Moments after that 5.8 earthquake shook the Eagles’ locker room, Brandon Graham was looking for Mike Patterson.
“Where’s Big Mike? He’s from Cali,” Graham said.
As players struggled to make sense of yesterday’s unexpected tremor, Patterson was getting ready for his first real trial of the season. With a full week of practice under his belt, the Eagles’ defensive tackle is expected to play in tomorrow’s preseason game. Patterson and his doctors haven’t seen any setbacks.
“Nothing right now, everything’s cool,” Patterson said. “I’ve been talking to doctors and they said I could go out there and play. So, like I said, if I couldn’t do this 100 percent, then I wouldn’t do it at all.”
Coach Andy Reid has been cautiously easing Patterson back after he suffered a seizure on Aug. 3. He still doesn’t know exactly how many snaps he’ll see against Cleveland.
“No, I don’t know that,” Patterson said. “I’ll just be excited to be back out there with the guys, fans cheering and stuff like that. Emotionally, I’ll be really excited.”
It will be the first time he’ll line up next to fellow tackle — and prized free agent — Cullen Jenkins in a game setting. Patterson pointed out that building chemistry along the defensive line is something that often gets overlooked.
“Most definitely,” Patterson said. “You want to build team chemistry with the guys. Even the last few days at camp, I wasn’t on the field, but I was able to be around the guys.”
Patterson was also quick to note that the day when he collapsed at Lehigh won’t be on his mind at all. In fact, he said it’s literally been erased from his memory bank.
“It’s easy for me because I blacked out,” Patterson said. “I don’t remember too much of it. It’s easy for me to put it in the back of my mind and forget about it.”
