Saints backup Eckel back in NFC title game

NEW ORLEANS - Kyle Eckel was unemployed, released by the Eagles just before this season, and the 28-year-old couldn't help but think that maybe this was the end of his NFL road.

"I think there's always that feeling for guys like me - 'bubble guys,' " the New Orleans Saints fullback said Friday. "But I just kind of stayed in shape and kept busy after I was let go by the Eagles."

The Haverford native spent half of the 2008 season playing for his hometown Eagles. The team picked him up in October after the New England Patriots cut him a month earlier, and Eckel played a part in the team's run to the NFC championship. However, when the Eagles signed fullback Leonard Weaver in the 2009 off-season, Eckel's days were numbered.

He has used the slights as motivation.

"The underdog atmosphere that surrounds me has really been a motivating factor," Eckel said. "Even when I don't realize it's there, I think that's certainly one of the key components of my success."

Saints fullback Heath Evans suffered a torn knee ligament six games into the season, and New Orleans was looking for a replacement. Evans recommended Eckel, a former teammate in New England.

Eckel was released after six games with the Saints, but they brought him back three weeks later. Last night, he played in his third straight conference title game. His role has been limited - mostly he blocks and chips in on special teams - but he expects that, playing for one of the best offenses in the league.

"The team is so talented and deep, so it's almost a struggle to find a niche in the system," Eckel said. "But it's pretty cool that I've been afforded the opportunity to find a spot."

When the opportunities dry up one day, Eckel hopes to come back to the area and resume a part-time gig he had during his last NFL hiatus. He filled in for the occasional shift on WIP-AM (610), the sports-talk radio station he grew up listening to.

"I had a blast and made a lot of great friends with people I've been listening to my entire life," Eckel said. "Hopefully, a little farther down the road, it will be in my future."

The Saints' Sean Payton and Minnesota's Brad Childress made stops in Philadelphia on the way to becoming NFL head coaches. Childress was most recently with the Eagles, having been the quarterbacks coach and eventually Andy Reid's offensive coordinator from 1999 to 2005.

Childress became the second Reid disciple to reach a conference championship. Former Eagles special-teams coordinator John Harbaugh reached the AFC title game last year with Baltimore. Harbaugh's Ravens lost last week to Indianapolis.

Payton's Philadelphia roots go back further. A couple of decades before he got his NFL start as Ray Rhodes' quarterbacks coach in 1997 and 1998, Payton lived in Newtown Square during his grade school and middle school years. When the Saints met the Eagles in a 2006 divisional playoff game, he recalled the Flyers' 1974 Stanley Cup championship and how he held a "Bernie Parent for Mayor" sign on West Chester Pike.

Payton's days as an Eagles coach were short-lived. He left for the New York Giants when Rhodes was fired and Reid was hired. After three seasons in New York, he ended up in Dallas and then took the Saints' job in January 2006. His hiring came five months after Hurricane Katrina. On Friday, he recalled what New Orleans was like, post-storm.

"It probably was late winter, early spring," Payton said. "My family was in town, and I needed to get an antibiotic for my daughter and waited in line two hours at a Walgreens. They had half a prescription of amoxicillin. In other words, it was different. It was hard to explain if you weren't here."

Saints owner Tom Benson had several notable guests for last night's game. Among them were a former president (George H.W. Bush), four Joint Chiefs of Staff, three monsignors, and six Dominican nuns. . . . Not the greatest omen for the Vikings: Former Minnesota coach Bud Grant, who lost in four Super Bowls, was the team's honorary captain.