New Eagles safety KVon Wallace channels Brian Dawkins passion for Philly in jour

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is sitting in his apartment bedroom. He's in Clemson, South Carolina, not far from "Death Valley," the Memorial Stadium field that two years earlier featured Kaleb McGary Jersey  him at the back end of a national championship defense. He's near Littlejohn Coliseum, where Wallace in December 2019 officially became the first person in his family to graduate college. And he's barely hours removed from a virtual meeting with the , the NFL team that drafted him four days earlier.Wallace isn't the biggest name from the Clemson Tigers program. Just the school's 2018 championship team included five future top-20 draft picks (A.J. Terrell, , , , ), another three Day Two picks (, , ) and, biggest of all, consensus top 2021 prospect Trevor Lawrence. So when the 22-year-old safety first caught wind on Saturday that he was about to have an NFL home of his own, he almost couldn't believe it.The were on the clock at pick No. 125, two spots before the Eagles in the fourth round, when Wallace got a text. It was from Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. And it was in all caps.LET'S GO."I looked at it, like, 'What does this mean?'" Wallace says. "And my agent was sitting beside me, I showed him the me sage, and he said, 'Bro, you're going to the Eagles.' I said, 'Well, you know, I've been getting text me sages all day from teams that really ain't mean much.' And he was like, 'You'll see.' And, literally, five seconds later, my phone rang, and it was a Philadelphia area code."At that moment, Wallace turned to his agent, Deiric Jackson, and they smiled at each other. He turned to his mom, Roxanne, who immediately got off the couch and started recording her son. Everyone else in the room followed suit, pulling out their phones."And then I answer the phone, and it was Jim on the other line," Wallace says. "He said, 'How do you feel about being an Eagle?' And I'm just, you know, a burst of joy."So was the family around him. Someone let out a "Hallelujah." Whispers and murmurs gradually intensified into cheers. Others started fist-pumping, throwing their closed hands through the air while trying not to distract from Wallace's phone call."And I really couldn't hear anything else he said after that, to be honest."Under the wings of Eagles legendsNo one who follows the Eagles has to be reminded of the team's love affair with another certain Clemson safety. Brian Dawkins, drafted 61st overall in 1996, went on to become arguably the most popular Eagle in franchise history, embodying the city's raw tenacity during a 16-year career that landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There's nothing inherently special about a defensive back swapping out Clemson's orange and purple for Philadelphia's midnight green. And Dawkins' shadow, while finally kept at bay during ' esteemed six-year stint with the Eagles, has taken victims before. (C.J. Gaddis, the last Tigers DB to be drafted by the Eagles, but never took a single snap in the NFL.)Wallace isn't afraid of the B-Dawk comparisons, though. For one, he knows Dawkins personally. In fact, with Philly media, he roomed with the legend's son, Brian Dawkins Jr., during his first two years of college. He's also close with Dawkins' own mentor, fellow 1990s Eagles fan favorite Troy Elijah Wilkinson Jersey  Vincent. (The two connected in the NFL's executive office, where Vincent has worked since 2014 and where Wallace interned during his senior year.)Dawkins and Vincent were different players -- the former immortalizing himself as the on-field equivalent of a projectile mi sile, the latter serving as an interception magnet at cornerback. But both men, on and especially off the gridiron, came to be known for . It's for those reasons, Wallace says, he's clung to both Dawkins and Vincent on his own journey to the Eagles -- not so much as football strategists but, rather, as life coaches."A lot of our conversations are very, very personal, very, very heartfelt," he says. "Whatever we speak towards one another stays between us. They know a lot of personal stuff about me; I know a few about them. And it's just always love, man. It's always something that you learn when you speak to those guys ... It's like a kung fu movie where they always finding that OG trainer -- that trainer that is sitting on top of the temple, just meditating and floating in the air, and you want to just soak up all the knowledge and be just like 'em. And that's how I feel with just those two."Wallace is clear he's his own man and player. But he's just as clear he wants to "pick their brain to get bits and pieces of how to become a better man, person, husband, father, son of God" -- everything. He talks repeatedly of working toward his "why" -- his motivation for life in and beyond football. Two longtime Eagles stars, including the big  Adetokunbo Ogundeji Jersey one from his alma mater, just happen to be his ideal role models."They made it in Philly," Wallace says, "and they're legends in Philly because of their heart. And the heart that they have is exactly what Philly fans need. And that's why I feel like I'm a perfect fit as well."'I'm a hunter'K'Von Wallace isn't a "Philly guy," at least in the literal sense of the term. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and he grew up a fan. ("I'm not a local type of person," he says. "I gotta be different in my choices I make.") But it's that different mindset -- that confident-bordering-on-resistant attitude -- that he thinks makes him right at home with the Eagles."It's all about being a dog," he says. "They go by that dog mentality, and they go out there and just work. Everything has gotta be earned. Nothing is given in Philly. The fans are going to be very, very loving and kind and heartwarming to you, and that comes with a lot of cons as well, because if you cro s some fans, they going to let you know how they feel ... Playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, man, it's a ble sing. Coming from this type of family I have, this type of background I have, the Eagles seems like a perfect fit."Truth be told, Wallace's upbringing probably prepared him for any market.As a toddler, he and his mother , a public housing community that's since been tabbed for demolition -- but only after years of  Kendall Sheffield Jersey densely packing crime and poverty into its worn brick buildings. (The average family at Creighton makes just over $9,000 ... per year. The area has been called "" for its residents.) He didn't meet his father, Kevin, until he visited him in prison at age 6. He kept himself busy at a nearby Boys & Girls Club . By the time his family moved to Highland Springs a few years later, he'd made football his consistent outlet. Like too many others with similar backgrounds, he saw his athleticism as a ticket out.Now, with the ticket officially punched, he's entering an NFL locker room with a fearle sne s not often seen in rookie mid-round picks, let alone those adjusting to the pros during a pandemic-shortened offseason."Every single person on that roster is gonna get to know K'Von for who he really is," Wallace says. "I'm not a guy who just sits back and waits for a guy to approach him. I'm an attacker. I'm a hunter. I'm a leader. And I really feel like, born July 25 and being that lion, you gotta go get what you want. And I wanna earn each and every one of those players' respect ... Whether I'm starting, special teams, I earned this right to even be drafted, and I feel like me earning that came with a bunch of guys respecting me, coaches believing in me, and that's something I gotta take to this organization, bringing a championship swagger. No matter if you're playing or not, you're still being a leader."The next WolverineIt's not hard to see Wallace is a natural-born and bred competitor."I just wanna bring that type of mindset that I belong," he says. "It ain't just about me dominating one-on-ones. It's about competing for my position, competing for somebody else's spot and, at the end of the John Cominsky Jersey  day, you gotta take food off another grown man's plate. That's what this