PHILADELPHIA — Anyone who has ever put on a helmet and shoulder pads dreams of playing in the Super Bowl.
Hugh Douglas lived the dream.
A Mansfield native and Senior High graduate, Douglas was a reserve defensive end nearing the end of his career when the Philadelphia Eagles reached Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. The Eagles fell to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 24-21 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.
Memories of that experience came rushing back across the years this week as the Eagles prepare for Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Glendale Ariz.
“What I remember most about that time was the pomp and the pageantry and the realization that you’ve reached the pinnacle of your sport,” said Douglas, who recently returned to his adopted hometown as a sports talk radio host at 94 WIP in Philadelphia. “There have been a lot of great players who have played in the NFL that never reached that game.
“And there are a lot of great players who reached that game. To be a part of that history and that fraternity, it was a dream come true.”
After starring at NAIA Central State University near Dayton, Douglas was drafted in the first round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the New York Jets. He was the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year and played two more seasons in New York before being traded to Philadelphia in 1998.
The Eagles were 3-13 during Douglas’ first season in Philadelphia in 1998 and made a coaching change, firing Ray Rhodes and bringing in a quarterbacks coach from Green Bay named Andy Reid.
While Reid, who will coach Kansas City in Glendale on Sunday, will likely end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in the late 1990s he was an unproven coach with no head coaching experience. It was a fact not lost on Douglas.
“I remember when Coach Reid got to Philadelphia and I didn’t think he was all that as a coach. He was the quarterbacks coach from Green Bay,” Douglas said. “I remember being in practice one day and saying, ‘He doesn’t know what the hell he is doing.’ I said it loud enough that he could hear me and he told me to quit my whining.
“Ever since then we’ve had that relationship. I respect him tremendously, the path that he’s taken and the sacrifices he’s made in life. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Coach Reid.”
Douglas developed into one of the most feared pass rushers in the NFL while with the Eagles during the early-2000s. He had a career-high 15 sacks and was a first-team All-Pro in 2000, earning the first of three consecutive Pro Bowl appearances. He signed with Jacksonville after the 2002 season and spent just one season with the Jaguars before re-signing with the Eagles before the 2004 season.
“I knew at that point my football career was winding down. My mindset was to get one more bite of the apple,” Douglas said of the decision to re-sign in Philadelphia. “There were a few teams that were calling and I was thinking I could get one more big payday and ride off into the sunset.
“A friend of mine who lives in Ohio called me and said, ‘Fool, you better take your butt back to Philly. They are about to go to the Super Bowl and you would be foolish to go anywhere else.’ It was the best advice I ever got.”
In his first game back with the Eagles, a 31-17 win over the New York Giants, Douglas had a sack but tore the rotator cuff in his shoulder. Team doctors told him the injury would require surgery, but Douglas balked.
“I decided I was going to ride it out because I didn’t want to be on IR (injured reserve). I knew it was probably going to be my last season and I was going to contribute any way I could with one arm,” he said. “The doctor said, ‘The longer you wait, the harder it is going to be to repair it.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’
“It was my last go-around and I figured I’d just tough it out.”
Philadelphia was 13-3 during the 2004 season, earning the top seed in the NFC playoffs. Convincing wins over the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons followed, sending the Eagles to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1981.
“There were a lot of distractions because that was the first time the Eagles had been to the Super Bowl in a long time. There was that and the fact that so many Eagles fans were coming down to Jacksonville to invade that city,” Douglas said. “Big Red (Reid) did a great job of keeping the distractions to a minimum.
“What I remember most about the Super Bowl is that every day leading up to the game it felt like it ramped up a little more.”
The game was tied 14-14 after three quarters, but Brady led a pair of scoring drives to give New England a 24-14 lead. The Eagles scored a touchdown with less than two minutes remaining to make it 24-21, but the Patriots recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock for their second consecutive Super Bowl title, and third in four years.
Remarkably, Brady would lead New England to Super Bowl victories in 2015, 2017 and 2019 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the title in 2021 before announcing his retirement earlier this month after 23 seasons.
“To play as long as he has played at that position, that’s phenomenal,” Douglas said. “I was talking to a coaching friend of mine and he was telling me the quarterback position is the most important position in all of professional sports, not just football. And I agree with that.
“That is a very hard position to play and if you find one with talent, you have to get as much as you can from him.”
As for Douglas, Super Bowl XXXIX was his final game. He worked for the Eagles’ front office briefly before getting into broadcasting. He was with ESPN and spent several years on the radio in Atlanta before returning to Philadelphia.
Douglas was inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame in November. He is one of just 51 players enshrined by the franchise.
“Being inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame meant everything. Think about all the great players who played in Philadelphia, from Reggie White to Jerome Brown and Clyde Simmons,” Douglas said. “To be mentioned in the same breath as those guys, just a small kid from Mansfield, Ohio, who never knew what he was going to be when he was growing up, to be a part of that elite group, it’s very very special.”
The Philadelphia fan base has long embraced Douglas as one of its own.
“I really forgot how crazy these fans are about football. It’s beautiful and scary at the same time because these fans are rabid,” Douglas said. “The beautiful thing about it is, people will come up to me and say, ‘I remember you from when I was 3 years old and you signed my jersey.’ I don’t remember that, but I’m glad that the fans do. It’s a great feeling.”
As for Sunday’s game, Douglas likes his former team. Philadelphia is looking for its first championship since beating the Brady-led Patriots in Super Bowl LII in 2018.
“I like the Eagles, I really do,” said Douglas, who will not attend the game in Arizona on Sunday. “Playing against the Bengals a few weeks ago, I think the Chiefs’ secondary was exposed. They have a young secondary and they made a lot of mistakes on the back end. You have (Eagles receivers) DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, who can stretch a defense. And you have a running game. I think there are some plays that can be made on the back end of that Kansas City defense.
“Here’s the thing. (Kansas City quarterback) Patrick Mahomes is a special player. I know his receivers are banged up. The game is going to be won or lost in the trenches. I expect it to be a great game.”