There are scores of men who have enjoyed outstanding careers on the field for the Eagles. What is not as common is when one backs up his gridiron days with an outstanding career as the team's radio color analyst. But that's precisely what Stan Walters did in Philadelphia for 23 years -- nine as an offensive tackle and 14 in the broadcast booth.

Acquired in a 1975 trade with the Bengals, the deal opened Walters' eyes and as it would turn out, shape his future.

"Three years in Cincinnati and then all of a sudden to get traded, I guess that really woke me up and taught me that it was a business. It was a hard adjustment the first year, but it worked out for the best," Walters said. "Then Dick Vermeil took over the team (as the head coach) after the one year I was with Mike McCormack and things started to turn around."

Indeed. In '78, Vermeil's third year, Philadelphia posted its first winning record in 13 seasons and made the playoffs. That coupled with Walters' selection to play in the Pro Bowl, marking the first time an Eagles offensive lineman had been so acknowledged since Bob Brown in '68.

OL Stan Walters

"That was quite an honor," said Walters, who was in his seventh season and would also be chosen for the following year's Pro Bowl. "It felt very nice. I think if you look at offensive linemen, their selection to the Pro Bowl usually depends a lot on how the team does. I think you have more offensive linemen with a winning record because you don't have individual statistics of a leading rusher or a top receiver's numbers. I felt very good making it, but I would say the year before when I didn't make it, I had just as good a year."

The Eagles would have a great year in '80. Compiling a second-straight 12-4 record, they won the NFC championship and advanced to Super Bowl XV, where they fell to Oakland.

"It was nice to get there but disappointing that we didn't win the game. That might have been our worst game of the year as a team. But it was exciting. The Super Bowl at that time was a major event, but now its become a spectacular event 30 years later."

Walters hung up his helmet and shoulder pads 23 years ago. One aspect of his playing career that he's most proud of is the longevity.

"Not only do you have to be healthy and stay physical and maintain stuff in the offseason to get ready to go to work, but every year you've got defensive coaches looking at your tapes in the offseason and trying to dissect how to beat you. Telling their players how to beat you," Walters said. "And every year, you have to adjust and you have to get better to withstand that challenge. I think that was the big thing, the longevity of having played 12 years. With a little bit of luck of staying healthy and then also the ability to fight off upcoming talent."

The retirement didn't last long enough for Walters to pick out a comfortable rocking chair for the front porch. Just two weeks after his final game, he was contacted about another job at the Vet and after auditioning with Eagles play-by-play announcer Merrill Reese, he was hired as the team's color analyst.

"At the first preseason game, I was able to go into the locker room before the game. It's hard to put into words, but I was back near the offensive linemen and they were getting ready to go out and play. I said, 'Good luck.' Probably the same thing I said to them maybe 50 or 70 times when I was their teammate," says Walters. "And when I said it, there was no answer. I realized that I was no longer part of the team.

"As close as you are as a team and to teammates, once you're not going out on the field there's a wide gap between playing and not being a member of the team. I remember that hit me. Friends and everything, but that teamwork bond had been cut.

"I had no problem as far as being able to criticize former teammates because I played with a bunch of good guys who when they missed a tackle or missed a pass, they knew it. That's the way I felt. The one thing that we had that was maybe through coach Vermeil's influence was that effort was there, but really, your results were: did you get the job done?

"Once you start accepting a paycheck as a professional football player, it's no longer how hard you try. That's for college, for high school. The final result is: did you get the job done? I think that all the players that I played with knew that so I didn't have any problem criticizing them because I knew that they would be self-critical themselves."

He continued. "And to tell you the truth, as a player, I never appreciated the impact of the Eagles and what the players do to the city. What the team winning and losing does for the city. As a player, I never really saw the fans in the stands. We get there two or three hours before the game, go into the locker room and come out and play. I never really saw that as a player. Well, I might have saw it, but I never really felt the intensity as I did in the broadcast booth. It showed me the impact of the team."

Walters now makes his home in Atlanta, Ga., with his wife, Kathy, an executive with Georgia Pacific, and is enjoying his second retirement by golfing and gardening. They have two children: Stanley, a junior at LSU; and Elizabeth, a freshman at the University of Alabama.