Levitan's Solo Pod: Adam Battles Brian Dawkins, Trip Report From SEA-DEN, Your Listener Questions (Episode 1036)

Adam Levitan (0:15)

Hello, and welcome to episode 1036 of the official establishtherun.com podcast. My name is Adam Levitan. I am one of the co-founders here at ETR, and we are coming off of a getting dunked on by an NFL legend kind of week. Yes, that's right. Last week, I sent a tweet about the Eagles moving on from Stars a year early rather than a year late. And I really do believe that's a huge reason, or one of the big reasons they have had one of the most talented rosters in the NFL for roughly a decade now. It's all roster building, you know, working hard, being smart. About handling the salary cap and your roster. And not being emotional about it. So, the Eagles, they moved on from some very popular, good, legendary players when the team thought it was the right time to move on from them from a cap management perspective. We're talking about Donovan McNabb, Jeremiah Trotter, Zach Ertz come to mind. And yes, Brian Dawkins. So, I sent this tweet on Thursday about the Eagles moving on from guys early, you know, I'm thinking slash hoping maybe they move on from Saquon Barkley here in the midst of this dead season. Sent the tweet, didn't think much of it. I'm driving to the Bronco Seahawks game Thursday night and my phone is just going nuclear. Apparently, Brian Dawkins himself found the tweet, didn't like it. He hit the reply button, which, you know, it's always a dangerous thing on Twitter. He hit the reply button and he said, hmm, are you certain that including me in this is helping your cause? I mean, what a sim, man. You know, I'm not an Eagles fan, but I did live in Philly for a long time after Penn State. Obviously, there's an insane amount of Eagles fans at Penn State. So during this era, I was watching the Eagles a lot. Brian Dawkins was the fucking man, like played so hard, was a leader. I literally would tell my kids to play like Brian Dawkins played and carry themselves on the field like Brian Dawkins did. It's so crazy. Social media, man. What a world. But Dawkins' response and the hundreds of Eagles laundry bros that replied in hateful slash angry ways also. These replies are just yet another example of the results based thinking that clouds everything we do in all aspects of life. You know, yes, Brian Dawkins was very good for a couple more seasons after the Eagles moved on. Is that proof that the Eagles made the wrong move? I don't think so. It's just far more complicated. The salary cap situation, other players on the team, Brian Dawkins age, his contract, but all people look at is, oh, the Eagles didn't re-sign him in free agency. He went to Denver and the result was he was good after the Eagles let him go. So of course, the Eagles made this huge mistake. Maybe that's true, but teams like, I don't know, the Saints, the Falcons, tons and tons of other teams have thought to themselves, what is good for us right now? What will be popular with the fans right now? What will help us win maybe another game or two right now? Without any context around long-term, are we a contender?

Maybe we have to move on from ex-player now even though it's tough for the sake of our team building. I mean, look at what the Celtics did this off-season. I'm not deep in the NBA weeds anymore, but I think the Celtics know Jalen Brown is a good player, not as good as probably the public thinks, but a good player. Celtics looked at the cap, decided they have to move on. They just couldn't bring back Jalen Brown at the cost and I think that's what good teams do. If he goes and smashes for the Sixers, I still think it's the right move. But very few people on Twitter would ever get that, which is what makes it so exhausting at times. I actually had to block someone last week. I think I've only blocked maybe five non-bot people in my entire life on Twitter. I just think people are getting even less nuanced, and even less thoughtful, and even more quote unquote gotcha on social media if that's even possible. Anyways, happy to have an interaction with the great Brian Dawkins. I'll forever remember this interaction similar to the time I tweeted about Jamal Williams as the president of hashtag Team Sex, thanks to his extremely sexual touchdown celebrations. Jamal Williams, he put my tweet on his Instagram.

We're close personal friends now, of course. Brian Dawkins might not see it that way, but I still love VDoc.