From T.O. to OT: Dallas' Jason Peters Joins List of 'Philadelphia Cowboys'
Jason Peters' former supporters in Philadelphia and his new faithful amongst Dallas Cowboys fans would perhaps never care to admit it, but the two rivals fulfill the ultimate cliche of the enemies: they're not so different, after all.
Swagger, the newly-minted Cowboys offensive lineman notes, is what unites the Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles, long-running NFC East rivals who have never hidden their animosity.
"I don't really call it arrogance. They have swagger, you know?" Peters remarked in his first Dallas-affiliated public comments. "(It's) pretty much the same thing. The swagger, they go week in and week out with that swagger ... That's how we did it in Philly and that's how we're going to do it here."
Peters spent a dozen NFL seasons in Philadelphia, making a name for himself as one of the most dominant blockers of the last decade. Those seasons included many a matchup with Dallas, who has often kept its distance from Philadelphia, and vice versa, though former star-wearers Miles Austin, Kelvin Martin, and DeMarco Murray all eventually traded in silver for green at some point in their respective careers.
Having spent last year in Chicago, Peters will no doubt remain a beloved figure in Phildaelphia. He's far from the first notable Eagle in team history to join the Dallas cause, a phenomenon that proved quite prevalent in the early days of the Cowboys' franchise ...
FB/TE/K Dick Bielski
The Eagles are responsible for bestowing Dallas their second Pro Bowler in team history after Bielski came over amongst the original Cowboys in the 1960 expansion draft. His efforts at tight end (377 yards on 26 receptions) earned him entry to the 1961 edition in Los Angeles.
Having previously become the first Philadelphia kicker to boot multiple 50-plus yard field goals in a single season, Bielski holds one of the most unbreakable records in NFL history as the earner of the shortest officially scored touchdown in league history. His two-inch score from Eddie LeBaron has been recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
WR Harold Carmichael
Carmichael would perhaps be the headliner of the all-time 'Wait, He Played For the Cowboys?!?!?' team. Partly responsible for some of the first things modern Eagle fans could call glory days in the Super Bowl era, Carmichael played two games with Dallas after a tryout with the New York Jets failed to pay dividends in 1984.
At age 35, he earned a singled starred reception, earning seven yards in an October win over Indianapolis.
QB Randall Cunningham
Cunningham was long removed from Philadelphia when he became one of the first names in the post-Troy Aikman quarterback gauntlet from the football netherworld at the-turn-of-the-century. By then, Cunningham had enjoyed a brief resurrection in Minnesota after an ugly divorce from the Eagles after the 1995 campaign.
When concussions finally started to claim Aikman's career, Cunningham often had to mop up whatever was left of the woebegone 2000 Cowboys' season alongside Anthony Wright. To his credit, the 37-year-old Cunningham had a few respectable showings, headlined by an overtime showdown with the Eagles that November. Cunningham was not retained afterward, as he moved to compete for a starting job against Elvis Grbac with the defending champion Baltimore Ravens.
S Jimmy Harris
A converted quarterback who oversaw a good part of Oklahoma's legendary 47-game winning streak in college, the late Harris holds a special footnote in Eagles history. When he was traded to Minnesota after his rookie season in 1957, Philadelphia gained back lauded quarterback Norm Van Brocklin.
Harris would later spend the last of five NFL seasons with the fledgling Cowboys in 1961, notably earning two interceptions in the third win in franchise history.
RB/WR Tommy McDonald
Should he be called upon for regular season action, Peters will not be the first Philadelphia champion to suit up for America's Team. That honor belongs to the late Hall-of-Famer McDonald, a jack-of-all-trades capable of lining up as both a halfback and a flanker.
Known for his All-American endeavors at Oklahoma, McDonald scored 46 touchdowns between 1960 and 1963, a time of Philadelphia prosperity that included the 1960 NFL championship. McDonald's good times came to an end when Philadelphia dealt him to Dallas, then a meandering expansion franchise desperate for any kind of traction. He was effective enough (second on the team with 612 yards in a 5-8-1 campaign) but that wasn't enough for Dallas to retain him. He spent his final seasons between Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Cleveland before retiring in 1968.
WR Terrell Owens
Perhaps the most famous ... or infamous ... green-to-blue transformation is that of the Hall-of-Famer Owens, who moved to North Texas at the height of his powers. Having become too much for Donovan McNabb and Eagles management to handle, Owens went to Dallas a mere four days after Philadelphia bid him farewell. Perhaps the observers should've seen it coming: five years after his infamous starry celebration at Texas Stadium with San Francisco, one of Owens' many controversies came when he wore a Michael Irvin jersey following a Dallas victory over the Eagles in 2005.
Owens' Dallas proved equally entertaining on the field, as he scored 38 touchdowns over three seasons in Dallas. But after the Cowboys failed to make any postseason headway despite Owens headlining an absurdly potent offense (his tearful press conference after the 2007-08 Divisional loss to New York became the lasting image of that season's otherwise historic group), he was released by Dallas in a move he defined as "blindsid(ing)." His final game in Dallas was the infamous 44-6 shellacking at Lincoln Financial Field that kept the Cowboys out of a playoff spot.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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