PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles reported Tuesday for training camp, and if you are of a certain age, you remember well the last offseason that they signed an elite, pass-rushing defensive end and traded for a game-changing wide receiver and created great expectations for themselves. That was a hell of a one-two punch back in March 2004. The news that the Eagles had agreed to an eight-year contract with Jevon Kearse wasn’t two weeks old, had barely begun to sink in, when they completed the unusual three-team deal to acquire Terrell Owens.
Of course, the similarities between that year’s team and this year’s pretty much end there. No one would suggest, at least not yet, that signing Haason Reddick and trading for A.J. Brown would put the 2022 Eagles on the same level as the 2004 Eagles. Not in terms of hype, and not in terms of quality.
The buzz around that ‘04 team grew so fevered that 25,000 fans flocked to Lehigh University one Friday to attend and watch practice. Those were high times on the Northeast Extension of the Pa. Turnpike, and for good reason. The Eagles had reached the NFC Championship Game, and lost it, each of the previous three seasons. Owens and (to a lesser degree) Kearse were stars who were supposed to vault the team to the Super Bowl, and the plan would have worked if it hadn’t been for Brady, Belichick, and those meddling Patriots.
