Eagles Share Best Memories Of Previous Christmases

PHILADELPHIA – They aren’t the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, but just three of the best players at their respective positions in the NFL, and they were asked this week to recall their fondest Christmas memories.

JORDAN DAVIS

The defensive tackle was raised by his single mom, Shay Allen, and it was a constant struggle to provide for her son. No matter how dire the financial situation, she always made sure to provide meals and memories, sometimes getting help from the Salvation Army for food and a Christmas present.

“I’m really appreciative that my mom always had a gift for me at Christmas,” said Davis. “No matter how bad our situation was at the time, there was always a gift under the tree. It was always the spirit of giving.

“I think that’s my biggest motivation now and why I go so hard in giving back because I knew how it was not to have a great Christmas and I just want to do everything I can to help somebody else out. It’s the season of giving. I wouldn’t be at this point if somebody else didn’t give back to me. It’s just an amazing feeling to be able to come full circle and be able to do that, and just to see a lot of lights on kids’ faces.”

Days before Thanksgiving, Davis’s foundation made sure 100 families had turkeys and were presented with laptops at a community gathering in Camden.

“I live my life with love and humility, and everything I’ve done I wouldn’t have done without the help of others, without the help of God,” he said. “If you believe, that’s the way. If you have an opportunity to give back, it goes for everybody, it takes nothing to be kind - literally nothing to be kind and to give a little back.”

Snowed In

CAM JURGENS

Cam Jurgens loved growing up in the tiny town of Beatrice, Nebraska. The Eagles center was particularly enamored with the wild weather, where tornadoes strike in summer and snow piles up in winter. The night the Eagles drafted him, a tornado siren sounded and he and his family fled to the storm cellar to wait until the all-clear sounded.

Then there was one Christmas when the power went out. For three days. Without a generator, the Jurgens’ used candles to see and a wood stove for heating and cooking. They played a lot of cards, like ‘Pitch,’ a game Jurgens said is similar to ‘Spades.’

“Growing up in Nebraska, out in the country, when it snows and the wind goes, I mean, you get huge drifts,” he said. “(There was) so much family time around the house. That was fun. But I do remember that I got like a (Nintendo) DS, and that I could only charge it if I went out to my parents’ vehicle, and I had to run it. My dad got all pissed - ‘stop running the vehicle, you’re wasting gas to charge your damn game.’ Yeah, that was good memory.”

Best Gift Ever

ZACK BAUN

Baun grew up in Wisconsin, but it was last year that his fondest Christmas memory arrived. It came in the form of a baby boy, Elian, born on April 8.

“It was my first Christmas with my son, said Baun. “He was under 1 at that time. He’s like 20 months now. Since he came into the world, especially now that he’s walking and talking, it’s been so cool for me as a dad to relive childhood through his eyes. It’s kind of like I get to do it over again and make the holidays special for him. Especially this year, he’s saying Santa and it’s just freaking cool.”

For those wondering, Baun and his wife, Ali, took Elian to see Santa and put him on the big man’s lap. Elian didn’t shed a single tear.

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