Middle Man

Freddie Mitchell wears outrageous clothes. A national television audience saw the honey-toned mink jacket he modeled Sunday after the Eagles had defeated Green Bay.

Mitchell speaks in outrageous hyperbole. He went on a local sports talk radio station in June and proclaimed: “I’m the best wide receiver in the game. Since I haven’t had the chance to play, I have not yet been able to prove myself.”

Mitchell gives himself outrageous nicknames. “First-Down Freddie.” “Touchdown Freddie.”

And now Mitchell can lay claim to maybe the most outrageous catch in Eagle history.

On fourth and 26, with less than two minutes left in the NFC divisional playoff game against the Packers and a season on the line, Mitchell went to the middle of the field, where receivers are most unprotected and most likely to get knocked silly, bruised badly, left breathless and woozy.

There in the middle, Mitchell caught a bullet pass from quarterback Donovan McNabb for a first down, saving a season and maybe his own career.

“That’s the way you get your coach and your quarterback to have faith in you,” said Mitchell’s college coach, Bob Toledo. “Absolutely, one big play like that can make a difference.”

Mitchell, 25, arrived in Philadelphia as a 2001 first-round draft choice, pick No. 25, on the basis of his UCLA career.

“I came to the Eagles with big expectations and big dreams,” Mitchell said, “and with a lot of confidence in myself.”

As a rookie playing with McNabb and in Coach Andy Reid’s West Coast offense, Mitchell wasn’t the star he wanted to be. But he did play in 15 games, catch 21 passes and average 13.5 yards a catch.

In his second year, though, the Eagles brought Antonio Freeman onto the team, in part because coaches were whispering that Mitchell wasn’t picking up the offense and might not be working hard enough to learn it.

“I’ve always gone the extra way,” Mitchell said. But in 2002, he had only 12 receptions for 105 yards.

“Freddie’s not a shrinking violet,” Toledo said, “and sometimes he brings criticism on himself.”

Mitchell was a constant target on Philadelphia’s notoriously vicious talk radio programs. He didn’t help himself in June by telling the local sports fan he was the NFL’s best if only someone would let him play after having his play described as “listless,” “lackluster” and “undistinguished” in 2002.

Mitchell said he regrets nothing he has said and thanks Philadelphia for “toughening me up. I love it here, I love the fans here, they’re honest, I’m honest. Let’s just all tell the truth.”

And on Monday, as the city heaped its praises on Mitchell for his guts and his glory, Mitchell suggested it might be time to build a statue in his honor, you know, “a Freddie statue right beside Rocky.” The Rocky statue, built for the fictional movie boxer, is revered here. Mitchell isn’t quite there yet.

“But that’s just Freddie being Freddie,” Toledo said.

This year, “Freddie being Freddie” has also been Freddie catching more passes and gaining more yards. Before Sunday’s playoff game, Mitchell had 35 receptions for 498 yards (an average of 14.2) and two touchdowns. He has become McNabb’s favorite third-down target and is proud to be the slot receiver, the guy who goes to that tough part of the field -- the middle.

“Look,” said Brian Dawkins, one of the Eagles’ outstanding cornerbacks, “you have a lot of guys in the league who scoot through the middle and put their arms up for about a second. They don’t want to catch that pass. Freddie, he’s fearless. He wants the ball and whatever happens after that.”

Mitchell had perhaps the best game of his Eagle career against Dallas in December, when he had three catches for 58 yards. During the week before the game, it had been revealed that Mitchell was one of six NFL players who had received anonymous racist, threatening mail.

“I don’t want to talk about that anymore,” Mitchell says now, the same thing he said on the afternoon of the Dallas game. His teammates appreciated Mitchell’s refusal to make himself into a martyr or cause a media hubbub.

And Mitchell adores McNabb and Reid, who Mitchell understands, “has kept his belief in me and for that I give him a lot of credit.”

Mitchell has said he would not have accepted as gracefully the vehement criticism McNabb heard when the Eagles picked McNabb over Ricky Williams in the draft, nor would he have so quietly walked away from the controversy caused by ESPN commentator Rush Limbaugh’s comments about McNabb being given undue credit by the nation’s sporting press because McNabb is African American.

“To me, Donovan is what the NFL is all about,” Mitchell said after Sunday’s game. “Philadelphia is lucky to have Donovan.”

Tomorrow, Mitchell probably will say that Philadelphia is lucky to have Freddie. He will put on his fur jacket and talk smack with some autograph seekers and maybe call in to a radio show. He will be Freddie.

“Freddie loves the limelight,” Toledo said. “He wants to be a big fish in a big pond and he’s got a lot of talent. But there’s a lot of great receivers in the NFL, special ones. Let’s see if Freddie can keep up. But he’s a tough guy. A tough guy.”