There were a lot of special moments and players during the Philadelphia Eagles' 2024 season. Saquon Barkley rushed for 2,504 total yards, Jalen Carter saved the season with two back-to-back killer plays at the end of the divisional game in the playoffs, Cooper DeJean got his first career interception (a pick six off Patrick Mahomes) during the Super Bowl, C.J. Gardner-Johnson sent Xavier Legette into the shadow realm, and Zack Baun went from a rotational edge rusher to an All-Pro linebacker.
On Wednesday, June 4, 2025, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced that Reed Blankenship’s game-worn jersey is on display in the Eagles’ Super Bowl exhibit. Nobody can have anything bad to say about Blankenship or his 2024 season, let alone his performance in the Super Bowl — and I mean this with the utmost respect — but why his? There’s a good chance that it means something more.
Blankenship’s addition to the HOF exhibit is about more than the Super Bowl
When you think about Super Bowl LIX, the first play that comes to mind is The Dagger. The second is DeJean’s pick six, then the Patrick Mahomes strip sack, and Zack Baun’s interception.
So it was a little weird that the Pro Football Hall of Fame put Reed Blankenship’s jersey next to Devonta Smith’s jersey in the Super Bowl display. No one is knocking Blankenship for how he played, but it just seems like there were probably some other players whose jerseys could’ve gone in there.
📣 NEW at the Hall of Fame!
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) June 5, 2025
Reed Blankenship’s game-worn jersey from Super Bowl LIX is now on display in the @Eagles’ Super Bowl exhibit. 🦅 The free safety helped lead Philadelphia to a dominant 40-22 win over Kansas City, holding the two-time defending champs scoreless until… pic.twitter.com/fAZ174kRKJ
Let’s piece a few things together to figure this whole thing out:
The plaque in the picture says, “Philadelphia Eagles free safety Reed Blankenship wore this jersey in Super Bowl LIX in the Eagles’ dominant 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. He helped the Eagles build a 34-0 lead by keeping the two-time defending Super Bowl champions scoreless until only 34 seconds remained in the third quarter. Blankenship and the Eagles finished the 2024 season ranked first defensively against the pass.”
On the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s website, they had an article about the exhibit. It was titled “Super Bowl performance celebrated in Eagles exhibit.” There were a few notable things that Nick Licata wrote:
“Blankenship manned an Eagles secondary that held Patrick Mahomes to 21-of-32 passing and 257 yards while forcing two interceptions… Blankenship, who went undrafted in the 2022 NFL Draft, competed in his second Super Bowl in three seasons. He earned four starts as a rookie in the 2022 season and became the Eagles’ full-time starter in 2023… As a team, the Eagles went 14-3 in the 2024 season behind a defense that allowed a league-best 174.2 passing yards per game.”
Despite the title, it seems more like Blankenship's jersey might be in there more because of what he meant to the Eagles' defense rather than how he did in the Super Bowl. That makes way more sense, and it falls in line with a story from earlier in the offseason.
On the March 5 edition of the Big Play Slay podcast, Darius Slay was talking about his future with the Eagles and about players who could take over his leadership role for the team.
Slay said, “...I do got a great leadership role in that secondary room, but I won’t be surprised if Reed [Blankenship] and them guys, like Reed, can advance these guys. Reed being around me and a lot of other veterans that been here before, and I’m sure he could lead that group the right way. So that’s who I feel will be leading the group if I ain’t in that building, is Reed Blankenship, because you know, he’s a great leader… for sure if I’m not in that room, Reed Blankenship will be a tremendous leader, you know, a great one…” (8:12 in the video below)
That’s pretty much as clear of an endorsement as you could possibly get; no beating around the bush there.
Going back to what Licata wrote: “Blankenship manned an Eagles secondary…” No one says that you “manned” something if you are just a guy; no one says the fella mopping the deck is the guy manning the cannon on a battleship — that’s the guy who’s white knuckling the controls and telling everyone around him what to do.
Yes, Zack Baun had the green dot on his helmet and was getting the calls from Vic Fangio, but based on the HOF’s piece and what Slay said, it sounds like Blankenship was a dominant voice and big personality for the Eagles' defense.
I don’t know if the Hall of Fame requests a jersey or if they ask the team whose jersey should be added to the exhibit, but it’s hard to imagine that they requested the jersey of a UDFA who has three tackles in the game, rather than Josh Sweat’s jersey when he had 2.5 sacks.
It seems reasonable to think that the Eagles wanted Blankenship's jersey in there. He may not have had a highlight-reel moment in the Super Bowl, but that might be the point. It seems like the Eagles wanted to show their appreciation to one of their new leaders who didn’t get as much shine as the other guys.
In 2024, the Eagles' 2022 UDFA from Middle Tennessee State University had four interceptions, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and 105 total tackles. Maybe it wasn’t the most gorgeous Super Bowl performance, but the dude embodies the Eagles' defense, and now he’s getting his shine in a shrine in Canton.