Professor

Philadelphia Eagles

excerpt:

Brodrick Bunkley missed all the fun last year. All the heat and the cramped beds and the practices that are just downright unpleasant at this time of the year. He was involved in a contact negotiation that served, in the end, as a rude reminder that time lost is time never to be regained. In other words, get to the practice field, son.

Anyway, we look back at Bunkley's rookie season with a bit of disdain. What if? Why? How could it happen that way? It was a bust of a campaign, a tremendous disappointment, and the prevailing thought as Bunkley packed up his locker at the NovaCare Complex the day after the loss to New Orleans in the playoffs was that Bunkley was at an early career crossroads, and that the direction he decided to take was entirely his decision.

Now we await the first preseason game of 2007 and the Eagles have only a few days remaining in one of the hottest, crispest, most physical camps of the Andy Reid regime. Bunkley has been here, every single day. He has not missed a repetition. He has done nothing but work since the time he returned to his roots after the loss in New Orleans, and the result is a player who has taken a dramatic 180-degree turn. Bunkley is no longer a bust. He is no longer a mystery. He is no longer an afterthought.

Instead, Bunkley has shown up and played his tail off in this training camp. On the heels of a tremendous spring, Bunkley has been one of the revelations here. He is in great shape. He is taking what defensive line coach Pete Jenkins is teaching and Bunkley is applying himself and, lo and behold, it's working!

There! Look at Bunkley blowing past an offensive guard in one-on-one drills. Over there! Check out Bunkley pushing the line back to mess up the running game in full-team work.

How it happened and why it happened is unexplainable other than to arrive at this conclusion: The light went on for Bunkley, and he decided he needed to work, and work hard, to bring out his very substantial reserve of talent to make it in this league.

There were no magic words.

There was no work-or-else-edict.

There were no promises of a starting job.

"It was time to get to work and get down to business," said Bunkley. "I had to take it upon myself to turn things around. I wasn't happy with last year. I know it was my fault that I didn't get on the field and contribute, help the guys out. I wasn't happy with that."

It says something about a young man when he takes it upon himself to look himself in the mirror and admit he doesn't like what he sees. Bunkley's contract talks, after the Eagles made him the 14th pick in the 2006 draft, dragged on for two weeks and he ended up missing 29 practices. By the time Bunkley arrived at Lehigh, he was out of game shape. He was, in fact, in lousy shape.

Missing all of those practices and all of the detail time with Jenkins was something Bunkley never made up. Thus, his year was a wipeout, lowlighted by the missed team flight to Indianapolis. Bunkley acknowledged after the year that he made some "bonehead" mistakes as a rookie. He vowed not to repeat those missteps.

It's been interesting to track Bunkley. He met the media at the NovaCare Complex in the spring and was contrite and earnest and said all the right things about turning his career into the right direction. Who believed him? How could you? Words only mean so much after a muck-up of a year, and Bunkley knew his actions would speak for him more effectively than his words.

Well, let me tell you how the coaches are reacting to Bunkley: He is doing things now they couldn't imagine him doing at any time last year. He is a student in Jenkins' high-tempo classes, is first in line for practice reps and is thriving at his starting job.

"I'm loving it," he said. "I'm having fun out there, playing my game. This is a completely different experience."

If it continues, and if Bunkley continues his ascent, it may well go down as one of the greatest turnarounds this team has ever seen. From one year to the next, Bunkley is a completely different person and a completely different player. Just like that, without any real prompting, Bunkley found himself.

The light went on.

Make sure you watch No. 97 on Monday night. Bunkley has a new number (he was 78 last year) and a new game and a new everything. He is a player now, a promising young talent with a world of upside ability. Remarkable.

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