Courtesy of Verizon UP
If nothing else, football is a game of emotions.
Sure, there’s strength and size and athletic agility. But for us fans, the game is an emotional investment with risky guaranteed returns. That’s the whole reason we call ourselves fans in the first place – Sometimes that risk rewards itself in the form of wins as compound interest. Other times, those emotions snowball into misery. Losing sucks, but it teaches us patience. It teaches us humility.
No one knows that like us Eagles fans. We’ve fumbled locking in big wins for generations.
At the end of the day, it’s just sports, even though often times it feels more than sports. The Philadelphia Eagles winning the Super Bowl last year, for instance – That was a moment that was more than just sports. That was an entire tribe of millions riding a beautiful wave of emotions with a beloved professional football team leading the charge.
Victories like that aren’t just on the players – They’re on those that rally with the team and what they represent. They’re on the cities themselves. They’re moments with sports are more than just sports, even thought they’re still just sports at the end of the day.
No one knows this better than Philadelphia Eagles legend Brian Dawkins. B-Dawk was inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, immortalized with gridiron greats across the generations.
A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to jump on the phone with him while working the media rounds for Verizon’s new rewards platform, VerizonUP.
As it goes with B-Dawk, the conversation got deep, fast.
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Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing with Verizon this football season.
Well I’m out here to bring awareness to their loyalty plan, VerizonUP. You can use it to create memories for yourself that you otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to. You know, like meeting a cat like myself or playing football with Randall Cunningham. There’s a lot of things you can do when you go on VerizonUP when you sign up for it.
So you’re officially a Hall of Famer now. You gave that incredible speech. What was it like having that honor and being enshrined in Canton this summer?
Absolute blessing. Absolutely blessing that I wanted to make sure I could share with as many people as I could. I wanted to share it with those who helped me getting there. And that’s why my speech was the way it was. It’s from the heart. I really wanted those individuals to have the feeling that they need to feel with me having the platform and the stage. There have been so many people who have blessed me along my journey, to help me get to where I am.
You talked a lot about the depression and mental health issues you went through throughout your career. Not a lot of people have the courage to talk about the hard times like that. Why was that important for you to bring up?
That was where The Lord wanted me to go. He wanted me to be transparent to people about some of the things I’ve been through who might be going through something similar. And, just as important, people who are going to go through something similar at some point. To get them to understand that no matter who you are, no matter what walk of life, no matter how much money you make, we all go through some of the same pressures. And they hit us and effect us in similar ways.
We talk about mental health, but it’s not just mental health. It’s spiritual health as well. When you’re able to see someone like myself not just go through it, but come out the other side and and stand at that podium, in that position of prestige. Because I found the help that I needed, my prayer life and all of these things increased exponentially not just because of the things I went through, but also because of the things I’m trying to encourage men to do a lot more of than we’ve ever had.
I’ve said it before – It’s something we need to do a better job of, if we want want to be the men we want to be for our families.
The City Of Philadelphia had this amazing catharsis last year with the Eagles winning the Super Bowl win. For anyone who bleeds green or even knows someone who bleeds green, it was the ultimate high. So, like, for fans – What would you tell them is next after experiencing emotions like that?
Yea, so, I think if you look at the totality of the experience that the City Of Philadelphia has had, even with the Super Bowl win, that momentum had started a while back. Think of all the big time events that have happened here in Philly. The Democratic convention, The Draft. I know I’m missing other things.
You had all of these events that caused a wave of positive emotions for the city. All the positive emotions from those, you have to ride that. You have to ride those emotions.
So this should go into the next phase as you as a fan – Make sure that you’re even more aware of possibilities and opportunities to have success, going forward in your life, because The Eagles won. That should take away one of your excuses that nothing good happens to you.
I’ll say it like that.
Be blessed, Bro.
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