Troy Aikman could have unretired to play for the Eagles

Troy Aikman retired from the Cowboys in 2000, but he very nearly returned to the field as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Aikman, a longtime commentator for Fox Sports, told sports station KESN this week that years after he retired, he received a call from then-Eagles head coach Andy Reid after Donovan McNabb went down with an injury. This call happened to come in the middle of a game Aikman was calling in San Diego. (Aikman recalled it as 2003, but it was actually 2002.)

As Aikman recalled, he walked out onto the concourse at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego to get cell service, and had the strange conversation with Reid about coming out of retirement to replace McNabb, who'd gone down with a broken leg. Aikman promised to think on it, and he did, consulting with friends and former coach Norv Turner.

"I got back to Santa Barbara," he said, "and this was around November or whenever it was, and I woke up and I’m thinking, ‘I can either enjoy the next couple of days in Santa Barbara, California, it’s about 65, 70 degrees, or I’m going to be on a plane flying to Philadelphia and probably going to be playing on Monday night against the 49ers. I called Andy and I said, ‘Hey, I’m honored that you’ve called me, but I’m going to stay put.’"

As it turned out, McNabb's replacement, Koy Detmer, also went down with an injury, but AJ Feeley was able to pick up the slack, and the Eagles finished the season 5-1. McNabb returned in time to take the Eagles to the NFC championship game, where they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So there you go. An unretirement that wasn't. It's probably better for everyone involved that Aikman stayed on the sidelines, though as good as Philly was in those days, he might have added another ring to his pile.