Tim Hawk | For NJ.com

By Zack Rosenblatt | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The 2017 season was supposed to be Darren Sproles' swan song.

After a stellar career, this would be the last one. The Eagles had a storybook ending, playing until the last game of the season, winning Super Bowl LII as underdogs.

Sproles spent his entire life as an underdog, but especially as an NFL player.

A 5-foot-6 running back who played just about every possible game — and played them well — over the course of 10 seasons? Has there ever been anyone like him?

That's a legacy.

Then, on one play last season, it all changed. He was injured in Week 3 and never played again. He wasn't going to go out like that. He will be going out this season.

Sunday, he wrote a letter admitting as much.

Injuries are "something you don't have any control over," Sproles wrote, "but I feel like I left a lot out there, and I couldn't let my career end like that."

However Sproles' season ends this time, it will mark the final year in one of the most improbable — and remarkable — careers in NFL history.

Here's a look back at Sproles story from high school to the Eagles, and everything in between.

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Pre-NFL

As the story goes, Sproles has been doubted at every level of football because of his size. He's a 5-foot-6 running back, after all, the picture of a diminutive NFL running back.

Back in Olathe, Kansas, he was even viewed as too small for youth football until his first-ever carry went for an 80-yard touchdown.

By his senior year of high school, he was one of the most productive high school football players Kansas has ever produced, rushing for 5,230 yards and 79 touchdowns (!) as a senior, still largely ignored by most colleges. He stayed close and went to Kansas State.

He thrived there, too. After starting out "sixth or seventh" on the depth chart and primarily a scout team tailback. Then he only broke free for three runs of 60 yards or more in 2001 against a talented USC defense, all for touchdowns, and never looked back.

He was fifth in Heisman voting in 2003 and finished with 4,979 rushing yards and 80 touchdowns in his college career.

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NFL Draft

With Sproles' college productivity, he was a lock to be drafted. Scouts told him he would've been a first-round pick .... if he was taller.

"That's the dilemma teams faced when I entered the draft out of Kansas State in 2005," Sproles wrote for Players Tribune in 2015. T"he only number scouts cared about was the one number I couldn't control: my height. "If you were 5-foot-9, you'd be a top-five pick," they said. But I wasn't. I was 5-foot-6, which meant only one thing to scouts."

"Durability was the main concern," he continued. "Scouts thought because I was so small, I wouldn’t be able to withstand the hits I’d take at the NFL level. I never missed a game in college, and I was getting the ball over 20 times a game, plus returning kicks and punts. Durability? That shouldn’t even have been a question.

As expected, he fell to the fourth round, pick No. 130, when the San Diego Chargers scooped him up.

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Rich Kane

Chargers

It took a few years for Sproles to become a real part of San Diego's running back rotation, though he did spend valuable time learning from a Hall of Famer in LaDainian Tomlinson.

He only had 11 offensive touches as a rookie in 2005 and missed his entire second season due to a broken ankle.

Durability questions?

Well, over the next 10 seasons, Sproles played 153 of 160 possible games.

By 2008, he was a bonafide offensive weapon out of the backfield and as a returner, getting 2,295 all-purpose yards that season.

His coming out party, really, came during that postseason.

Replacing an injured Tomlinson against the Colts, Sproles was dominant. He rushed 23 time for 105 yards and two touchdowns, including a 22-yard touchdown that ended the game. He also caught five passes for 45 yards, returned four kickoffs for 106 yards and three punts for 72 yards. The 328 all-purpose yards were, at the time, No. 3 on the all-time playoff list.

He spent two more years with the Chargers before leaving in free agency.

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Saints

In the summer of 2011, Sproles signed a four-year, $11 million contract with the Saints, joining up with his rookie year quarterback in Drew Brees.

It was a smart move.

In New Orleans' high-octane offense, Sproles had the best years of his career, none better than 2011. That year, he finished with 603 rushing yards, 710 receiving yards (on 86 catches) and 10 total touchdowns. He led the NFL with 2,696 all-purpose yards.

"I think a Darren Sproles only comes around once in your lifetime, in my career and in everybody's career," Brees said. "There may be another one 15, 20 years from now. But there's not many guys like Darren Sproles. He's a special player, he's a special person, he's a special teammate."

In March of 2014, the Saints traded Sproles to the Eagles.

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Eagles

The Eagles acquired Sproles from the Saints in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2014. It's safe to say that was a bargain.

"Darren Sproles is an unbelievable offensive weapon,” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said in a statement at the time. “He can do it all, run, catch, plus he’s a proven winner. And on top of that, he can bring all of those dynamic skills to the return game as well. There is no question we were all excited once we found out we were going to be able to trade for him.”

It was one of the best moves the Eagles made during Kelly's tenure.

Sproles was a Pro Bowler — for special teams — all three seasons he was healthy in Philadelphia from 2014-16. Over that three-year stretch, Sproles had 1,084 rushing yards, 1,202 receiving yards (on 147 catches) with 14 offensive touchdowns. On special teams, he had four punt return touchdowns and led the NFL in punt return yards twice (2014-15) and return average once (2014).

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Tim Hawk | For NJ.com

2017

Last season was supposed to be his ... well, last season.

At the start of the season, Sproles was essentially the Eagles' lead — or at least co-lead — running back, leading the team in carries in Week 2.

In Week 3 against the Giants, everything changed.

On one play early in the second quarter, Sproles — one of the NFL's most durable running backs over the last decade — suffered two serious injuries simultaneously. Sproles tore his ACL and broke his forearm. His "final" season was over in less than three games.

"Devastating," Eagles coach Doug Pederson said at the time.

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The final Final Season

Sproles indicated throughout his injured 2017 campaign that he wasn't going to let those injuries be the lasting memory of his football career. He rehabbed and worked towards a comeback throughout the Eagles marvelous 2017 season and Super Bowl trot.

Ultimately, though, he became a free agent at the end of the season. Since his injury, the Eagles added a talented running back in Jay Ajayi and former undrafted free agent Corey Clement emerged as a legitimate NFL running back and weapon.

Most projected the Eagles to select a running back in April, and by then the Eagles still hadn't re-signed Sproles, and didn't speak much about the possibility, either.

Then, on Day 3 of the draft, Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman dropped a bombshell — the Eagles agreed to a one-year contract with Sproles, and expected him to be ready for the season.

Sproles appeared for the team's three-day veteran minicamp in the spring, though he was limited.

“It feels great to be back,” Sproles said after his first practice back. “The knee is feeling great. The whole offseason I’ve been rehabbing, working out, pretty much doing my regular stuff.”

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Tim Hawk | For NJ.com

His role

If Sproles was the co-lead back with LeGarrette Blount to start out last season, he almost certainly won't be the lead back in 2018.

First, Ajayi is one of the most talented running backs in the NFL when he's healthy, and he showed up to off-season camp in great shape. He might be a bell cow in 2018.

Clement emerged at the end of the season as the team's best goal line back and in the Super Bowl showed some ability as a pass-catcher, getting 100 receiving yards on the biggest stage. His newfound pass-catching abilities might infringe upon Sproles' touches, and it wouldn't even be surprising if Clement took over lead-back duties in the event Ajayi struggles or gets injured.

Sproles is the clear cut, at least, No. 3 back on the depth chart and will continue to contribute as a pass-catcher, but his primarily contributions will likely be as a punt returner, where the Eagles didn't add anyone this offseason with the same level of ability in that area.

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NFL record books

Sproles is currently 8th on the career all-purpose yards list of all time. As Sproles pointed out in his letter on Sunday, he's within striking distance of moving up a few spots. He's only 16 yards behind Steve Smith (7th) and 26 behind Marshall Faulk (6th). He's 518 behind fifth-place Tim Brown.

"I've got my eyes set on Tim Brown," Sproles wrote.

Though, Sproles wrote, he doesn't do it for the statistics.

"Yeah, it would be an honor to be mentioned in the same conversation as those guys—but that’s not what’s important," Sproles wrote. "I love this game. I love what I do. When my daughter Devyn looked me in the eye and told me I have to play one more year—well, that was it."

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Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ZackBlatt. Find NJ.com on Facebook.