Remembering Roman Gabriel – An Eagles Legend With A Laid-Back Swagger

Over the weekend, the Philadelphia Eagles community lost a good one when former player Roman Gabriel passed away.

Roman Gabriel passed away on Saturday morning peacefully at his home at the age of 83 years old.

I was definitely sad when I initially heard the news because I associate a lot of great memories with Roman Gabriel, and he is easily one of my favorite players of all time.

I’ll get to my memories of Roman Gabriel in a bit, but let me inform the younger generation of this Eagles great first.

During his tenure with the Eagles, Gabriel played quarterback and wore number 5 and number 18.

Roman Gabriel played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1973 through 1977 after beginning his NFL career in California with the Los Angeles Rams during the decade prior.

Being that Los Angeles is the home of Hollywood, the big screen, and lights, cameras, action! — Roman Gabriel also appeared in numerous movies and TV shows during his time in L.A.

Some things he appeared in include the movie, The Undefeated, which starred Rock Hudson and John Wayne. Also, he appeared as a headhunter in Gilligan’s Island, which remains one of my all-time favorite TV shows to this day.

As I said, I have a lot of memories with Roman, and his appearance in one of my favorite shows is just the beginning of those memories.

As I mentioned earlier, Roman Gabriel played for the Eagles from 1973-1977, and that just happens to be the exact same time that I was a ball boy for the Eagles.

I loved getting the chance to be around a guy like Roman.

He was so cool and he really did have that laid-back, California swagger.

One of my favorite memories with him was when Roman used to let me drive his Jeep.

I still remember getting in for the first time and seeing Levi’s denim blue jeans seats — at the time I thought it was one of the coolest features in a car.

It’s not every day you get to see an NFL player embrace a ball boy like that, so I definitely appreciated it!

Anyway, Roman Gabriel will definitely be missed by many, and he was one cool guy.

If you have any cool memories that involve Roman, I would love him to hear them!

Jason Kelce is calling it a career. There were reports immediately following the playoff game that it was over. Adam Schefter reported it the following day. You could almost tell with the way he was acting after the game. But we still hadn't heard it from the man himself. Taht changed today. Jason Kelce spoke to the media today and announced he is calling it a career.

Kelce is easily one of the most beloved players in the Eagles' history. Not just for how great he is on the field, but for what he has done off of it. This year marked the 6th time he made the All-Pro first team. Only 5 other centers made at least 6 All-Pro teams. Only 1 did so in the last 50 years. What makes it more impressive is he made all of them after turning 30. Kelce closed out his career by being named the best center in 6 of his final 7 seasons.

He will walk into Canton one day. The Eagles will almost certainly retire his number one day. But Eagles fans don't need any of those accolades to know how great Kelce is.

With Centers, it is hard to put together a highlight reel. A lot of what offensive linemen do does not necessarily get noticed by fans on a play-to-play basis. Jason Kelce changed that bit. There are so many big plays in the last 13 seasons where you will see Jason Kelce downfield leading the way for the ball carrier. Kelce changed the position. Forcing teams to look for more agile centers like him, as opposed to the old-school brick wall we often saw play center in the past.

So in honor of his great career, let's look back on some of our fondest Jason Kelce memories.

The parade speech is what took Kelce from being a great player, and turned him into an Eagles legend. Every Eagles fan will remember his speech about how much people doubted the Eagles for the rest of time. People knew and liked him before the speech. But it was only after the speech that he became nearly everybody's favorite player.

This is less about the play itself, and more just a representative of the types of blocks he made his whole career. Here we saw Kelce block Mason Foster 14 yards down field, and then make an additional block to lead the way for a Darren Sproles TD. No other center had the knack for making blocks downfield the way Kelce did. And this was one of his most impressive blocks.

Jason Kelce has a future in broadcasting. He has dipped his toes in it a bit during his career. Kelce joined the Thursday Night Football crew earlier this year during the Eagles' bye week. And he has shown he has the personality, and the smarts, to do the job. But my favorite moment of him in front of the camera came from when he joined Bleacher Report to cover the draft. And we got his live reaction to the Eagles trading for AJ Brown. He also had a great reaction to the Eagles drafting Jordan Davis earlier in the night.

One of the craziest parts of Kelce's game is how fast he is for a center. It goes along with what he talked about earlier with him making downfield blocks. But we saw earlier this season, that even at 36, he can still move. Most centers don't move like this. Kelce was at the end of his career and still doing it.

It's not just on the field though that Kelce made magic happen. He did it in the recording studio too. The Eagles Christmas album has been a highlight in each of the past two seasons. And while his voice may be the weakest of the 3 Eagles Linemen, it still was just another thing to add to his legacy.

On top of all the awards he won from the NFL, he also received an award this year that no one but his wife saw coming. People Magazine made him a finalist for The Sexiest Man Alive. There is a reason they call him Sexy Batman.

Perhaps the craziest thing about Kelce's career, is how healthy he has been. Playing center takes its toll. Just go watch his Amazon Prime Doc to see the injuries Kelce deals with on a day-to-day basis. But he always played. He got injured in his 2nd season, and since then never missed a single game. He broke Jon Runyan's franchise record for consecutive starts. With his retirement, his streak will end at 157 games. For an offensive lineman to be that dependable, is incredibly impressive.

Perhaps the biggest reason we love him, is he just gets Philly fans. He proved that during his retirement speech.

Thank you for everything Jason.