The Eagles have been, above the last ten or so years, a team that has demonstrated flashes of brilliance at times. With runs into the playoffs on numerous occasions, their fans have been given hope time and once more, but repeatedly had individuals hopes dashed. In reality, above their 77 year history, the Eagles have repeatedly had periods in which they appeared ready to move onto the next level and compete for a Super Bowl, but never seem to get it done. Even when they have appeared from the game – once in 1980 and again in 2004 – they’ve not been able to win it. For older Eagles fans, the true glory days from the franchise aren’t now, but occurred more than a half century ago throughout the coaching tenure of Earle Neale.Creating the DraftThe Eagles were finest known for losing prior to hiring Neale. The problem that they chiefly had was a single of building their new franchise from the bottom up. Their owner’s idea, presented for the NFL in 1935, was to change the game in ways that even he could not have envisioned. For reasons related solely to his own team’s future prospects, he talked the NFL into instituting a player draft of graduating college football stars. The teams with the worst record within the previous season would have the primary selection of those college prospects. The concept caught hold and has continued for the present day. Each year, the nation’s top collegiate athletes enter the NFL Draft in hopes of being selected for a single of the NFL’s franchise football teams. Though the Eagles would eventually achieve accomplishment in the system they proposed, their very 1st selection was a bust. In reality, they chose somebody who had no intention of playing at the professional level, and who went to medical school instead.Team-building from the ground upThe Eagles did manage to figure out how to use the draft to their advantage, nonetheless, and began to make choices that would enable them to rapidly improve their fortunes. And while Neale’s ability to coach at the highest levels with the game certainly played the major part in his teams’ accomplishment, there is no arguing that the draft had a profound effect on the choices offered to him from a coaching perspective. In the course of the 1940s, Neale’s Eagles went from last to second to 1st in their division. Behind the stellar play of such Eagles luminaries as Thompson and Van Buren, the Philadelphia franchise elevated itself from laughingstock to dominating champion. By the end with the Forties, the Eagles competed in three consecutive title games for the NFL crown, winning in ’48 and ’49. In both of those victories, their defense did not enable a single opponent score.The defense that lives onWhen it came to defense, Neale’s still live on to this day. It was he who originated the famous Eagle Defense that was adopted by other franchises around the League. That defense now lives on inside the modern 4-3 formation that’s still well-liked these days. Neale’s championship years with the Eagles, along with his defensive innovations, helped him to earn a spot within the NFL Hall of Fame.
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