So for the second time in two years, a young Eagles defensive lineman has eschewed the number 78 in favor of more fashionable digits in the nineties. Last year it was Broderick Bunkley upgrading from 78 to 97, this year it’s Victor Abiamiri ditching 78 and pouncing on Jerome McDougle’s recently vacated 95 (while its corpse was still warm!).

Why no love for 78? Are the numbers in the seventies seen as a little too offensive line? Do young defensive linemen want to awaken the ghosts of the ‘91 Eagles (save for Mike Pitts, of course) and go for the numbers in the nineties?

Or is it just that nobody wore number 78 quite like Hollis Thomas, and it’s just pointless to attempt to outdo him in the 78 shirt?  And by “outdo him,” I mean, “Dwarf the actual digits on the jersey via a voluminous midsection that can only lead one to believe that an Eagles head coaching job might loom in your future.”

(Note that we’ll always remember Hollis fondly as an Eagle — especially the stop inside the five-yard line in the NFC Championship on Michael Vick.  Pretty cool that the big fella didn’t let Vick scoot past him into the end zone; that was a big play.)