Brian Dawkins needs no introduction. The Eagles legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer, of course, captivated Philadelphia during his illustrious career. In his post-playing days, Dawkins is continuing to keep tabs on the Super Bowl-winning Birds, sure, but also is doing much, much more.
Dawkins has joined the "It Takes 2" initiative to spread awareness for kidney health as an ambassador with Boehringer & Lilly, particularly for those who have one or both of high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes.
On Tuesday, one of the most beloved Philly athletes ever spoke to PhillyVoice about "It Takes 2" and the NFL Draft…
PhillyVoice: What is your personal reasoning for wanting to promote the "It Takes 2" initiative so heavily?
Dawkins: When I found out this information, this is something that touches me because of my parents. Being an athlete, one of the things that has allowed me to be the thing that I was, the professional football player, is being proactive with my health. This is another avenue for me to continue to have that mindset.
My mom and dad both have type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure and so that could potentially have them going down the path of developing kidney disease, so the "It Takes 2" campaign is basically, you and your doctor, it takes two tests, a blood test and a urine test and from those tests, you can see if you're heading down that path for kidney disease or even cardiovascular risk as well.
PhillyVoice: Are those types of personal connections what should be a real driver for this testing?
Dawkins: It's people you care about. If you have a friend that has these two things going on with their health, if you care about them, you want them here and healthier longer. There's a statistic that says 35 million adults in the U.S. have kidney disease and don't know it. These are the things you want to be as proactive as possible to get on top of, to prevent it if you can.
PhillyVoice: We have the NFL Draft with the Birds coming off another Super Bowl win. You were a second-round pick in the draft. The Eagles have some very talented second-round picks on their team currently with Jalen Hurts, Cooper DeJean and Landon Dickerson. As a second-round pick, do you have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder as a guy you probably thought should've been a first-round pick? Do you carry that with you?
Dawkins: You can. If you have that type of mindset. I did. I was the last pick in the second round, so I consider myself to be a third-round pick. That's how I use that for motivation. I should've been a first-round pick. I knew that. Everything in my being knew that I should've been first round. I thought I was going first round [to] Kansas City. I thought I was going to be a Chief to be honest with you, but it didn't happen.
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The whole second round went by and I was the last pick, so I was extremely angry and frustrated. I used that. That was one of the things that I used as motivation throughout my career because I was picked so low in my opinion, third round.
PhillyVoice: The Eagles drafted you and really rebuilt the secondary going into the early 2000s… Over the last year, the Eagles' first two picks were two immediate stud defensive backs in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean… When you look at the way this team is constructed now, does it remind you of how those Jim Johnson defenses were… you had Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor and later on Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown?
Dawkins: Absolutely. You have to think, that at one point, the secondary was the strength of our team. You're leaving out Al Harris. We had Al at one point. That secondary that they put together at that time was tremendous. Troy… Bobby would move to the slot to play the nickel so you have a 6'2" guy with long arms in the slot and you have Troy and Al on the outside. There was a whole lot that Jim could do because we could hold up in the secondary.
That's one of the things I saw this past year, Vic [Fangio] early on in the year did not do a whole lot because he probably did not know if he could hold up as far as coverage is concerned, but when Cooper came in, he began to do a whole lot more from a coverage standpoint… A lot of that had to do with Cooper's versatility. It's a tremendous, tremendous thing…
They're drafting guys that are chess pieces. They're not just pegged to one position. They can be multiple…. That reminds me of Jim… That's what I see Vic Fangio doing with this team….
We didn't have what they did up front. We did not have a defensive tackle that could do what this young man [Jalen Carter] is doing. We did not have that. We had some good guys, Hollis [Thomas] and [Darwin Walker], but to me, he's a special player up front to dominate the way he's dominating.
More information from the "It Takes 2" initiative's kidney testing can be found at tesyourkidneys.com.
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