Buddy Ryan and the Watchin’ You Video

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Buddy

Buddy Ryan was an icon in my development as a young Eagles fan. I was a kid during the Eagles 1980 Super Bowl run. I was a teenager/young adult during the Buddy Years.

While Vermeil had three great seasons of double-digit wins, I grew up hearing about the lean and futile years of Eagles football. Those three Vermeil led seasons felt like an anomaly. When he left the Eagles, the franchise seemed to fall back down to their reality under the Marion Campbell years.

Buddy Ryan took over in 1986. In the 24 years leading up to Ryan’s arrival, the Eagles had 5 seasons with a winning record. That’s right, 19 out of 24 seasons found the Eagles under .500. That was brutal.

Buddy arrived and gave the Super Bowl-less franchise an identity. He gave the city pride about the team. The Eagles may lose games, but no one wanted to play them. Even if teams won the war against the Eagles, casualties were almost aways certain.

Thanks, Buddy, for returning pride to our city and football team.

Buddy’s players loved him. They loved him enough to make a song about him, Buddy’s Watchin’ You, and a subsequent video. Thanks to Eric Edholm over at Yahoo sports for the reminder.

The video is a glorious trip down memory lane to one of the best times to be an Eagles fan with some of the best players in franchise history.

The video is below. Highlights include:

Jerome Brown rockin’ bad ass red pants with a black & red leather jacket. It’s only bad ass beause it’s Jerome and he could do no wrong.

Randall Cunningham’s lapels are about 3 feet wide.

Mike Quick has a cool voice and a dope sweater.

Acid Wash jeans are everywhere.

Luis Zendejas sports a porn stache with a cardigan. He also reads more than raps. Who would guess Buddy would put a bounty on Luis’ head like a year or two later. Poor Luis.

Keith Jackson is a smooth operator.

Randall  gives us a YEAH BOYEE

Reggie White decided to wear a track suit for the video shoot. Again, he can do no wrong.

Wes Hopkins refers to himself as Wild Wild West.

Andre Waters refers to himself as Dirty Waters.

Gregg Garrity also enjoys the porn stache.

Roynell Young was one of my favorites. His voice is crazy deep. He might need to relax a bit and unbutton that shirt.

David Little who? Totally forgot about this dude. Thought he might be Max Runager before he took the mic.

Jerome must’ve done a wardrobe change. He gives a YEAH BOYEE in a white shirt instead of the red & black ensemble from earlier.

Check it out…good stuff.