Where are they now? LB Byron Evans - PhiladelphiaEagles.com - PhiladelphiaEagles.com

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Philadelphia's game at Veterans Stadium against Cleveland on November 13, 1994 was, well, not a good day for the home team. The Eagles lost, 26-7, which began a seven-game losing streak to close the season with a 7-9 record.

"That was one of those days, a very eerie day. I usually had a little pregame ritual that I used to get myself psyched up," Evans says. "Being a middle linebacker, you have to get the team ready and I was getting the team ready, but I wasn't ready.

"It just seemed like everything was in slow motion for me. It's hard to believe (because) the Browns were 7-2 and the Eagles were 7-2. One of the biggest games of the year for us, and it was kind of hard for me to really get into it."

As bad as a game was for the Eagles, it was worse for Evans. He suffered career-ending injuries, a fractured right tibia and a torn MCL, while tackling Browns running back Leroy Hoard.

"Usually, when you break your leg, you don't tear up your knee. And when you tear up your knee, you don't break your leg. But in that case, I did both," Evans says. "But never once did I say, 'Why me?' Everything that was supposed to happen, happened. I think it was the Lord telling me it's time for you to go and do something else.

"I was in the last year of my contract, and as a matter of fact, I turned down a contract with the Eagles. I was getting ready to sign for all this money, but the Bible tells us – 'What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. And what exchange would a man do for his soul?' – I was getting ready to do all this, but the Lord had different plans for me."

Evans, his wife, Alva, and their adult children: Brykara, Byron II, and Brielle, make their home in Phoenix, where he is the assistant pastor at the Shiloh Apostolic Church.

A year ago, he returned to his alma mater, South Mountain High School, as its football coach.

"It's a dream of everyone that goes off, everyone that makes it. That's the dream and it's no different for me," Evans says. "Through faith. Through hard work. Through dedication. It just came around. Everything was in order."

While his first season on the sideline was challenging because of the pandemic – they could only play three games, winning two – Evans enjoyed every moment.

"Those kids are me. The same thing that I went through and been through and done that for a reason, and that's to give them the opportunity to say, 'Hey, if coach can do it, I can do it.' And they have every opportunity to do it," Evans says.

"And not only that, they look at it as being a difference-maker. Somebody that's not going to give up on them. Somebody that's consistent. Somebody that tells them that they love them."

The affection Evans has for the kids was clear during a recent free clinic he held along with former Eagles teammates Seth Joyner and Mark McMillian.

"Whenever you can have a player like Byron, who comes from the same background as those kids, it's a blessing," McMillian says. "They see him in the neighborhood, but to see him acting out and see him getting fired up and just bonding with the kids, a lot of kids looked at that as motivation.

"For Byron, that means so much for him to work with these young kids and be able to give back to the same community that raised him."

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