The Eagles invited former Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins to the team's joint practice with the Cleveland Browns on Wednesday as a photographer to capture the on-field action, a hobby that he has started since retiring from the NFL in 2022.
Little did he know, however, that the camera would soon turn towards him.
Following practice, Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie invited Jenkins into the NovaCare Complex to personally share an important announcement. Jenkins is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame Class of 2025, along with the late Bucko Kilroy. Jenkins and Kilroy will be inducted during the November 28 game against the Chicago Bears.
"Malcolm and Bucko are most deserving of our team's highest honor, having played integral roles on the 1948, 1949, and 2017 championship-winning teams," Lurie said in a statement. "Along with seven of his teammates, Bucko is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's All-Decade Team of the 1940s – an era in which he helped lead the franchise to back-to-back NFL Championships in 1948 and 1949.
"A captain on our first Super Bowl-winning team in 2017, Malcolm was a tenacious player who was beloved by his teammates and coaches for the thoughtful leadership and veteran presence he provided. We proudly congratulate both men, along with their families, and look forward to officially inducting them into the Eagles Hall of Fame in November."
"I thought we were just catching up. No idea. It caught me off guard, where I was lost for words for a second, which is not usually a thing for me. It's a huge honor," Jenkins said.
"It's confirmation that what I did meant something and had impact beyond what I did on the field. It was about the people that I interacted with and how those people then changed. It's a great testament not only to me, but to everybody that I had a chance to interact with."
Jenkins was the team's big-ticket free agent signing in 2014 after five seasons in New Orleans. He did not disappoint, earning Pro Bowl honors three times. Among Eagles safeties, only Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins has been selected to the Pro Bowl more times than Jenkins.
Jenkins not only played, but started all 96 regular-season games in his six seasons in Philadelphia. In five of the six seasons, he was on the field for 99 percent of the defensive snaps (it was 92 percent in the other). He didn't want to take a play off whether it was in a game or on the practice field, competing in special teams drills and setting a high standard for his teammates to follow.
Jenkins was a versatile chess piece on defense, with the ability to roam the deep part of the field, blanket a receiver as a nickel defender, or stick his nose in the run game. He was a tackling machine, with 100 or more stops in each of his six seasons, along with 5.5 sacks, 11 forced fumbles, and six fumble recoveries. He was also a ballhawk with 11 interceptions and 77 pass deflections.
When he got his hands on the ball, he made opponents pay with four interceptions returned for touchdowns during his time as an Eagle, second most in franchise history, only to newly enshrined Pro Football Hall of Fame cornerback Eric Allen.
A captain on the Super Bowl LII Championship Team, Jenkins helped deliver to Philadelphia the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. But from the time he arrived in the City of Brotherly Love, Jenkins was a champion off the field with his foundation that provided resources and opportunities for underserved youth. He was chosen as the Eagles' nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award in 2019 and received the esteemed Byron "Whizzer" White Award from the NFLPA for his community outreach efforts in 2017.
"Sometimes we're afraid to do things other than play football. You don't know if there's a reward in it. We know very much that if I play well on the field, I will be rewarded. But when it comes to who you are as a teammate, who you are in the community, and potentially just who you are beyond this game, I think I never saw it as something that got in the way of football. I always saw it as something that would enhance it," Jenkins said.
"Being out in the community, fighting for social justice, made me a better leader in here. Dealing with all of those things that I was involved with really made my game better and it forced me to be a more dynamic human being, which made me a more dynamic player. I was always proud of my legacy being bigger than the field and that in remembering me, you can't separate the two. It's hard to talk about me and only talk about the field, or only talk about the work off the field.
Jenkins' personality and play style were a perfect fit for Philadelphia. He rewarded the Eagles with six years of outstanding football and served as an exemplary representative of the franchise. His name will now be forever linked with the all-time greats as a member of the Eagles Hall of Fame.
