Ranking Philadelphia's Most Underrated Sports Heroes

My buddy Tom ranks the most beloved and underrated characters in recent Philly sports history

In 2002, A.J. Feeley was one of the greatest quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. Granted, I was 13 years old, wore a shark tooth necklace, and listened to Ja Rule’s Pain is Love on my Walkman until the CD wore down. So my judgement was a little shaky. Nonetheless, sometimes your heart betrays you before your eyes can. But not with A.J.

That year, the Philadelphia Eagles’ third-string quarterback stepped into action after starting quarterback Donovan McNabb and second-string quarterback Koy Detmer both went down with injuries. Feeley played out of his mind, leading the 8-3 Eagles to four straight wins. He became a Philly folk hero. Our newest testament to an unshakeable belief in the underdog. Feeley bottled up all of that moxie and headed south to start for the Miami Dolphins, where he was…pretty bad.

Feeley’s story is a familiar one. It emulates the trajectory of many players who grow into fan favorites in the City of Brotherly Love. Our beautiful city has an affinity for a certain kind of athlete. We’re a city of underdogs who love to root for the underdog.

Philadelphia is a town that values a blue-collar, hard-working mentality. We believe that with a commitment to the grind and a toughness like sandpaper, you can do pretty much anything. We look for those same qualities in our athletes, and we fall in love with players who reflect those values. Dudes who get punched in the face and punch back harder.

You see it in all-time Philly greats. The Mount Rushmore. The Jason Kelces, the Randall Cunninghams, the Allen Iversons. The superstars who were counted out but proved the doubters wrong through sheer will and athletic excellence. But the real secret sauce is the T.J. McConnells, the Donald Brashears, the Duce Staleys, the Shane Victorinos. The folk heroes. The underrated athletes whose confidence, toughness, and love for the game make fans fall in love with them. The ones who get way less love outside of this city than they deserve.

So today, we’re going to rank those underrated Philadelphia fan favorites. The forgotten who should be thought of way more often. To rank them, I hit up my buddy Tom Cristino. Tom has a photographic memory of Philly sports, a habit of calling into WIP late at night, and (unfortunately, like me) a deep love for the Process Sixers. I talk to Tom about what makes a fan favorite in Philly and ask him to rank his all-time Philly guys.

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TOM’S RULES OF THE ROAD

(Most) players selected meet the following criteria:

1. No players who were on a championship team (well, almost no one)

2. No active players

3. They need to generally be considered underrated.

4. No untouchables or players on the Mount Rushmore of Philly sports (i.e., Jason Kelce, Reggie White, Allen Iverson etc.)

5. (Mostly) athletes who were active between 2000 and 2025

Before you dive into your list, can you tell us what makes a player become a fan favorite in Philadelphia?

TOM: I mean, it’s work ethic. It’s that blue-collar mentality that Philadelphia is known for. If there's one image I can think of that stands out, it’s Manny Machado getting out of the limo to meet with the Phillies, with the blue-collar worker going up to him and shaking his hand.

And it’s like, I know it was staged, but that’s how I think of it. That’s the city, right? You got this blue-collar guy, lunch pail, on the way home from work. We love when you leave it all on the field.

As an example, who would you say is a Mount Rushmore guy that fits the mold?

TOM: Maybe this is the first hot take of many that you’ll hear, but I feel like the greatest Philadelphia Eagle of all-time is Lane Johnson.

Wow, number one Philadelphia Eagle of all time?

TOM: I think he could go down, man. He just shows up to work every day and does his job consistently. 13 years at such a physically demanding position, day in and day out. Two Super Bowls. And Lane, he’s not a distraction to the media. You don’t hear his name called too often. He just shows up and does the damn thing, man.

Alright, let’s get down to business. How do you want to start?

TOM: I have honorable mentions before I go into my actual list.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Matt Geiger, Philadelphia 76ers

TOM: Okay, this is my worst one on the list, I promise you. But when you think of that 2001 76ers team, Jeremy, alright? That team was really good. And everyone goes, yeah, Iverson, Dikembe, Eric Snow. And then who’s the next person you say? Everyone always remembers Matt Geiger. So I don’t know what it was about that dude. But Philly loved him, all right? I don’t know what it is.

I feel like he had a strong goatee as well.

Jon Dorenbos, Philadelphia Eagles

TOM: Dorenbos gets an honorable mention for me because again, he’s a dude who showed up and did his damn job every single game. A great long snapper. He had the Pro Bowls, and he was a wing bowl commissioner. Had a crazy childhood, tragedy in the family, overcame it all, and became a fan favorite. Then he’s doing all the magic tricks on national TV. Eagles fans love that guy.

Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard, Philadelphia Eagles

TOM: I’m going to give an honorable mention to the Sheldon Brown and Lito Shepard duo, man. Two cornerbacks that really held it down for six seasons together. 37 career interceptions. Some really big plays. There’s the Sheldon Brown hit stick on Reggie Bush. The Lito Shepard pick-six in the game when T.O. comes back. Just a great duo to have.

Smarty Jones, um…horse

(Laughs)

TOM: Listen, Jeremy, you’re laughing okay, but my man…actually, my horse…was on Sports Illustrated, bro. This guy was big, alright? And he was an inch away at the Belmont Stakes from getting that Triple Crown. I just remember Philly was in a frenzy when that dude was racing.

I don’t know how you do your social posts or your blog posts, but I think if you can crop my face onto Smarty Jones, that would be amazing. So you have my permission to do that.

Jameer Nelson, Saint Joseph’s

TOM: Jameer Nelson gets an honorable mention because, again, March Madness was a big cultural moment, and we’ll never forget that St. Joe’s run.

Monet Davis, Team Pennsylvania

TOM: Little League World Series. She balled out.

Wow, Monet Davis.

TOM: Listen, when you have a Philly person doing really big in a cultural moment, it checks the box. Then you get on Sports Illustrated. That’s when the town falls in love with you. And then…you lose at the very final moment.

Incredible honorable mentions. The Smarty Jones selection by itself. We could end everything right now. That’s top-notch.

TOM: I have a fun Smarty Jones story. So I remember one night I was coming back from one of our late-night stints out after work. And I get off the PATCO, and I’m driving home, and I remember calling into WIP, something I always did, especially with the late-night hosts. I remember the topic of discussion that night was the biggest Philly sports disappointments. And I called in and brought up Smarty Jones at like 2 a.m. And I got off, and the host went on a tangent for about 20 minutes about Smarty Jones. And I was like, see, I was right. Smarty Jones was a huge fan favorite.

Alright, let’s actually change this to be the top 10 Smarty Jones moments.

10. Freddie Mitchell

TOM: Alright, so at number 10, I’m going with Freddie Mitchell. First off, he’s got a great nickname. Fred X. He always delivers. And I don’t know what it is, but I feel like Philadelphia sports fans have some sort of deep connection to the wide receiver #3 position. And there have been better wide receiver #3s than Freddie Mitchell, okay? But there’s certainly been worse.

If you take a list of the top 50 plays in Philadelphia Eagles history, Freddie Mitchell’s got two of them. He’s got 4th and 26, which I mean is just so well known. And then the other Freddie Mitchell play is on Monday Night Football against Dallas, and McNabb goes on that 17-second scramble all over the backfield, going crazy, and he launches that bomb 50 yards downfield, and Freddie Mitchell catches it.

I think the other thing about Freddie Mitchell is that he possessed an irrational confidence in himself. Like, he thought he was the best receiver on the field. And if it’s a superstar, that can sometimes be a little off-putting. But when it’s the WR3 behind Todd Pinkston. You’re kind of like, I rock with this. This guy is nuts. And I love that.

TOM: He hated McNabb. Like, I get it. Like you had a beef with your quarterback or whatever, but 4th and 26 will just always be one of those moments I’ll never forget. Fred X gets a mention on my list, man. I don’t care how crazy it is.

9. Raul Ibanez

TOM: Really known for his two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, okay? Electric, his first season, and had a pretty good second season as well. In his first season, he had 272 hits, 34 homers, and 93 RBIs. And my man, I swear, every single person at Citizens Bank Park was rocking his jersey. Every single person on the Jersey Boardwalk was rocking his jersey.

He came in and just tore it up for two seasons. Then he got a little bad the last two seasons. But, I mean, that first season, you lose Pat the Bat. A fan favorite who has been a core member of that team. And you’re replacing him with Raul Ibanez, and my man drops 34 homers in his first season with the Phillies, dude.

Every time he got a big hit, the whole crowds cheering “Rauuuuul!”

Now when you’re down at the Jersey Shore, you know, walking around Sea Isle and Ocean City, they got the Ibanez shirts everywhere. It’s a shame because they should have had some more championships in that era. But I feel like we kind of forget about Raul, man.

8. Kyle Korver

TOM: There are so many 76ers I could have picked from, especially because I’m a Process guy, you know. But I wanted to go a little pre-process era here. And I was thinking, who was that fan favorite that everyone gravitated towards during that Iverson era? And the name I came up with was Kyle Korver, man.

Yes. 100%.

TOM: He was only with the team for four seasons, which I knew he had a shorter stint with us. I didn’t think it was that short. But when you look up who has the most career threes in Sixers franchise history, he’s top 10.

I can’t believe he was only there for four seasons.

TOM: For some reason, again, like, you go to…I almost called it Wells Fargo. You go to Xfinity Live Arena now...stupid-ass name.

Terrible name.

TOM: You still see Korver jerseys, dude. There’s something about this, like, Korver aura that, like, him being that great role player who came in and hit the threes. You’ll never hear anything bad said about Kyle Korver. And, again, like maybe I’m stretching a bit here Jeremy, but he was a dude who had a job. He went in and did it, and he did it really well.

It was also at that time before the 3-point revolution in the NBA. And it seemed like he could just hit a three like it’s nothing.

TOM: It’s so funny ‘cause Korver would go down and hit back-to-back threes and another team would call a timeout and then like, okay, then you get cold, and that may have been all Korver did all night, but whatever, he did his job.

Who’s the better Sixer, Matt Geiger or Kyle Korver?

TOM: Oh, it’s a close one, man. It’s a close one. You never forget the name Matt Geiger. I don’t know what it is, man. If you want to Photoshop my face on him, you can do that too.

We’ll figure it out in post.

7. Jeremiah Trotter

TOM: When we talk about that era of Eagles’ defense and the greatest Eagles, you just don’t hear Trotter’s name mentioned that often. And I feel like Trotter deserves a little bit more credit. He was the anchor of that Super Bowl team that went in ‘04. Top five in franchise history in tackles, despite playing significantly less games than some of the longest tenured Eagles. Four-time Pro Bowler, two-time first-team All-Pro. And I mean, like, I’m going to give you another hot take here. Brian Dawkins gets a little overhyped, right?

Whoa!

TOM: I love Dawkins. He’s a top four safety of all time. But I do feel like we give Dawkins way more love than the other guys on the team, right? Like you don’t hear about Trotter.

I’m going to title this. Tom Cristino hates Brian Dawkins, loves Smarty Jones.

TOM: I think he’s an all-time great!

For Trotter to play the way he did as the middle linebacker for that complex Jim Johnson defense at a time when the Eagles were not prioritizing the linebacker group was incredible.

TOM: We could sit here and do a Sporcle of the terrible linebackers this team put out on the field from 2000 to 2024. I mean, we had Casey Matthews out there, bro.

That was terrible.

TOM: We had like Joe Mays. I mean, we like we had some bums out there. I remember when we had Stewart Bradley, and we thought this guy was going to be like the next huge defensive player. But then he tears his ACL with that stupid training camp Flight Night, and then the Eagles organization shuts it down, never to be had again.

But, bro, like, I do remember watching Trotter as a kid. It was so much fun. And he was a stud. I mean, he was great. And having his son on the team now, dude is so cool.

One of my picks for underrated plays in Super Bowl 57 was after we scored one of our like 14 touchdowns that game against the Chiefs. On kickoff coverage, Trotter Jr. makes the tackle, and he does the axman celebration. I remember just screaming in my house like “he did the axman!”

His impact is also felt for years by the fact that they couldn’t replace him. They struggled to find a good middle linebacker debatably until, I don’t know, Nigel Bradham?

TOM: You had one-year stints. Like Jordan Hicks came in. He had one good year. DeMeco Ryans came in and had one good year. Kiko Alonso. You had all these guys come in and just like one good year. But Trotter held it down for multiple seasons, man, and he was the heart and soul of that defense.

6. Randy Wolf

TOM: Eight seasons. 184 games, so a long tenure. Been named to an All-Star game. 1,000 strikeouts, okay? Probably, if my Phillies history is accurate here, one of the best left-handed pitchers who didn’t win a World Series.

As a kid, he was like one of my first favorite Phillies. Loved him. He pitched the first game at Citizens Bank Park. That was the era of Phillies fandom, too, where, like, every player had a fan group in the crowd. Randy Wolf had the “Wolf Pack.” A bunch of dudes from South Philly just up in the nosebleeds wearing wolf masks with a sign that was made with a Sharpie and a Sharpie only.

A bunch of guys just hammered off their asses.

TOM: Amazing stuff, man. I need a documentary on where those guys are now. But Randy Wolf had a decent stint with the Phillies. Great left-handed pitcher. The other left-handed pitchers who have had obviously dominant success with the Phillies, like Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer, got their rings, you know. Steve Carlton, they’re champions. So I just wanted to give Wolf a little bit of kudos here because he’s a fan favorite growing up. And he’s just one of them guys where no one says anything bad about, right? Dude’s kind of like a little bit of a legend, man.

That was also at a time when the Phillies needed some juice.

TOM: They weren’t that good. Back to the fandoms, I remember you had Brandon Duckworth, and you had the fan group that was in the stadium with the Duck Pond. You had Pat Burrell and Burrell’s Girls. You had all these fan groups just all coming into the stadium just to try to mimic what the Wolfpack was doing.

I don’t know, man. Just something about watching old Comcast Sportsnet highlights. And every time Randy Wolf got a strikeout, they panned to the Wolfpack. That’s just like cinema to me.

5. David Akers

TOM: 12 seasons with the Eagles. Six Pro Bowls, two-time first-team All-Pro. Eagles Hall of Famer, Eagles 75th anniversary team, NFL 2000s all-decade team. Most points in Eagles history. Iconic 2018 draft day speech.

I also still see a ton of David Akers jerseys.

TOM: Here’s the other stat that I looked up for this, and you’re going to freaking love it. And this is like one of those stats where, like, I think if it were more widely known, it would just make us love the aura of Akers more.

He’s top five in NFL history in tackles for a kicker. Like, really? Because I remember as a kid, Akers would get down there and have some of those nice flying body tackles, and you’d be like, “this is the coolest thing ever. Our kicker just laid out this returner.”

I think it’s so Philly. And dude’s a good guy. We have our local Shop Rite right up the street here. I remember as a kid, he was up there. It felt like every other Saturday, he was signing autographs for people.

And yeah, man, like 12 seasons, I mean you’re talking about like that era of kickers with the Polish Cannon Sebastian Janikowski, and obviously Adam Vinatieri, but like Akers was right there right as one of the best kickers of that era. So gotta love my man David.

4. Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee

TOM: A dominant pitching duo from 2009 to 2014. Couldn’t pick between them, and they both deserve a spot on my list, man. I mean, the excitement after that ‘08 World Series win and then to land those guys in free agency the years after and then just to see what they did. Yeah, unbelievable, man. Everyone knows where they were when those two guys were pitching. We had such a great lineup of hitters, and people tuned into the Phillies to watch those two guys pitch.

Those guys were automatic. They put on clinics. His nickname was “Doc” for a reason. It’s like you literally were watching surgery when he pitched.

Those two guys were absolute dominance. I mean, you had Doc throwing the perfect game against the Marlins. You had the postseason no-hitter against the Reds. An NL Cy Young winner. Combined, they had over 100 wins and 1,300 strikeouts. They were so fun to watch.

It’s crazy that Doc never got a World Series, man. It’s absolutely insane.

3. The Legion of Doom, Eric Lindros, John Leclair, and Mikael Renberg

TOM: I’m getting creative again here with you Jeremy, because I couldn’t just pick one. And I’m probably going against my criteria a little bit here because, like I said, I wanted to make sure I had teams that I watched and I kind of caught the tail end of the Legion of Doom. That was sort of when I just started watching the Flyers.

I do remember my parents watching the ‘97 Stanley Cup final against the Red Wings, but like just little bits and pieces. But I mean, I couldn’t do a list without putting a Flyer on here.

You know man, like you talk about the greatest athletes in Philly history, I think Lindros kind of gets out there. I mean, just the mid-90s, a great era of hockey in general, and they just were so dominant, man. I was looking up their stats, and I was just like, my goodness. They had three seasons together. In today’s hockey, you just see the lines shift so much. So the fact that these dudes played on the same line for so long is incredible. But they had 305 goals and 361 assists together, and 56 goals in the playoffs. You know, in 1997, the year they go to the Cup, they get 104 goals. I know they got swept off the ice by the Red Wings, but still, that Red Wings team was like...

Those were insane Red Wings teams.

TOM: I was like, oh, the lines that the Red Wings had back then were called the Russian Five because they were just getting all these Russians out there, and they were just smoking us. But the Legion of Doom, man, they had the nickname, they had the dominance.

Eric Lindross, he’s one of the more polarizing athletes in Philadelphia sports history. He maybe doesn’t fit the bill in terms of the prototypical Philly athlete because he became a little high-maintenance with some of the contract disputes and all that stuff. And he was injury prone, which we know that Philly sports fans do not like an injury prone player. But when he was healthy and on the ice, dude was one of the best to ever do it.

And I mean, I’d say from what I know of Lindros, talent-wise, he’s probably one of the most talented athletes that ever came through this town. But the injuries, like just like Embiid, man. A talented player, but you know the injuries catch up to you, man, especially when they’re scary head injuries. But I’ve gone through rabbit holes of some Lindros and Legion of Doom highlights, man, and they’re fun to watch.

2. Donovan McNabb

TOM: I think that because he didn’t win a championship and now you have two Eagles teams that won championships, he just doesn’t get the credit he deserves. And I mean, like, I love Jalen. I love Nick Foles. But that run that McNabb had. That was right when you and I started being fans of the Eagles. Like, true diehards, truly understanding and watching the games. I’ll never forget what McNabb brought to the city and what he did.

I understand he had some flaws in his game, and he didn’t get the big one. He wasn’t exactly loved by the media. But all that being said, when you watch McNabb play, he was lights freaking out, man. The early McNabb clips of him breaking away on 30-yard scrambles. That dual-threat quarterback archetype, before the Lamar Jackson kind of quarterback came into the game.

He could run, he could pass. He had a cannon of an arm. I mean, if you look at that era of quarterbacks too, he’s right there behind Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady. He’s right underneath those guys, you know?

He was a dude who, to a fault, protected the football so well, right? He kind of became known for passing the ball to the receiver’s feet. But it’s like, dude, he did it because he didn’t want to throw an interception. And that year in ‘04 when they ended up going to the Super Bowl, he had 31 touchdowns and only 8 interceptions. Like, that is a ridiculous ratio, man.

92 wins, most passing yards, and most touchdowns in franchise history. He’s actually 12th in franchise history for rushing, which I think is a cool little stat.

I guess you could say he’s the greatest quarterback in franchise history, right?

TOM: I think so. The stats are there. The longevity was there. I guess I say longevity. It’s more like his peak; that five-year, four-year stretch there was just insane. And like again, you talk about it being a team sport. He never really had a lot of help, right? He got stuck throwing the ball to Freddie Mitchell. He got stuck throwing the ball to Todd Pinkston, like...

James Thrash. Chad Lewis…

TOM: You know, exactly. Guys that were like, okay. But when he had to T.O. for one season, you saw what he did, man. And it makes you think, what if he had a guy like T.O. for his whole career? What could have been?

It kind of pains me because Eli Manning likely is going to get into the Hall of Fame, and it’s just like, ah man, we always had Eli’s number. It just like kills me that like Eli Manning, and even Big Ben, probably gets into the Hall. I would take McNabb over those guys any Sunday, any season.

Also, he went to four NFC Championships in a row.

TOM: Five total because they went in 2009 with the Cardinals. And I saw this stat that the Eagles defense gave up something like 27 points per game in those NFC Championship games.

1. Joe Frazier

TOM: I don’t think people consider him untouchable as often as I would like.

He’s got a statue after him, okay? He’s a Hall of Famer. Gold medalist with multiple Sports Illustrated covers. One of the best nicknames in all of sports. Absolutely known for his greatness, toughness, and victories. And what was probably the greatest individual moment in all of sports history when he was the first ever to knock down Muhammad Ali.

When COVID happened, and there were no sports, and ESPN was replaying all these great games, I couldn’t rewatch sports. I can’t do it. Don’t know why. Just have no interest in it. Don’t enjoy it.

So my wife and I started watching boxing documentaries, and then we started going down some rabbit holes on ESPN Classics and YouTube, and we started watching so many boxing fights. I mean, we were watching like Mike Tyson’s early fights. We were watching Floyd Mayweather’s early fights. Like we were finding boxing matches from the thirties and the forties with grainy footage. We were just having so much fun with it.

We watched probably close to 15 or 20 Joe Frazier fights that we could find. And, did the same with Ali. And it was just like, we...this guy, the way he boxed, man. He was a freaking pit bull in the ring, man. He was so ferocious.

Yeah, what was his style like?

TOM: He just went after you, man. He just went right after you. It didn’t matter who you were. He was tough as nails, man.

In the fight of the century, it’s this big moment. He knocks down Ali. He gets the win. I mean, you’re talking about the sports world being absolutely rocked. I mean, if I had a chance to go back and watch any game live or any moment in sports live, I’m probably picking a Frazier-Ali fight, right?

And if you go back and you watch the second fight between the two of them. It’s controversial. Joe Frazier won that second fight. I know they gave it to Ali, but you go back and watch it, man. It just felt a little rigged. Joe Frazier kicks his ass in the first, and in my opinion, takes him in the second. And then they go to the Thrilla in Manila, man. They fight in this 100-degree weather. They’re both like out there about to die. And Ali wins the third fight because Frazier’s eye wouldn’t open up, and they had to call it a TKO.

But Frazier never quit against Ali, man. He’s the prototype of what you’d want a Philly athlete to be. So tough and fought to the very end.

Who’s the better athlete, Joe Frazier or Smarty Jones?

TOM: Man, I don’t know, man. I bet you what, that would be a good fight. I think Joe Frazier could take down a horse. I don’t know. It’d be fun.