PHILADELPHIA — Fletcher Cox will make the sign of the cross over his chest, kiss his fingertips and point to the sky. Then, when the final note of the national anthem is sung, he will look up and whisper those familiar words once more.
“I love you, bro.”
It’s his intimate pregame ritual to honor his late brother. And before his focus turns to the most important matchup of his career, Sunday’s NFC championship game against the Minnesota Vikings, Cox will take a moment to reflect on everyone he loves and everything he has lost.
“I talk to him before every game,” the Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle said during a quiet moment at his locker. “He used to always tell me, ‘Eye of the Tiger.’ He used to always text me that.”
It’s been three years since his older brother, Shaddrick “Trell” Cox Sr., suffered a fatal heart attack at 34. But Cox still hears him in his head and still finds solace in the conversations they share — conversations so special Cox is adamant about protecting their secrecy.
“Trell” was Cox’s confidant, his cheerleader and, above all else, his father figure. Time has done little to assuage the pain deep within him, but the grief has also fueled the defensive star on the field. And as the Eagles prepare to seize their Super Bowl dream in front of the home crowd at Lincoln Financial Field, they’re expecting Cox to deliver another dominant postseason performance.
The 27-year-old played arguably his best game in last week’s 15-10 divisional-round win over the Atlanta Falcons: seven tackles, including two for a loss, and a sack while playing 90 percent of the snaps. But it was his “hidden plays,” the tackles that preserved critical field position and limited Falcons running back Devonta Freeman to a meager 0.7 yards per carry, that defensive end Chris Long highlighted as the main reason Philadelphia was able to limit Atlanta to 10 points.
Now the Vikings must find a way to neutralize one of the NFL’s most talented interior defensive linemen.
Minnesota’s offense in the regular season was seventh in rushing (122.3 yards per game) and 10th in scoring (23.9 points), but its defense is a key reason the team is a three-point road favorite.
The Vikings had the No. 1 defense during the regular season, allowing a league-low 275.9 yards and 15.8 points per game. And, like the Eagles, their defensive line is their strength. But Philly’s squad isn’t intimidated by the Vikings’ star power or Everson Griffen’s team-high 13 sacks or Linval Joseph’s suffocating run defense. In fact, the Eagles are anxious to show why they’re the league’s top-ranked run defense (79.2 yards per game).
“We’re going to wreak havoc,” Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham said. “This is a good opportunity for us to prove who the best defensive line and front. . . . If we say we the best, we got to go out there and prove it.”
The Eagles expect Cox to lead the way.
The three-time Pro Bowl and second-team all-pro selection elevated his game when his team needed him most against Atlanta. Now, a little more than three years to the day of his brother’s death — Jan. 12, 2015 — he’s hoping to have his biggest game yet. Said veteran safety Malcolm Jenkins, “I don’t know anybody out there that can block Fletcher Cox.”
“Here’s a guy who’s going to make $100 million in his career, he’s one of the best in the league, and he works like he’s a regular guy,” Long said of Cox, the No. 12 pick in the 2012 draft. “He’s committed to his craft. And he’s a team guy. He’s like a truck driver: really consistent and doesn’t take a day off.”
To better understand the man Cox is now, you must know the child he once was.
His mother, Malissa, a supplier for a Nissan dealership, raised four kids on her own in Yazoo City, Mississippi, a town of roughly 11,000 about 50 miles north of Jackson. Cox grew up in a home with plenty of love but little money. His father, he said, wasn’t around. Nothing was ever easy, and nothing was ever given to him. He refuses to let up or slow down. It’s not in his nature. It’s not who he is.
“I know where I come from,” Cox said. “I come from nothing.”
The everyday struggle is what fuels him. That’s why the six-year, $103 million extension he signed in June 2016 (which included $63 million guaranteed) didn’t change him.
“I just like to work. I don’t want nothing given to me,” he said. “That big contract, I worked for it. I don’t want to be that guy where people say, ‘Since he got paid, he hasn’t done nothing.’ So I just keep grinding.”
At his core, he’ll always be just a kid from Yazoo City. A kid forced to grow up quickly. A kid who has suffered more personal loss than he can comprehend.
During Cox’s rookie year, he returned home to attend the funeral of his best friend, Melvin Baker, who was killed in a car accident. “He got ejected from a car,” Cox said quietly. “He was in the back seat. Everybody else in the car lived except him.”
That same season, he left the team again when his maternal grandmother died. His brother’s death years later almost broke him.
“I have my days where I wake up bawling and crying or I go to sleep bawling and crying,” Cox admitted.
Most of the time, he is able to keep his emotions at bay. But when he is at his lowest in the locker room, Cox’s closest friend on the team, defensive end Vinny Curry, is quick to offer an encouraging word.
“You can tell by the way he walks,” said Curry, who was drafted in the second round the same year as Cox. “Usually, he has a bop in his walk. But when he’s walking all slow, I’ll try to say some things to cheer him up and get him to laugh.”
Cox, as always, will play with a heavy heart. But he’ll find comfort in his memories of those he holds dear and those pregame conversations he and “Trell” still share.
And, for one more Sunday at least, his heartache will be his driving force.
