After trading its first four picks of the 1976 NFL draft, Philadelphia was still able to select 15 players for new head coach Dick Vermeil. Ten of them, however, would not be donning an Eagles uniform when the regular season began in September. Four would go on to play four years or less. And then there's Carl "Big Daddy" Hairston.

Chosen in the seventh round out of Maryland - Eastern Shore, Hairston would become a cornerstone of Philadelphia's defense for the next eight seasons. A three-time all-conference defensive end, he put his collegiate accolades in a scrapbook and arrived at the Eagles' training camp fully aware that he had his work cut out for him.

"I just figured if I went in and worked hard like I did in college, I'd be noticed," Hairston said. "I just had to get all the other things down, like the system and knowing the people that I'd be working with. I figured if I just did that part then I would be noticed, and that's what happened."

Making eight starts at defensive tackle as a rookie, Hairston moved a step to his right the following season and at defensive end, began a five-year streak of recording 100 or more tackles. In 1979, 15 of those were quarterback sacks, tops in the NFC. That was also the season that the Eagles posted an 11-5 record, the team's best effort since 1961.

"It was very exciting to see the city spirited because of how we played," said Hairston. "The players felt energy from the fans. It was a great feeling. It was something that we kind of grabbed onto and just kept pulling on the fans' energy and just kept winning."

The fan energy-fueled Eagles improved to 12-4 the next season and earned the conference title after beating Dallas in the NFC Championship Game, 20-7.

The key?

"I think that coach Vermeil kept that whole group together. He believed in us and we started believing in ourselves," Hairston said. "We just became a very close-knit team. We didn't have but maybe two first-round draft picks on that team, just a lot of low-round draft picks that started working together as a group. We just felt that we couldn't be beat. Even in that championship game, nobody gave us a chance. But we just played hard. We played to win.

"It was a great feeling and was something that we were not supposed to accomplish, beating the great Dallas Cowboys. They had a great football team; but just because you're great doesn't mean you can't be beat on any given Sunday. We just outplayed them on that Sunday."

Unfortunately for the Eagles and their fans, they were outplayed two weeks later in Super Bowl XV, falling to the Oakland Raiders, 27-10. Yet, Hairston says it was still a valuable experience.

"It was something that any player should want to experience because you can't experience that anywhere else. And win or lose, it was a great experience for me to play in it," Hairston said.

Traded to Cleveland in 1984, Hairston was with the Browns for six seasons and concluded his 15-year NFL playing career with Arizona in 1990. The operative word: playing.

He spent the following four years as a college scout for the Cardinals and Chiefs. He became Kansas City's defensive line coach in 1995 and has been on the sideline ever since. Two seasons with the Chiefs; four seasons reunited with Vermeil in St. Louis, where they were Super Bowl XXXIV champions; five seasons back in Kansas City; and since January 2006, he has been the defensive ends coach for the Green Bay Packers.

In a word, Hairston has credibility with the players.

"They respect that and they know that I know what I'm talking about," said Hairston. "I'm not going to tell them nothing I haven't done myself. The one thing I do stress is tempo and how to work in practice, because if you do that, you can get better at what you do.

"I've coached some great lines in Kansas City and St. Louis. All those guys ended up going to Pro Bowls, including Derrick Thomas, Neil Smith and Dan Saleaumua with the Chiefs. I went to St. Louis and had Kevin Carter, Grant Wistrom, D'Marco Farr and Ray Agnew. Two of those guys went to the Pro Bowl the year we went to the Super Bowl. So to me, it's all in how you work, how you approach your work and how you practice.
 
"In Green Bay, we've got some defensive linemen that can play, like Cullen Jenkins, who is coming onto his own. We've got Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila and Aaron Kampman. Nobody said he could play, but shoot, he ended up having 15 1/2 sacks last year and went to the Pro Bowl. So like I said, to me, it's all about work ethic. The way you work in practice is how you're going to perform during games on Sundays."

And now after 15 years as a player, four as a scout and entering his 13th season as an assistant coach, Hairston enjoys everything surrounding the game as much as he did when he showed up at Philadelphia's training camp in 1976.

"[I enjoy] communicating with the players and seeing how my playing days influence them on how to play the game today, trying to get players to believe that the game of the past is no different from the game of today," Hairston said. "The only thing different from the past is the money they're making. You go on the field, it's the same.

"And the camaraderie that you have with the coaching staff that you miss as a player … That was the first thing I missed when I left the locker room, the camaraderie with the players. As a coach, you try to do the same thing with the coaching staff to get that one bond."

Hairston makes his home in Green Bay with his wife, Cynthia, and has two adult children; Carl Jr., and Crystal.