To understand what Brian Dawkins can mean to a city and franchise, note the story of Dan Leone.
For the past six years, Leone worked at a gate outside the Philadelphia Eagles stadium on game days. Leone not only was a fan of Dawkins’, an Eagles safety for the past 13 years, he sacrificed his job in tribute.
When the Eagles didn’t fork over enough dough to prevent Dawkins from leaving for a five-year contract with the Broncos, Leone expressed his outrage on his Facebook page.
“Dan is (expletive) devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver,” Leone wrote. “Dam Eagles R Retarded.”
Leone quickly deleted the post and apologized to the Eagles, but he was fired anyway.
“That someone goes off a little bit because one of their favorite players leaves is no surprise to me,” Dawkins said. “Philly fans are so passionate. The surprise to me was he was let go. This was a guy who grew up with this team, was upset one of his favorite players was let go, and he voiced his displeasure. And when he thought about it, he realized it wasn’t the best thing to do and he took it off, but the damage was done. I don’t agree with the decision he was let go, obviously.”
Arizona migration.
Before former Broncos long snapper Mike Leach signed a three- year contract with the Arizona Cardinals this week, the defending NFC champions hired Ryan Slowik as their assistant defensive backs coach. Slowik held the same position with the Broncos last season.
And there’s a chance that former Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist will follow them. Sundquist has interviewed for an unspecified personnel position with the Cardinals, who lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-23 in Super Bowl XLIII.
The Broncos were 58-38 in the six years Sundquist served as GM from 2002-07.
Blocking help.
The Broncos added depth to their offensive line Friday by signing former Eagles guard Scott Young. A former Brigham Young standout, Young has appeared in 14 NFL games, none as a starter. He was with the Eagles from 2005-07 and Cleveland last year.
Mike Klis, The Denver Post
