The No. 25 Brought a Dilemma: Hall of Fame WR or Possible HOF Runner?

It’s 25 days until the season opener in Washington and that creates a bit of a conundrum for our jersey countdown to kickoff, the Hall of Fame receiver or the franchise-leading rusher?

The gavel comes down in favor of Tommy McDonald over LeSean McCoy, however, because when it comes to professional football, Canton in the ultimate individual honor, and the former has it. The latter is unlikely to achieve it despite a great career that will continue in Tampa this season.

McDonald was a star on the 1960 Eagles championship team, a first-team All-Pro that season who hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass in the big game as Philadelphia beat the Vince Lombardi Green Bay Packers. He arrived in Philadelphia three years earlier as a third-round pick out of Oklahoma and spent the first seven seasons of a 12-year NFL career with the Eagles.

By 1961, McDonald led the NFL in receiving yards with 1,144 and touchdowns (13). Meanwhile, his seven-catch, 237-yard performance against the New York Giants that season is still the franchise record for receiving yards nearly 60 years later despite the spike in the passing game in recent decades.

McDonald was a six-time Pro Bowl selection with five of those coming in Philly and his four first- or second-team All-Pro nods all came with the Eagles.

He is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame, as well as the Eagles Hall of Fame and the organization’s 75th Anniversary Team. McDonald’s portrait is also one of the few that resides in the NovaCare Complex’s Auditorium.

Always one of the most popular former Eagles, Hall of Fame sports journalist Ray Didinger even penned an autobiographical production for the stage called “Tommy and Me” which explored Didinger’s life as he aided his hero McDonald reach the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

McDonald passed in 2018 at the age of 84.

Current number 25:

UNASSIGNED: It’s honestly somewhat surprising that the Eagles haven’t retired the number for McDonald by this point.

Top 3 to wear number 25:

3. Tom Sullivan. A 15th-round draft pick out of Miami in 1972 Sullivan not only stuck around he lasted six years in Philadelphia and even led the entire NFL in rushing touchdowns during the 1974 season with 11.

Sullivan was a starter for five of the six seasons he played with the Eagles topping out with 968 yards rushing in 1973. Overall, he ran for 3,135 yards in his career as one of the most productive runners in team history who most don’t remember.

2. LeSean McCoy. The Eagles’ all-time leading rusher with 6,792 yards, McCoy has added two more 1,000-yard seasons since leaving Philadelphia and amassed 11,071 yards total in a career that will enter its 12th season in 2020 as a second-round pick out of Pitt.

McCoy had four 1,000-yard campaigns with the Eagles and an astonishing 1,607 yards in 2013 when he led the NFL. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection with Philadelphia and a two-time All-Pro.

McCoy’s tenure with the Eagles went off the rails during the Chip Kelly era and he was traded to Buffalo for linebacker Kiko Alonso.

McCoy has no love lost for Kelly, claiming the coach "got rid of all the good black players" or that Kelly "doesn't like or respect stars." The latter being the fairer criticism as it was McCoy’s personality that sent Chip toward shipping the star out of town.

McCoy loved his time in Philadelphia under Andy Reid and has intimated a desire to return with Doug Pederson at the helm but the Eagles never took that path.

1. Tommy McDonald. See Above.

Runner-up. Pete Retzlaff: An Eagles Hall of Famer as a player and a former general manager of the team Retzlaff’s familiar No. 44 is retired but few remember he wore No. 25 as a rookie out of South Dakota State in 1953.

Others: Osborne Wilson, Leonard Gudd, Henry Reese, Emmet Kriel, Russ Thompson, Hugh McCullough, Toy Ledbetter, Bill Mack, Bob Shann, Larry Conjar, Bill Bryant, Zachary Dixon, Dennis DeVaughn, Anthony Toney, Tom Gerhart, Charlie Garner, Greg Tremble, Deral Boykin, Willie Clark, Allen Rossum, Je’Rod Cherry, Monty Montgomery, Dorsey Levens, Lamar Gordon, Dustin Fox, and Lorenzo Booker.

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportMap Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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