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Will McNabb return to Philly for Dawkins?

Signing a one-day contract to retire with your former team seems to be all the rage nowadays. Sure, it's been done before - plenty of times - and as we learned over the past few weeks, it will most certainly be done again.

Pat Burrell is doing it with the Phillies and will be honored before the team's May 19th game against the Red Sox. Well desereved for a guy who played a pivotal role in ending the city's 25-year title drought and spent all but two years of his career in the Phillies system.

But tomorrow, Brian Dawkins, arguably the greatest - certainly one of the most well-liked - Philadelphia athletes of my lifetime, will officially retire as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. After that, he will throw out the first pitch at tomorrow night's Phillies-Cubs game.

Jeff McLane of the Inquirer reported earlier that several former Eagles will be on hand for the 11 a.m press conference to honor the man fondly refered to as B-Dawk. David Akers' agent, Jerrold Colton, confirmed via Twitter that Akers will be in attendence.

However, McLane also said to expect "a few surprises."

Well, that got me thinking.

Surprises?! Who?

My first guess was Donovan McNabb, who spent 10 years in the same locker room as Dawkins. Wouldn't that be something? Remember, we're just over a week removed from his comments claiming he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Hopefully McNabb will realize that this isn't First Take, and that keeping his mouth shut will actually help. Any outlandish comments would only take away from a day that is surely going to be a special one for Dawkins. I'd like to think Wilma McNabb taught him enough manners to know better. If not, hopefully the pure fear quarterbacks had when they saw WeaponX hitting the gap will be enough to silence the ever-quotable No. 5.

Another name thrown around the office today was that of Ray Rhodes, who was the Eagles head coach when they drafted Dawkins. Now that's a blast from the past.

Brian Westbrook was another name mentioned, but I would expect him to be there, and wouldn't consider that to be a big surprise.

Many of the big name players from the Brian Dawkins-led defenses - like Jeremiah Trotter, Hugh Douglas, Ike Reese, and more - have stayed in the area, and will almost certainly be in attendence.

The only question remains: Who are the surprises?