Troy Vincent inducted into Eagles Hall of Fame
For BucksLocalSports
Troy Vincent was inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame Monday, Nov. 26 at Lincoln Financial Field with longtime ticket manager Leo Carlin.
7hH fiYH-WLmH 3rR BRZO cornerback barely had thanked everyone for the honor and kidded Carlin about not coming through with some tickets before showing his game face.
Clearly, Vincent feels the pain of these struggling Eagles, who these days send statisticians to the record books searching for worse teams.
When Vincent looks at these Eagles, he sees his 1998 team that went 3-13 in Ray Rhodes’ last year as head coach.
“We knew there was going to be change,” Vincent said. “As a player, you have to embrace that change. It’s out of your control who’s going to coach you next. It’s not a good time. You walk out there for the kickoffs and people are booing. The bags are out.
“They knocked down my mDLOERx LQ BuFNV CRuQWy. We were living in Yardley. They must have vandalized my house every single day until we had to put up a brick mailbox. Once change was made, we won some football games and the city embraced us.”
The 42-year-old Vincent never has looked back partly because his life always seems to have so much adventure ahead. Vincent’s entrepreneurial skills revitalized his birthplace of Trenton.
Vincent was honored as WhH 1)L’V WDOWHr 3DyWRQ Man of the Year award and serves as the NFL’s vice president of player engagement.
One of these days, Vincent wants to own an NFL franchise. If, of course, the owners let the ultra-competitive businessman in.
Rewinding to the state of the current Eagles, Vincent senses an abject lack of leadership. He also took a shot at the team’s foray into free agency. Vincent, you may recall, became the highestpaid Eagle when the Miami Dolphins declined to match an offer for him. He hinted the recent signees probably didn’t do enough homework.
“I was once one of those individuals out there that was booing,” Vincent, who was born in Trenton and DWWHQdHd 3HQQVEury HLJh School, said of Eagles fans. “If I didn’t like what I saw, , OHW SHRSOH NQRZ LW. BuW , knew this was the city that it’s about production, not about potential. If you don’t produce and you’re the highest-paid player coming in, you will be held accountable. So that’s something that I think each free agent acquisition should really take a long hard look at. If you can’t balance the two, LW ZLOO EH dLIfiFuOW WR SODy here.”
,W’V EHHQ dLIfiFuOW IRr Eagles free agent additions Nnamdi Asomugha, Jason BDELQ DQd HYHQ CuOOHQ -HQkins. All face uncertain futures.
And it’s been equally rough for Eagles head coach Andy Reid, who Vincent applauded from afar without going overboard.
“I think his legacy speaks for itself,” Vincent said. “He’s the winningest coach in the history of the franchise. He never brought the Lombardi Trophy home but he gave us some quality football.”
*** During his playing career with the Eagles, Vincent OLYHd Ln LRwHU 0DNHfiHOd, close to mennsbury where he played football, basketball and ran track. A starting guard in the same backcourt as Mike Jones under the tutelage of former Falcon hoops coach Brad Sharp, 9LnFHnW VDyV hLV fiUVW VSRUW in those days was basketball.
But the late-great mennsbury football coach Jim Dundala convinced Vincent to play football and the rest as they say is history.
Vincent has always found a way to give back to the orange and black, donating in 1996 a reported $35,MMM to mennsbury for equipment installed in a weight and exercise room across from the main entrance to the school gym. A similar donation was made for the same purpose at Trenton High School.
In May 2M11, he made an appearance at Edgewood Elementary School as part of a promotion dubbed “Fuel rp To mlay 6M,” an accelerated recess program that seeks to get kids to exercise at least 6M minutes a day.
Those who participated most often in the program were permitted the opportunity to meet the former NFL cornerback in the school gym.
A former Trentonian who spent a large part of his yRuWh Ln LRwHU 0DNHfiHOd, Vincent relished the opportunity to return to his roots.
“It’s home town,” said Vincent, the Eagles’ leftside corner until 2MM3 when he signed with the Buffalo Bills. “I grew up less than a mile away. I went to school here; my children went to school here. When I xgot] the invite, it was just a matWHU RI PDNLnJ LW fiW Rn Py schedule.”
A lower Bucks
resident until 2MM3 when he jumped from the Bills to the Washington Redskins, Vincent currently lives in northern Virginia and spends a lot of time commuting between home and New York City. He makes stops in lower Bucks every chance he gets including a visit last fall to the Radisson Hotel in Trevose where he was inducted into the mennsylvania Athletic Hall of Fame.
“It always feels good because I’m from here. I’m a product of the community. I try to stay as closely connected as I can,” said WhH fiYH-WLPH 3UR-BRwOHU. “Whenever I get the chance to come back and give back to the community, it’s very rewarding to myself; they’re part of my family.”
Already a member of athletic halls of fame at mennsbury and Wisconsin where he was an All-Big Ten defensive back, Vincent was inducted into the Bucks County Chapter of the mennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2MM9, the fiUVW yHDU RI WhH BuFNV hDOO’V existence.