New Eagles safety Will Parks: ‘Brian Dawkins is one of my favorite people in the world’
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Will Parks doesn’t hesitate a bit.
His favorite Eagle as a kid growing up in North Philly?
“Of course,” he said. “I think we all know it’s Brian Dawkins.”
Twelve years after Dawk played his final snap in an Eagles uniform, Parks is now playing the same position on the same team as Dawk did when Parks was a kid.
Parks grew up near 2nd and Allegheny in the city’s Fairhill neighborhood and played football at Germantown High, which closed in 2013, a year after he graduated.
Parks played college football at Arizona and was a sixth-round pick of the Broncos in 2016. After four years in Denver, he signed a one-year deal with the Eagles on Saturday.
Brian Dawkins is one of my favorite safeties ever,” Parks said Tuesday. “I could name so many people on the Eagles that I’ve watched that I could tell you about, but Brian Dawkins is definitely one of my favorite people in the world, and actually when we came to play the Eagles in 2017 and I walked on the field for pre-game warmups, he was the first person I met. First person I met over there. And then he hit me up when I finally decided I was coming here.
Parks was only 21 months old when the Eagles drafted Dawkins in 1996, but he was a high school freshman by the time Dawkins finished his career here and he was 17 when Dawkins retired from the Broncos, the team that drafted Parks five years later.
Parks said he heard from Dawk as soon as he signed here.
“Just the normal, ‘Hit me up, whatever you need,'” Parks said. “I’m excited to be able to pick his brain and learn from him as much as I can.”
Hard to imagine a better player or person to learn from.
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