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Happy Retirement to Former Eagle and Super Bowl Champion Ronald Darby
Published:
Former Eagles CB Ronald Darby is calling it a career:
Super Bowl champion with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018. He really helped solidify the CB corps back then, when the Birds were going through a rotating cast of characters and couldn’t seem to find the multi-year, quality guys of past years, like Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard, Troy Vincent, Asante Samuel and Bobby Taylor. Darby came over from Buffalo in the Jordan Matthews trade, then dislocated his ankle in the season opener down in Washington, missed eight games, then played the 10 remaining games, playoffs included, to help the Birds win their first ring.
Two things come to mind immediately when thinking of his contributions to that team.
One, Birds vs. Raiders, that hideous game the day after Christmas when Nick Foles was trying to lock in the #1 seed. It was 10-10 with a minute left. Darby picked off Derek Carr to give the Eagles the ball near midfield, then they moved it it down to 31 to kick what would end up being the game-winning field goal.
Two, Birds vs. Vikings, NFC Championship Game. He got knocked off his feet on the Patrick Robinson pick-six, which turned momentum upside down, but he got enough on Jerick McKinnon to open up the space for Robinson to get into the end zone for the score. If he doesn’t haul ass to make that block, Robinson may not have gotten in.
Darby was good that year. Had a big pick in the second Giants game as well. He was a solid Eagle in 2017 and goes into the history books with that special group of players. The only thing Darby ever did that was unforgivable is proclaim Lil Uzi Vert as “the next Michael Jackson.”
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com