Editor's Note: This story first appeared on Jan. 29, 2012.
The Greatest Eagle
The legend of Steve Van Buren - whose slashing running style revolutionized pro football in the 1940s and who quit after eight explosive seasons and two NFL championships as the league's then-all-time rusher - continues to intrigue Eagles fans, even with the game morphing into a multibillion-dollar entertainment empire that will be capped with next Sunday's Super Bowl spectacle that would be unrecognizable to the sport's "Greatest Generation." It took 66 years for an Eagle - LeSean McCoy - to finally surpass Van Buren's 1945 feat of 18 touchdowns, and it required a 16-game schedule.