The guy did it all, and he did it with quiet confidence and off-the-charts classiness.\u00a0 Here is a guy who was never once given a real “break” in the game of football–at least compared to his NFL peers.\u00a0 He didn’t get a D-I scholarship, so he went to Villanova.\u00a0 He dominated there on the field and in the classroom.\u00a0 He set all sorts of all-purpose yardage records, but did the NFL coming knocking down his door, like it did with LaDainian Tomlinson, who parlayed a simliar career at a slightly more respected program into a top 5 overall draft choice?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 The Eagles picked him in the third round…THE THIRD ROUND.\u00a0 And, who is to say if anyone would have picked him if he played in a small school in, say, Kansas, where there is no NFL team in the backyard to see him play on a weekly basis?\u00a0<\/p>\n So, he shows up to the Birds as a third-down back\/punt returner, and he turns into probably the best Eagle during the best decade of the franchise’s existence.<\/p>\n There are plenty of memories of B-West that I will hold with me for as long as I understand the game of football.\u00a0 But I think the one overarching memory I will have of Westbrook is the feeling of security that he gave me, as a fan, while watching him play for my team.\u00a0 We all know that I am an admitted\u00a0McNabb apologist.\u00a0 I think he gets a bad shake with the Eagle fans and the Philly media.\u00a0 HOWEVER…there is one thing that I will freely admit–never, in a big game, does McNabb make me feel confident that he will get it done.\u00a0 He does <\/em>get it done WAY more than people give him credit for, but even at his best, he does not instill any confidence in us Eagle fans–even me, an ardent McNabb supporter.\u00a0<\/p>\n But, Westbrook, on the other hand, was the exact opposite.\u00a0 No matter what the situation, no matter what the opponent or the circumstances, I always felt that if we had Brian Westbrook on our team, we had a chance.\u00a0 Be it a screen pass, a grueling third-down conversion, or, when the chips were really down, a punt return.\u00a0 Hell, this undersized “scat back” even turned himself into, arguably, the best pass-blocking halfback in the NFL.<\/p>\n I know that Westbrook’s days are probably over, so I’m not bitter at the Eagles (a la the Brian Dawkins fiasco), but I am in a bit of mourning for the great career and the great memories created by one of the most intelligent, hardest-working, humble, and GREATEST players that we will ever see.<\/p>\n You left your mark, Mr. Westbrook, you left your mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2015, I will not be celebrating my birthday.\u00a0 I will never again buy three dozen eggs.\u00a0 If anyone ever asks me what six-squared is, I will simply say, “I don’t want to talk about it.” The number 36 has … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/lesterslegends.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/westbrook-soars.jpg\")
It’s not unexpected.\u00a0 It’s not tragic (even in the overused sports sense of that word).\u00a0 It even kind of makes sense from a football perspective.\u00a0 In fact, it’s a move that -gulp- <\/em>I think I would have made if I were running the team.\u00a0 But, that doesn’t make it any easier to cope with the fact that I will never again get to see Brian Westbrook play for the Eagles.<\/p>\n