Philly’s old hand family man

By Os Davis  |   Monday, March 27, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Philadelphia Eagles
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Philadelphia has a new man of the hour, a new toast of the town, a swell new role model for the kids (No, not Terrell Owens). In the crush of the traditional early free-agent signing frenzy, offensive tackle Jon Runyan has managed to grab far more headlines than a lineman gets before retirement or critical injury. Runyan beamed sunny rays of optimism over the NFL by announcing his intention to re-sign with the Eagles, despite a reportedly larger offer from the New York Jets.

Why? Because the Runyan family likes their Philadelphia-area location of Mt. Laurel, South Jersey. And apparently because the road to the Big Apple is literally too long. The OT drove to Manhattan once for a brief round of negotiations, apparently deciding whether he liked the drive or not.

Actually, Runyan never took the Jets' negotiations seriously, despite that it's been reported that his agent was in contact with Jets front-office reps hours before Runyan sealed the Philly deal. In the end, said Runyan, "Everyone knew I was going to call this my home." Huh? Here the OT has got to be talking about everyone in his personal life only, because the buzz online and in print had junior right guard Shawn Andrews switching positions to occupy the family man's spot. "I didn't want to deal with the time and the travel. That was the biggest part of the whole decision," Runyan stated, later noting that "I … kept myself within driving distance."

Clearly, the Philadelphia Eagles are glad the OT is back. Media habitually uses description such as "durable", "rugged", or even simply "one of the best" to describe Runyan, but perhaps the most accurate of all is "ironman". Runyan is an NFL Cal Ripken, having started 144 games consecutively, the fourth highest total among active players. Sixteen consecutive playoff game starts put him at numero uno in that category. In total, Runyan has racked up 106 starts as an Eagle. That's every single game since he was acquired in 2000. Together with Tra Thomas (signed through 2008), Runyan's re-signing would essentially guarantee a solid line for nearly the remainder of the decade. Free safety Brian Dawkins was so pumped about the news of Runyan's resigning that he sang management's praises for their "big time move" on the Eagles Live! talk show.

Contract details have been kept under wraps, but Runyan's deal in 2000 brought him $30.5 mil in six years, making it one of the biggest deals ever for an offensive lineman at that time. Surely, a comparable contract was produced for the big guy; after all, the silver and green are truly getting their greenbacks' worth in this OT.

Now if someone in the Philadelphia Eagles marketing department is clever, they'll be presenting Runyan as a squeaky-clean, family-values version of the average guy, the guy who hates commuting but loves his edge-city home. Runyan could very well end up becoming the Eagles' poster boy and a community pillar. Just as long as he doesn't have to drive too far to participate.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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