PHILADELPHIA - Football is just a footnote in the sad, untimely passing of former Philadelphia Eagles special-teams star Bryan Braman, gone at the age of 38 from a rare form of brain cancer.
The unfairness of an insidious disease and the fact that Braman’s two young daughters will have to persevere and grow up without their father should highlight how little professional sports means in the larger context of life.
That said, Braman’s contributions to the Eagles on the field over two stints with the organization shouldn’t be forgotten.
He arrived in 2014 one year into the Chip Kelly era, signing as a free agent after developing his reputation as one of the better special-teams players in the NFL in Houston.
More emphasis was being put on the third phase in Philadelphia under Kelly, something the somewhat polarizing former Eagles head coach deserves some credit for. Kelly hired Dave Fipp to be his special-teams coordinator, and the soft policy was to have a couple of players whose expertise was special teams.
Under Fipp, who eventually bridged over to the Doug Pederson era, Philadelphia was nearly always one of the more well-regarded special teams groups in the league.
And the two constants to that were Chris Maragos and Braman, once dubbed the “craziest special teamer in the NFL,” for going a million miles an hour without his helmet to make a tackle.
Braman spent three seasons in Philadelphia before signing with New Orleans for the 2017 season.
By December of that year, he was back in Philadelphia to help bolster Fipp’s coverage units again, and Braman's presence paid dividends in the form of a blocked punt in a tight divisional round playoff win over Atlanta.
The Eagles, of course, went on from there to blow out Minnesota in the NFC Championship Game and win a shootout over Tom Brady and the Patriots in Super Bowl LII, earning the organization’s first Lombardi Trophy.
Braman, meanwhile, had earned his Super Bowl ring in his last game as a professional.
That’s a small consolation on a devastating day for those who were close to Braman, but it deserves to be celebrated.
