Known as Weapon X when he was a dominant safety [url=www.philadelphiaflyersteamshop.com]Authentic Shayne Gostisbehere Jersey[/url] , Brian Dawkins recognizes it could have been Weapon P, as in Philadelphia.

Dawkins, who enters the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night, spent 13 seasons as the leader of the Eagles defense, the emotional center of a team that made four straight NFC championship games and one Super Bowl. The connection with Philly will never fade for a guy who grew up in Florida and attended Clemson.

"They loved me and they will be here to be inducted together with me," Dawkins said Friday about Eagles fans and the city he grew to love. "I made it and now they have made it and will experience the Hall of Fame. Enjoy it.

"I played with emotion and passion. The other thing is they recognized I don't make mistakes. You can boo me for one thing I did wrong, but you won't ever boo me again because I would not make it again.

"I gave 100 percent of my 100 percent every game. I didn't back down from anyone or anything in a football game. I was a worker who didn't make excuses, and that's Philly."

Dawkins, who closed out his career with three seasons in Denver, where he also was supremely popular, made five All-Pro teams and was voted the Eagles' defensive MVP five times. He said making the hall never was on his mind until very late in his career.

"I was thinking it would be cool and wonderful if that happened," he noted, "but I didn't understand at that point it could be possible."

Hey Brian, it's possible and true.

WHO'S AN OLD MAN?

Randy Moss is 41, the same age his quarterback during Moss' greatest season, Tom Brady, reached Friday. Brady shows no signs of slowing down, and Moss believes he could still be effective at wide receiver at his advanced (for football) age.

"My last year (2012 with San Francisco), I didn't really get the chance to show I could still play [url=www.ravenscheapshops.com]Authentic Kenny Young Jersey[/url] ," Moss said. "At 41 now, I still could play and believe I could score 10 touchdowns. The game itself came easy and I really feel that I could bring that much to the game."

In his final season, Moss had only 28 receptions and three scores. During his heyday with Minnesota and then New England, he was the most dangerous deep threat in the sport. In 2007, when New England went unbeaten before losing the Super Bowl to the Giants, he had a stunning 23 touchdowns on 98 receptions, gaining 1,493 yards. He was targeted 160 times by Brady that year.

"It was a great ride," Moss said.

CHUCK NOLL AWARD

The South JeffCo Mustangs from Littleton, Colorado are the winners of the Chuck Noll Hall of Fame Game for Life Award.

The group will be presented with a $10,000 check from The DICK'S Sporting Goods Foundation.

The award, established last summer, recognizes 50 youth football leagues around the country for their commitment to coaching education; best practices in player safety; teaching lessons about how to win rather than emphasizing winning; and nurturing a culture that celebrates preparation, discipline, accountability and respect through the fun and fitness of football and how it applies to success beyond the field.

Former NFL player Merril Hoge created the award to celebrate the legacy of Noll, the Pro Football Hall of Fame coach who transformed the Pittsburgh Steelers from a downtrodden franchise to one of the most dominant teams in NFL history.

PASSION OVERFLOW

If there have been two more passionate defensive players in recent NFL annals than Ray Lewis and Brian Dawkins, they're hard to identify.

They never were teammates on the Ravens, the only team Lewis played for, but enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame together in the class of 2018. What if they had been on the field together?

"With all the energy he exudes and all I exude [url=www.bearscheapstores.com]Roquan Smith Jersey Bears[/url] ," Dawkins said, "it would've been tough on the other guys (to match). I would've loved to have played with him, but man."

Lewis, who has campaigned for Ed Reed to make the hall when the former Ravens star safety becomes eligible, also has the utmost regard for Dawkins.

"I knew he had a similar chip on his shoulder and that's why I love BDawk," Lewis said. "He's one of the guys I'd love to have played with. I can't imagine a football field with me and BDawk on the field together.

"It's an honor to go into the Hall of Fame with a guy like Brian Dawkins."

WILL THE TEARS FLOW?

Brian Urlacher says there's no threat of crying when he practices his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech. As for when he delivers it ...

"When I go over it, I am OK," Urlacher explained. "But all the guys are telling me I am going to cry during the speech."

Lots of inductees do, even the toughest of former players. So Urlacher would join a long list of weepers.

Some have joked about an over/under number for how many times Ray Lewis breaks down.

As for Brian Dawkins, he guarantees he'll cry.

"Tear up? No question. The people I will talk about meant so much to me," he said Friday at a news conference. "I'm about to cry now."
鈥?Super Bowl 52 will be played comfortably under the translucent U.S. Bank Stadium roof on a dry artificial turf, leaving the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles without worries of traction trouble or kick-altering winds.That doesn’t mean the workers in charge of preparing a surface that’s championship-sufficient were free from challenges.The host Minnesota Vikings came close to reaching the big game, for one.When they beat the New Orleans Saints with that last-play touchdown pass in the divisional round on Jan. 14, the NFL would have normally already been in takeover mode of the stadium by then. The victory by the Philadelphia Eagles over the Atlanta Falcons that weekend was a big help for the league’s exhaustive operations; it sent the Vikings on the road to face the Eagles for the NFC title rather than hosting another postseason game at their not-yet-2-year-old home.“That would’ve really pushed us back and crunched the time,” said Ed Mangan, the NFL’s field director. “We’ve had a few other teams in the past that got close, so you always start out with a �what if.’ You have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C, and you have a backup plan for each one of those. So you’re always prepared for it.”Then there’s the winter weather [url=www.newyorkgiantsteamonline.com]www.newyorkgiantsteamonline.com[/url] , which has its own share of the spotlight this week next to the Patriots and Eagles. Just because the game itself will be played in climate-controlled conditions doesn’t mean the crews are always comfortable, with some outdoor work to be done in the single-digit temperatures. The downtown setting, with a major hospital, several churches and plenty of apartment buildings within a few blocks of the front doors, added some urban-specific security hurdles.Commuting to the site last week, too, could have been made trickier by a storm that dumped more than a foot of snow on the region. But the City of Minneapolis and Minnesota Department of Transportation snowplows produced a championship-caliber performance.“We’ve never been held up getting anywhere,” said Mangan, whose team is also responsible for the practice facilities at suburban Vikings headquarters in Eden Prairie (for the Patriots) and at the University of Minnesota a short ride from downtown (for the Eagles).So are all the preparations finally caught up?The answer is yes, according to Eric Finkelstein, the NFL’s senior director of events.“We’ve been talking to the team and were for multiple months, and we were able to delay the things that we knew we could afford to delay and get a jump on the stuff that we knew we had to get done, even during the playoff game run,” Finkelstein said.Vikings fans are still decompressing from the loss to the Eagles that dashed their dream of an unprecedented Super Bowl on home turf. So having the home stadium as the backdrop for the big game could be a painful sight either on television or in person. The good news for them and their healing process is that almost all of the team’s logos will be invisible, covered by NFL and Super Bowl signage. The six-panel purple end zones have been pulled off, replaced with Patriots and Eagles paint.“We want this to look like the Super Bowl and know that you’re here,” Finkelstein said.The field itself remains the domain of the indefatigable George Toma, the NFL’s grounds crew master who is working his 52nd Super Bowl. Yes, that’s all of them. He’ll turn 89 on Friday [url=www.packerscheapstore.com]Josh Jackson Youth Jersey[/url] , and his pride in the job is just as high as it was five decades ago.“The cheapest insurance for an athlete from preschool all the way up to professional is a good, safe playing field,” Toma said, “and that’s what we try to do. For the people in the stands and the people on TV, we try to give them a field of beauty and then some.”There’s less pressure, per se, this week than four years ago in New Jersey during the NFL’s first outdoor Super Bowl in a northern site. There’s still plenty to do.More than 1,000 performers have been on the field at a time rehearsing for the halftime show. So Toma and his crew use a magnetic rake of sorts to comb the field for any stray nuts, bolts or random wardrobe pieces that might have popped off. They use a stamping tool to gauge the stiffness of the turf every 8 feet or so, to make sure there are no dangerous soft spots. The sand-rubber mixture that serves as the artificial sod underneath the fake grass is supposed to be 1陆 inches thick.Having worked two years for the Vikings at their practice facility and served as the spring training groundskeeper for the Minnesota Twins at their baseball facility in Fort Myers, Florida, Toma has a special affinity for this Super Bowl being held in Minnesota.“I’ve been through a lot of stadiums worldwide, but in my book I love this stadium,” Toma said. “This is the best stadium I’ve been in. Why? Everything’s right here for you. We come out that tunnel, and we’re only 100 feet to the playing field for our equipment and for our paint and everything. Not only that, but the people who run this stadium are outstanding, and then some.”.