Defensive End
1995-2000
On our latest visit, we came across an Eagles "legend." He has a funny name and an even funnier gridiron career. The mention of his name makes the Eagles faithful cringe, makes NFL experts laugh hysterically, and makes The Eagle Report...well, experience a strange combination of the two that involves twitching, nausea, chest tightness, and shaking. We are of course, talking about former Eagles Defensive End Mike Mamula.
Ever since the 1993 season, the Eagles found themselves constantly trying to fill the void left by Reggie White at Defensive End. After finishing at 7-9, good for 4th place in the NFC East in 1994, the Eagles knew that change was neccessary. Soon after the season, the Eagles were sold to their current owner Jeff Lurie whose first action as owner was to fire the head coach, Rich Kotite. The San Francisco 49ers had just won the Super Bowl and a mere five days after the win, Lurie hired the 49ers' defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes to replace Kotite.
Rhodes was successful in bringing stud RB Ricky Watters to the Eagles via free agency but the Eagles found themselves with question marks surrounding the draft. Rhodes made it very clear that the Eagles' problems were along the defensive line and would be addressed come draft day.
The 1995 draft looking back on it is not really considered a memorable draft, but it would be memorable to the Eagles for the wrong reasons. With Penn State University winning the Rose Bowl that January, RB Ki-Jana Carter and Kerry Collins were both taken in the top five. The Eagles had been scouting several DEs at the combine and found themselves very impressed with Boston College DE Mike Mamula. Despite being from a small school, Mamula put on a show for scouts at the combine with his work ethic, brute strength, and agility. The big concern with Mamula was his size. At 6'4'' and 252 pounds, many felt Mamula was undersized and not worth drafting. The Eagles and Rhodes however, were very impressed and traded up in the draft to the 7th spot overall to draft Mike Mamula.
The 1995 draft was not one to remember for any team. Several good CBs were chosen including Ty Law and Tyrone Poole, as well as QB Steve McNair and WR Joey Galloway. The Eagles themselves had nine picks throughout the 1995 Draft and the only memorable one besides Mamula was the pick of Bobby Taylor in the second round. Mamula came to the Eagles amid much hype but almost instantly, things would go downhill. Mamula was constantly criticized by fans and the media for playing uninspired football with little passion. Number 59 was also notorious for false starts, missing tackles, and inconsistent play. In his five years within the NFL, Mamula registered 31.5 sacks with 8 forced fumbles and 1INT. As for Ray Rhodes, he would win coach of the year in 1995, helping his team rebound from a 1-3 start to make the playoffs as a wild-card. The season would also mark the end of popular QB Randall Cunningham's career in Philadelphia, as Rhodes would opt to go with Rodney Peete in the upcoming years.
Looking at his numbers, Mamula's statistics are not awful by any means. However, Mamula's legacy as one of the biggest draft busts in NFL history comes in large part to who was drafted after him. Much like basketball's Portland Trail Blazers are ridiculed for drafting Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan, the Eagles are ridiculed for drafting Mamula instead of Warren Sapp who was selected at #12 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During the span of Mamula's tenure in the NFL, Sapp registered 58.5 sacks and a lasting career in the NFL that still exists to this day.
The lasting legacy of Mamula is not so much the play of Mamula himself but the reasoning behind Ray Rhodes' decision to draft him so high. Mamula's name has become synonymous with the term "workout warrior", which is someone who puts on an impressive showing at the combine and draws a team into drafting him only to disappoint. While Mamula is certainly not the most disappointing of workout warrior variety(see: Ryan Leaf, Akali Smith, Curtis Enis, Michael Westbrook), he was certainly the most memorable in the common era of football. His name has consistently appeared on several draft bust lists done by ESPN and Sports Illustrated. The popular website Deadspin.com believes that Mamula is notorious because he is viewed as a symbol of the failures that the Eagles experienced throughout the 1990s, especially after losing out on a proven defensive rock in Warren Sapp.
Since retiring in 2000, Mamula has become a bit of a spectacle. When his name is not being used to describe NFL busts by experts (i.e. the Washington Redskins got Mamula-ed when they picked Michael Westbrook). In June of 2006, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a company called U Care Now, which is part of Magellian Hill Technologies in Mount Laurel, NJ was auctioning off a lunch date with Mamula in Philadelphia on eBay. The bidding apparently never topped $300 with the only comment on the article reading "I wouldn't even pay a dollar to eat lunch with Mike Mamula." Mike Mamula's legacy as a workout warrior bust on draft day may linger in the trenches of the stomachs of Philadelphia Eagles fans, but he has rightfully earned a spot in the Eagles Hall of Obscurity.
Hall of Obscurity