Eagles describe their past painful championship near misses

PHILADELPHIA – There are only six players on the Eagles roster who have won a Super Bowl.

That leaves 47 players on the team who haven't, and many of those have never won a championship at any level.

That's not the case for the Patriots, the Eagles' opponent in the Super Bowl next Sunday in Minneapolis. The Patriots have won the Super Bowl in two of the past three seasons. They have a roster filled with players who have played and won the biggest games.

Quarterback Tom Brady is trying for his sixth Super Bowl win in eight tries.

Most of the Eagles' players, for now, can only reminisce at the championships that got away.

Take Rasul Douglas. As a junior in high school, his team, East Orange High in New Jersey played against Piscataway High School in the semifinals of the state playoffs.

Douglas described the turning point in a 7-0 loss:

"That was a tough one," Douglas said. "We punted out of the end zone and the wind blew it back to the 1-yard line. That's where they got the ball. We held them for three downs. They couldn't get in. On fourth down, the dude [Tevin Shaw] jumped over the line and scored. We were hoping we could get a touchdown and go to OT, but we never got there.

"There were a lot of guys crying after the game. I wasn’t crying… I did everything I could. I was upset we lost, but I felt like I did everything I could."

The next game, Piscataway beat Elizabeth for the state championship as Shaw rushed for 304 yards.

"I know for a fact we would have beaten Elizabeth and won the championship," Douglas said. "We were better than both of those teams."

Douglas always thought he'd get another chance, but it took a while through two seasons at Nassau Community College in New York and three more at West Virgina. Even as a rookie playing in the Super Bowl, Douglas knows now that is not the case.

"I felt like when a chance comes, you gotta take advantage of it because if you don’t, you might not get another," Douglas said. "Everything changes from year to year. So when you get there, you gotta win. At the end of the year, this locker room isn't going to be the same. There are going to be people here, somewhere else."

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Defensive back Jaylen Watkins was a junior Florida in 2012, and the Gators were ranked sixth late in the season.

Florida had just beaten rival Florida State, and the Gators were poised to move up in the rankings, likely into one of the top four positions – and thus the four-team college football playoff – as long as Notre Dame lost to Southern Cal later that night.

The Irish, however, had a nine-point lead late in the game. USC threw an apparent touchdown pass to cut into the lead, but the play was nullified when head coach Lane Kiffin called timeout a split-second before the snap.

The Trojans then faced a fourth down from the Notre Dame 1 yard line. There was still time for the Trojans to kick a field goal, then recover an onsides kick and hope to win the game with a touchdown.

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Instead, USC went for it on fourth down, got stopped and thus lost the game.

"I went to UF for that very reason," Watkins said about possibly winning a championship. "On the way back from beating Florida State, we’re watching Notre Dame-USC. USC throws that touchdown, but Lane Kiffin is running out on the field and calls timeout. I remember us just looking at each other like, 'What is he doing?'"

Notre Dame ended up losing in the national championship game to Alabama, 42-14.

"We were better than Notre Dame," Watkins said. "I'm not saying we would have beaten Alabama, but we would have given them a good game."

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Wide receiver Mack Hollins was in a similar situation. In 2015, he and his North Carolina teammates were 11-1 and ranked No. 8 in the nation heading into the ACC Championship game against Clemson, which was undefeated and ranked No. 1.

The Tar Heels would have been one of the teams considered for the college football playoffs with a victory, and Hollins said the team was thrilled to have the opportunity. And they played that way. UNC had just pulled to within eight points, 45-37, with 1:13 remaining.

That set up an onsides kick. North Carolina recovered the kick, and Hollins said the players were jumping up and down with excitement.

Then they looked back and saw a penalty flag.

"Fluke call," Hollins said. "The ref called offsides on an onsides kick. We had to rekick it, and they recovered and won the game. But if you look at the video, you can see that nobody was offsides. It was a bad call, but that's life."

Hollins said he isn't bitter about the call as much as the plays the Tar Heels didn't make, both on offense and defense.

"If we would have scored on a couple of other plays, then you wouldn’t even need the onsides kick to win the game," Hollins said. "You can’t put it all on that one kick."

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Jake Elliott's near-miss moment wasn't in football. Rather, it was for a chance to go to the Little League World Series back when he was 12 years old.

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Elliott was the shortstop and leadoff hitter for Western Springs in 2007. The team played in the Great Lakes Region, with the winner of the six-team round-robin tournament going on to Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series.

Western Springs went 4-0 and advanced to the semifinal round where it faced New Albany (Indiana). Western Springs had beaten New Albany 7-2 the day before. But the semifinals is single elimination, and Western Springs fell 5-4.

New Albany then lost in the championship game 6-1 to Hamilton West Side (Ohio).

"That was a tough one, especially because the team we lost to, we beat the day before," Elliott said. "It was pretty disappointing."

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There were other near misses for Eagles players.

Kenjon Barner's Oregon team lost in the BCS national championship game to Cam Newton and Auburn in 2011.

Tight end Brent Celek was in his second season with the Eagles in 2008 when they won two road playoff games before losing to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship game, thus keeping the Eagles one win away from the Super Bowl.

And Lane Johnson, while at Oklahoma, saw his team ranked No. 3 heading into a late-season game against Texas Tech. The Sooners fell behind 31-7, got to within 41-38 in the final minute. They had one last chance, but Landry Jones' pass into the end zone fell incomplete.

That loss knocked the Sooners out of contention for a spot in the BCS Championship game.

"We knew it at the time," Johnson said about missing out on a national championship. "Obviously, you’ve got to finish up the season, but it was definitely disheartening especially at a place like that when you’re expecting to be in contention every year."

And that is the overriding lesson for these Eagles. No matter what sport, and no matter what level, the opportunities for a championship only come around so often. That's why the Eagles aren't taking this opportunity in the Super Bowl for granted.

"The road is so long and frustrating and it can be so disappointing," Watkins said. "So with us looking back on our injuries, we have to win this game because of everything we overcame.

"You never know when you’ll get another chance."

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.