Last Tuesday, I got to chance to see a lot of my former teammates at the Eagles Alumni Day at Eagles first open practice. It’s always a lot of fun to see some of the guys I played with and to get the chance to spend some time together. There’s something special about the bond that develops with your teammates in the NFL.
I was also very excited by the two former Eagles, running back Brian Westbrook and linebacker Maxie Baughan, who were selected to the Eagles Hall of Fame this week.
My relationship with Maxie has always been a special one. Maxie was my linebacker coach and the defensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions in the early 1980’s during the beginning of my NFL career, when I was with the Lions. Maxie taught me how to play linebacker on the NFL level and most importantly he taught about the mental part of the NFL game. I learned how to study film on the upcoming opponents and about formations and tendencies from Maxie.
We had an outstanding defense there in Detroit with a pass rush led by Al “Bubba” Baker and Doug English, we led the league in sacks and against the run two or three times. Our offense was built around Billy Sims and Monte Clark was our head coach. We made the playoffs a couple of times.
Maxie was an outstanding teacher who taught me how to read the stances of offensive linemen, so I could anticipate who was pulling and who was getting ready to fire out. I learned about studying the gaps between offensive linemen because they would line up a little closer when they were going to double team. Maxie taught us how read pass route patterns, so I could pick off some passes to make big plays on pass downs.
One of the reasons for all the extensive film watching was because Maxie always let us call the defense on the field depending on the formation and the situation. As a signal caller, I always had to look at more film than everybody else because we had to know what offensive coordinators and quarterbacks liked to call out of certain formations in certain situations.
I owe quite a bit of my career to Maxie. He gave me information that I passed on to my young linebacker teammates like Seth Joyner, Byron Evans, and Ken Norton Jr.. Maxie has always been just good of a person, as he was a linebacker.
Maxie made the Pro Bowl nine times and five times as an Eagle. He was a rookie Pro Bowler in 1960 for the Eagles last Championship team. It’s a wonder he isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
I never saw Maxie play with the Eagles. I saw him play for George Allen’s Los Angeles Rams and for the Allen’s Over The Hill Gang” as a member of the Washington Redskins. Maxie was versatile linebacker, who was good against both the run and the pass. As you might expect, he was always known as a very smart player.
I remember when the Eagles drafted Westbrook out of Villanova. I remember taking notice of how small he was, but I learned about the big heart Brian had Westbrook was an outstanding athlete and extremely intelligent player.
Westbrook was such an important part of the Eagles playoff teams. He was truly an all-around running back, who could carry the team with his running ability and also catch passes out of the backfield, or shift outside into a wide receiver position and make big catches there on third downs.
B. West could pick up blitzing linebackers, who were twice his size. He would step up in there and hold them off, Donovan McNabb had time to throw. Westbrook was a true leader of those many playoff teams.
Of course everybody remembers that punt return against the Giants, which saved the Eagles season.
Interesting story G. Thanks for sharing something out of the ordinary. Maxie Baughn sounds like a great player and coach. Glad to see that the Birds were able to honor him along with a personal favorite BWest.