Mychal Kendricks: The Invisible Glue That Kept Eagles Together
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Eagles' leading tackler in the NFC Championship quietly got himself together, gave shoutouts to his teammates as they passed by, and took a few interviews here and there. Eagles' linebacker Mychal Kendricks didn't have a media horde in front of his locker in the Eagles' dressing room Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field, after making a game-high eight tackles in the Eagles' stunning 38-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
He should have.
Perhaps no other team in Eagles' history is as bonded as this group. It's a case of the sum certainly being better than the individual parts that has the Eagles heading to Minneapolis next week to play in Super Bowl LII against the defending world champion New England Patriots—and Kendricks, the 6-foot, 250-pound six-year veteran, is a major reason why.
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The Eagles are a success on the field, because of what goes on off the field. They constantly text each other. They constantly playfully razz each other, and no one is immune. They are a great melting pot, with no racial or ethnic barriers. There are no position or offense-defense boundaries. These guys actually like each other and like playing with and for each other.
But it's a delicate balance—an equilibrium that could have been torn apart easily by Kendricks. This time last year, Kendricks wasn't happy and he let the Eagles know it. He was viewed as a persona non grata on the defense, playing in 15 games, and starting just eight, finishing with a career-low 32 tackles. He wanted out and the Eagles were willing to oblige. When nothing materialized, Kendricks was not too pleased, though he did something very unselfish and kept his mouth shut. He could have wrecked the harmony of the locker room, and in turn, possibly disrupted the strong knot this team was creating.
One doesn't have to look too far back to see the impact Terrell Owens had in destroying the team chemistry of the 2005 Eagles, who finished 6-10—after going 13-3 the previous year and losing in the Super Bowl to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Being selfish is just not a part of Kendricks' makeup. He didn't pout. He didn't complain. He kept it out of the locker room and kept it professional. He didn't have to, especially in this day and age, when disgruntled pro athletes are prone to air their grievances via social media or through a multitude of other platforms. Kendricks chose to stay old-school and play—and actually play well, as he did on Sunday.
"I love these guys and I love the guys that I play next to and I couldn't nor wouldn't tear that apart," Kendricks said. "That's not me. It's not the way I think. I thought I could do a lot more for the team, and the football player is bred to always place the team before himself.
"That's what I did. I think that comes from my support system, the people that I talk to every day. It's my brother, Eric, it's my brothers on this team. It's friends and family, and it's also the way I've been conditioned my whole life from Pop Warner. Duce Staley gave us a great speech last night [before the NFC championship game] that was unreal.
"He said since the beginning when we all started playing football, this was our dream, playing at the highest level. At some point, you get punched in the stomach, the air knocked out of you, you wanted to quit, right? But something in you, or your system, told you to get back up and keep on going. I couldn't let these guys down. I wasn't about to bring what was going on with me inside here and let these guys down. I couldn't do that."
It's just not in Mychal Kendricks' DNA. It's why he's been the invisible glue that's kept this close-knit group moving forward.
"And I'm fine being that," he said.
