Andy Reid returns to Philadelphia, McNabb to be honored

Facing your old team must bring about a cornucopia of emotions.  When Andy Reid returns to Philadelphia tonight to face the Eagles with his new team, the Kansas City Chiefs, a familiar face will be on hand to be honored — and will certainly add to the plethora of emotion.

Donovan McNabb will have his jersey retired by the Eagles organization on Thursday, much to the delight of Reid and many of his former teammates.

“As great a player as he was, he’s that kind of person too,” Reid told Nick Fierro of The Morning Call. “So he’s easy to be around. He keeps things real with the guys and he was a good leader and a heck of a football player.”

“I’m proud of him and happy for him that all of this is happening. It’s well-deserved. I think when you see the number of people, the players, the ex-players who came back to support him, that tells the whole story.”

Former teammate and star defensive back Brian Dawkins echoed that sentiment, and will be on hand for the ceremony.

“The thing that people don’t understand is the type of leader that he truly is and what he brought to the football team,” Dawkins said, “because I knew when I stepped on the football field, I knew that I was going to get 110 percent from my quarterback, and he was going to give everything that he could.”

Although Reid, McNabb and company could never quite get over the Super Bowl hump in their time with the Eagles, the quarterback ended up leading the organization in several career statistical categories: attempts, completions, TD passes, passing yards, and completion % just to name a few.

Overall McNabb went 92-49-1 and 9-7 in the playoffs with Philadelphia.