Brian Westbrook Personally Loaded Up A Truck Of Bud Light To Bring To Philadelphia If They Win The Super Bowl

Brian Westbrook needs no introduction to any seasoned Philly sports fan. He spent nine seasons in the NFL, exploding as a running back for the Philadelphia Eagles during the Andy Reid era.

He’s a legend through and through.

Westbrook’s tenure in Philly was the era when Vet Stadium came down and The Linc became home. It was a raucous couple of seasons that seemed like a reality show (who can forget T.O. doing push-ups in his driveway during training camp?), complete with playoff appearances and a Super Bowl run.

It was a great time to be an Eagles fan – it certainly was the era when I came of age as an Eagles fan.

When the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, Westbrook was part of the greeting party for the team on the Art Museum steps.

This year, with the Birds back in the Super Bowl, Bud Light is putting him to work.

Westbrook personally loaded up a truck of Bud Light to be shipped to Philly if the Eagles win the Super Bowl. Don’t think for a second this is coming from a place of cocky Philly hubris: Former Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles did the same for Kansas City. Donna Kelce, aka Travis and Jason’s mom, is also involved, with plans to have a victory beer in either city, however this thing shakes out.

I got a chance to talk to Westbrook about this season’s “it’s a Philly thing” motto, what it’s like to share a meal with Andy Reid, that 2005 Super Bowl that some would like to forget, and why it can be so motivating to have a chip on your shoulder.

Go birds.

Watch:

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Brian, how’s it going, man? Big week.

Brian Westbrook: It’s a huge week. It is a huge week. We’re super excited about it and super excited about, everything that we have going on, man. It’s huge for the city, of course. It should be fun.

It should be a lot of fun. Let’s start at the very top and talk through what you’re doing with Bud Light.

“I’m super excited to join Bud Light and really bring home Bud Light to Philly. We’re all excited about the celebration, we are all excited about the game, but our ability to bring Bud Light to the city and allow the people of the city to enjoy it will be absolutely amazing. It really, it’s all about the parade, right?

So we gotta win first, and then we’re able to have that city wide parade and Bud Light is here really to make the parade much more enjoyable. So we’re certainly excited about that.

If we can get it done and last time was any indication, what a parade it will be…

Last time was super special for me. I wasn’t part of the parade, but part of the group that welcomed the guys to the Art Museum. But this year is even more special because when I joined Bud Light, the first thing they said was, Can you help load the truck? Can you get Bud Light ready for the great event, for the parade?

I guess in hindsight, that’s the easy part. Now we need the guys to go out there and win the game. And then we can all enjoy the Bud Light that I loaded in the trucks.

They’re putting you to work! Truly to work!

That’s right. That’s right. That’s right.

You thought retirement was gonna be easy?

Not easy. Not easy.

I’m a huge Eagles fan, Brian. I watched you in some of the best years of my life, absolutely hands down. All of those teams were so special. We’re doing this whole “it’s a Philly thing” this year. It’s taking off. I’m curious, what does ‘it’s a Philly thing’ mean to you?

When you think back to a couple years ago when we went to the Super Bowl 17/18, it was an underdog thing.

Nobody respected us. Nobody liked us. It was a underdog thing. It was kind of us against the world.

I think this “it’s a Philly thing”, is bringing that whole momentum that we had during that campaign back. It is a Philly thing. It is a thing that we share. It’s special to us. It’s the thing that bonds us together. It’s sports, it’s football, it’s being part of this community. It’s the passion, it’s the love for the game. It’s all the things that make Philadelphia and the surrounding area super special to be a player and fan.

And so when I think of this “it’s a Philly thing”, I think of all those things. I live in New York now, but when I go back, you start to get that tingling. You start to get that feeling. And of course, by the time you get around the stadium into the parking lot and the time that you get into the stadium, you understand it.

It is a Philly thing. It’s the energy, it’s the passion, it’s the love for the game of football and sports in general.

And it’s just great to be a part of.

You experienced that as a central sports figure for so long. What’s it like to experience that as a fan these days?

It’s a different feeling because as a player you have some results. You have something to do with the result.

Then as a fan, you’re like, ‘Hey, all I can do is cheer the guys on.’ All I can do is give them my love, passion through my cheering, through my support in that way.

So it’s certainly different, but at the same time, it’s the same feeling when they win. You feel great, love for the game, love for all the players.

And when you lose, like all the other fans, I hate everybody. Nothing’s gonna be good enough, my day is ruined. And so it’s about that love. It’s about that love. And as a player, you have the love for the game. You love the fans and respect your city and what you’re representing. And now as a fan, I have a love for winning. I have a love for supporting our guys and making sure that I can do everything I can so that whatever needs to be done on my end, I’ve done that so they can win a football game.

You mentioned losing, and that brings up my next question: The 2005 Super Bowl, your appearance for the Eagles. That was just an intense game, absolutely intense battle of Super Bowl. You have such a unique experience – being coached by Andy Reid in Philadelphia. I’m wondering if you could just talk through what that 2005 Super Bowl was like… 

Brandon, we were on such a good roll there for a long time. You and I, we were connecting, we were bonding…

I know.

And then you hit me, you hit me in the face.

I’m sorry.

With the bad Super Bowl memories!

It wasn’t bad though. Your touchdown pass at the end of the third quarter, like going into the fourth quarter – it was a brilliant moment!

You know when I think back to that game, I think about all the times we had failed to get to that point. I think three or four NFC championship games that we had lost, that didn’t enable us to get to that game.

We think about all the work that we put into that season. You bring TO over, it was a different type of training camp, a different type of season.

I mean, when you think about, I think we won maybe 13 games that year. In half of those 13 games that we won, we didn’t play in the fourth quarter. A bunch of the games we didn’t play in the much of the third quarter. We were blowing teams out. That’s how good of a team we were

I think back to that time and playing in the game, there’s a couple things that just pop out immediately. You don’t realize how big the game is until you actually play in it, because it’s so different than a regular season game. Just like pre-season’s different from the regular season, it’s totally different from a playoff game, it’s totally different from a regular season game as well. So there was a huge magnitude there.

One of the things, as a player, it almost felt like I wasn’t even playing in the game. It felt like I was a part of the game, but I wasn’t playing. And maybe that was a result of not winning. Maybe that was a result of not having the same amount of carries as normal, things like that. But it felt different to me.

But I’ll tell you this, just like anybody else would say, losing that game after working so hard to get there, that’s one of those things that you never forget.

You never forget that pain in that locker room after the game. You never forget the group of guys. One of the things that you realize as a player in every sport is that you have really one year with these exact set of guys, right? Most of the guys will come back, you know, 60%, 70% will come back, but your team as a whole will never be the same.

And that just the different names and personalities, that dynamic changes. So I really think back and I think back about how much I enjoyed being with the guys that year, how much just being around the guys meant to me and what we were able to do just to get to that game.

It was super special. Obviously, unfortunately, we didn’t win it, but we still did so many special things that year. So it’s always tough for me to ho back to that time where things didn’t work out for us.

From a fan’s perspective, it feels like a continuum. We always needed it, but it helped make Eagles fans today who they are in a lot of ways.  Adversity and losing on such a big stage and everything like that. It kind of made us chippier than we already were. We already were pretty chippy.

That’s one of the things about Eagles fans, and the players too – we build a chip on our shoulder, right?  I’ve used this throughout my career. And that’s a good thing at times.

For me, it was a very good thing because it kept me motivated.

I think as fans, as members of the media as people that support the team, when you don’t win, obviously that’s a shortcoming. You wanna win games, but we also have the ability to show our passion because we didn’t win.

I think that’s a good thing for the fans as well.

My final question is an Andy Reid question. There are so many legendary Andy Reid’s stories from his time in Philadelphia, continuing into his time now in Kansas City. I have to ask – What is your favorite meal you’ve shared with Andy Reid?

One of the things that Andy Reid says, right before we end our Saturday meeting, is “I’ll buy you guys a cheeseburger.”

He always says that. It’s been well documented on some things, some broadcasts and things like that. But one of the things I know about Andy is that he is passionate, loves his players, loves his guys, he loves to eat too.

I’m similar in that way as well.

So when I think about the meals we’ve shared, it’s those Saturday night meals where he’s not coaching, he’s not teaching technique, he’s not giving us Xs and Os.

He’s just sitting as a man, having conversation with another man, younger men. Those are always the best conversations, when we’re just talking about having a meal, eating a burger, whatever it is.

Life.

Having conversations about his kids, having conversations about my life, my family, things like that. That’s what makes Andy Reid such a beloved figure, not only in Philadelphia, but if you look across the landscape of the NFL across our country, I think a lot of people love Andy Reid and what he’s been able to do over the last 20 years of coaching football.

Brian, I can’t thank you enough, man. Thank you so much!