Jim Washburn, Howard Mudd Birds of a Feather as Eagles' Assistant Coaches

Filed under: Eagles, NFC East

Some assistant coaches are tough interviews, the guys whom you only talk to when you're writing a profile of one of their players or if their unit is doing really well or really poorly. The men newly in charge of Philadelphia's offensive and defensive lines, Howard Mudd and Jim Washburn, are not those guys. The pair of 60-somethings have never worked together, but they are longtime pals who have taken a motorcycle trip together. In South Africa. Seriously.

The Eagles might not win the NFC East again in 2011 given the tough competition from the New York Giants and the expected revitalization of the Dallas Cowboys, but they should be more fun to follow because of these guys. Mudd and Washburn are very far from the mold of their colorless new boss, Andy Reid.

The 68-year-old Mudd, who had retired after his Indianapolis Colts lost Super Bowl XILV a year ago, has known Reid since he was with the Kansas City Chiefs and the younger coach was working at Missouri 22 years ago.

"He's a really friendly guy and he liked what I did and would always ask me questions as we went through the years," Mudd said on Wednesday as the Eagles introduced their revamped coaching staff to the media. "He called me when this (longtime Eagles offensive line coach Juan Castillo becoming the defensive coordinator) shook down, I was kind of in a state of shock. I went, 'What?' and (Andy) said, 'Would you consider coming out of retirement? ... This isn't going to work ... if you don't come.' "

Said Washburn, who left Tennessee last month before the Titans reversed field and parted ways with 16th-year coach Jeff Fisher, "Howard was out-of-the-box before out-of-the-box was ever a term. He's just different. Get him in a conversation, you might never get out."

Same goes for Washburn, whose hiring in January made Mudd's decision to come aboard last week easier.

"We consulted a lot about him coming to the Eagles," Mudd said. "It was exceedingly comfortable to know that Wash was here. We worked against one another for 12 years in Indianapolis and Tennessee. Our boys really fought hard against one another. They beat each other up quite a bit.

"We found this common ground of motorcycle, so we talked about that before every game. We ran a draw play and I would call him up maybe Friday before we played them and asked if they had a good week of practice. He would say, 'Yes.' I said, 'Well did you work on the draw? Because if you worked on the draw, we're not running it.' We have this professional respect. There is no one who coaches that position better than Jim. You better tape your ankles if you're going to play against Washburn."

Or ride your chopper with him.

"I get this phone call and (Jim) says, 'Hey, let's go to South Africa on a motorcycle trip,' " Mudd recalled. "He said we have to do this one time in our life. It was an incredible journey."

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/09/jim-washburn-howard-mudd-birds-of-a-feather-as-eagles-assistan/

Mauro Galvao Arman Gambaryan Manvel Gamburyan Sean Gannon Edgar Garcia