Jason Avant: It Was A Blessing Being Around Brian Dawkins

The heart and soul of the Eagles Defense for over a decade was Brian Dawkins and the four-time All-Pro Safety will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this Saturday night.  Dawkins is the only player in NFL history to have at least 25 Sacks, 25 Interceptions and 25 Forced Fumbles for a career and he was one of only three Safeties in league history to be selected to Nine Pro Bowls; the other two were Hall Of Fame Safeties Paul Krause and Larry Wilson.  Dawkins played 13 season in Eagles' Green and finished his career top ten in Franchise history in Tackles (707) and Interceptions (34).

Eight-Year Eagles Wide Receiver Jason Avant joined Mike Gill on Wednesday discussing his memories of being Brian Dawkins' teammate:

"(Brian Dawkins is) my favorite teammate of all time - When I was a rookie, Brian would always be the last person in the locker room, so I would always sit there and be there with him. When he was doing the cold tub, I would be in there with him. When he would be in the hot tub, I’d be in the hot tub with him. I would just follow him around like a little puppy.  He’d do a little extra weight training, I would do extra weight training. I would ask him questions and he was so giving, he didn’t have to, but he would talk to me about the importance of taking care of my body. He would talk to me about the importance of being prepared in meetings, the importance of saving your money, the importance of different aspects of life and I thought it was a mentoring role and he didn’t have to do it, knowing his future and also what he was at the time. So I thought of him as a giving person; Also he was a stand up guy and you didn’t have to worry about him week after week....You know that Brian Dawkins is going to be the same person week in and week out and that’s the only thing you can ask for as a teammate. If you’re a coach you want a consistently good player all the time and he was. For so many years the heartbeat of the team - He was loyal to the Eagles all the way to the end and it was a blessing being around him."

Checkout what Avant had to say about the 2018 Eagles, Nick Foles, Carson Wentz, and more