Is Super Bowl LII best collection of former FSU football players?
By Jason Parker
Super Bowl LII will see the Philadelphia Eagles have four players that once wore the garnet and gold – tied for the most all time for the Seminoles.
When Super Bowl LII kicks off around 6:30 p.m. on NBC from Minneapolis, fans from the Boston area will be cheering hard for their beloved New England Patriots while those from Philadelphia will hope to lead their Eagles on to victory with support – an cheesesteaks. However, if you don’t have a dog in the hunt, you might be rooting for whoever has the most former FSU players.
Well, if that is the case then you need to get out your hunter green and silver and say “Fly Eagles Fly” as Philadelphia will have four players that once wore the garnet and gold – defensive tackle Tim Jernigan, linebacker Nigel Bradham and defensive backs Ronald Darby and Patrick Robinson.
The four members of the defense alone tie the record for most former FSU players to play in a Super Bowl game – with the other two times being the 1994 San Francisco 49ers (Dexter Carter, Dedrick Dodge, William Floyd and Deion Sanders) and the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Derrick Brooks, Dexter Jackson, Brad Johnson and Greg Spires).
What do those teams have in common? Both the 49ers and Buccaneers won their Super Bowl games by an average of 25 points. But is this the best collection of Seminoles talent based on their past resume?
If the Eagles do come out on top, it would be the first time that two former national champions for Florida State win a Super Bowl for the same team – as Floyd was the only one to double dip for that San Francisco team and Brooks was the only one for that Bucs team.
CBS Sports recently released the recruiting rankings for each of the starters in Super Bowl LII – and not only did the Eagles’ defense have four of the six total “five star” recruits among the starters, but four of those were former Noles (Jernigan, Bradham and Darby – with Robinson “only” being a four star recruit).
Of course, the Eagles would have to win their first Super Bowl title in franchise history for these four former Seminoles to be in the conversation – not the easiest task in playing maybe the best quarterback ever in Tom Brady and the evil genius Bill Belichick and those Patriots going for their sixth Super Bowl title in the last 17 seasons.
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But if Philadelphia is celebrating their first title since the 1960 season – nearly a decade before the Super Bowl even began – it will no doubt be because of maybe the best group of former FSU talent in one single title game.