If you missed it over the weekend, former Eagles receiver Jason Avant entered the fray like Mel Gibson in The Patriot and retrieved the Michigan flag from the clutches of Ohio State Buckeyes. He’s part of the Inside the Birds crew with Quintin Mikell, Adam Caplan, and Geoff Mosher and talked about the incident at the Horseshoe:

Avant: “I’m making my way, I’m grabbing all of my equipment and putting it in my backpack and I’m going across the field. I see them in the middle of the field and I’m like, ‘ah, I don’t want to be a part of that.’ So I go around it. I see some jerk with a red jersey with the Michigan flag. I want to walk off the field but my Michigan pride wouldn’t allow me to walk off the field. I grab the flag, people are pushing me, the first thought in my mind is ‘push me again…’ but you can’t hit anybody’s son, so nah, I’m here on business so you can’t swing. Don’t even push anybody, just accept their pushes, take the flag get it off. The funniest part of the whole thing is they were trying so hard to knock me down. But I’m like dude, y’all don’t know. I have this Michigan sweater on and this jacket on but there’s a lot going on under this jacket. I’m still swole under this jacket… Y’all not gonna push me over.”

Great quote. Not only did he suppress the urge to clobber some Buckeyes, but he entered the breach and retrieved the flag, held on to it, and wasn’t knocked over. Because he is only 41 years old and still in top physical condition. No 21-year-old kid or assistant coach is going to put Jason Avant on his ass. And we all know he has great hands. He didn’t stick with the Birds for eight seasons for no reason.