LANDOVER, Md. — Unbelievable. Here he was again, trotting onto the field emblazoned with those maroon-and-gold logos, the scene of the greatest humiliation of his professional life, and again, Halapoulivaati Vaitai was going to have to try to do something he had never done in a regular-season NFL game.
Vaitai was an Eagles rookie last Oct. 16, when he started against the Washington Redskins at right tackle for the first installment of Lane Johnson’s 10-game suspension. Vaitai thought he was ready for his first NFL action. He’d had then-teammate Bryan Braman working with him all week, mimicking the pass rush moves of Redskins defensive end Ryan Kerrigan, but FedEx Field was loud and Kerrigan turned out to be a lot bigger and faster than Braman.