Dominique_Rodgers-Cromartie

EAST RUTHERFORD: The 2013/14 Super Bowl was not much of a game … Seahawks 43, Denver Broncos 8.

From the opening play (a safety) to the final whistle, the Seattle Seahawks were in complete control.

So what to talk about that might be interesting?

Well there were three former Eagles on the Broncos roster and all three played in the game.

Many fans remember cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie from the 2012 season.

DRC teamed with the forgettable Nnamdi Asomugha to head up one of the worst secondaries in Eagles history.

He was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals with the 16th overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.

On July 28, 2011, Rodgers-Cromartie was traded, along with a second round pick, to the Philadelphia Eagles for quarterback Kevin Kolb. He registered zero interceptions in his first season with the Eagles, playing mostly the nickel position, a position he has not been accustomed to playing early in his career. His play stepped up considerably in the last 4 games of the year.

The Eagles were 4-12 in 2012 and the secondary, fair or not, was looked at by fans as a big reason why the team played so poorly. Rodgers-Cromartie was released after the season.

But the veteran out of Tennessee State dusted himself off and landed a starting job with Denver and helped Peyton Manning and the Broncos win the AFC Championship.

DRC was at a loss to explain how the Broncos were so bad from top to bottom.

Denver had come back large deficits during the season to win, but just never found any kind of rhythm on any side of the ball.

“We’ve gone through so much adversity, understanding adversity and know how to combat adversity and to come out and play like that, I can’t really explain that,” Rodgers-Cromartie said. “But you have to give credit to them. They came out from the jump and pushed us around. Any time you get a team that punches you around, you are supposed to punch back. But it seemed like the harder we fought, the quicker we fell. It was like quicksand out there.”

Winston Justice got to play in the Super Bowl.

Former Eagles offensive lineman Winston Justice, picked in the second round by the Birds out of UUSC in 2006, found his way to a Super Bowl after a storied career in college that included a national championship.

After a roller coaster body of work in Philadelphia, Justice was traded to the Indianapolis Colts on March 14, 2012, along with the Eagles’ sixth round pick in 2012 for the Colts’ sixth round pick in 2012.

On September 18, 2013 the Broncos signed Justice after starting left offensive tackle Ryan Clady suffered a season-ending foot sprain.

Justice talked about the losing feeling in the Broncos locker room.

“There is only going to be one team happy out of 32,” Justice said. “[Losing] comes with the job. You have to learn how to handle defeat. It’s harder than winning. But it’s part of the game.

“You just have to keep on going,” he continued. “As a player you are going to lose, it’s how you bounce back and I think this team has the character to do it.”

Justice was asked if this was case of a game that snowballed out of control? “Yeah, I think sometimes it happens like that,” Justice said. “If certain plays went a different way I think the game would have been different. That’s not how it happened and some things are out of your control. The only thing you can do is play.”

Justice – who is now a free agent – said he wants to keep playing, but has no idea where or if he will land on another team, “It’s not up to me.”

Steve Vallos

Steve Vallos’ stay may have been brief, but he wore Midnight green and white for a preseason and part of the 2012 regular season.

Vallos was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the seventh round (232nd overall) of the 2007 NFL Draft. He was released during final roster cuts on September 1, 2007.

He spent the 2007 season on the team’s practice squad. After Chris Spencer suffered a season-ending injury in December 2008, Vallos started at center in his place.

He played in 16 games in 2008 with five starts. Vallos played in all 16 games in 2009 with three starts, but was waived during final roster cuts on September 5, 2010.

Vallos then landed with Cleveland Browns. Vallos was claimed off waivers by Cleveland on September 7, 2010. He played in seven games in 2010 and one game in 2011.

Then his stop in Philadelphia.

After his contract with the Browns expired following the 2011 season, Vallos signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on March 19, 2012. He was released on August 31.

Vallos was re-signed by the Philadelphia Eagles on September 18, 2012, to fill the spot vacated by C Jason Kelce, who was placed on season-ending injured reserve due to a knee injury.

Vallos was then released and Jacksonville Jaguars signed him on October 30, 2012, released on November 3, and signed again on November 5.

It was then off to Denver. On July 28, 2013, Vallos was signed by the Broncos to help replace Dan Koppen, who tore his ACL during practice earlier the same day.

“It’s been a great season, it was a great opportunity,” said Vallos who played Special Teams and came in to play center during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. “We had a run all the way through and today just kind of…nothing went our way. From the opening play we couldn’t get anything going. It’s really disappointing.”

Vallos talked about the belief in sports that in a game like this, with the lopsided score. Neither team is as good or bad as the score may indicate.

“The first play of the game was a safety, the first play of the second half was a kickoff return for a touchdown,” Vallos said. “You can’t win with things like that. It’s so hard to put yourself in that kind of hole, especially against a great team like Seattle in a Super Bowl…it’s hard to win and it’s really hard to win this game.”

Vallos said he too wants to continue playing in the NFL. His contract is up after this season. “We’ll see you never know what happens.”

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, was used for some of the information in this story.