabb missed six weeks and returned to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in the divisional playoffs, but lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game.
