Untapped Potential: Whatever Happened To Eagles RB Correll Buckhalter?
The Correll Buckhalter story has more twists and turns than an M. Night Shyamalan film. He overcame personal tragedies in his young life to reach the highest level of professional football. Unfortunately, his football career was marred with challenges and tragedies of its own.
Buckhalter’s stat sheet contains several mysteries. In an NFL career that spanned a full decade, why did he only see the field in seven of those seasons? For a player who easily averaged 4.5 yards per carry throughout his career, how did never exceed 642 rushing yards in a season?
The story does not end with football, as Buckhalter has continued to make news in his personal life in the 12 years since his playing career ended.
For the sake of the casual Eagles fan, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Who is Correll Buckhalter? What was his impact on the Eagles, and where is he now?
Before The Birds
Correll Buckhalter was born and raised in Mississippi, where he attended Collins High School and became a football star. Buckhalter tragically lost his mother when he was just 19 months old (she is memorialized in a tattoo on his right arm, per the Daily Nebraskan). He was raised by his father, a truck driver, along with, eventually, his stepmother.
Buckhalter overcame childhood tragedy to become an absolute star on the football field. He was selected All-State in his junior and senior seasons, rushing for over 3,000 yards over those two years. His senior season was particularly impressive as he accumulated 1,722 yards on the ground with 12 touchdowns. Naturally, he gained the attention of several colleges, eventually choosing to take his talents to Nebraska.
Buckhalter explained at the time that, a big reason why he selected Nebraska, was because he didn’t want to simply follow in his older brother’s footsteps. His brother Chris, also a football star (who would eventually land on an Eagles practice squad), had opted to stay local and attend Southern Mississippi. In another shocking, tragic twist in Buckhalter’s life, during Correll’s senior year in high school, Chris went on the run and eventually turned himself for manslaughter in the death of another young man. Chris went on to serve a 20-year prison sentence.
Correll Buckhalter once again would not let the adversity in his family life hold him down, and he would move on to have a highly successful career at Nebraska. While he never became a stand-alone starter in college, starting just nine games, he still amassed 2,522 yards and 27 touchdowns on the ground, at an outstanding 6.1 yards per carry. He averaged over seven yards per carry as a senior.
His consistency and explosiveness in college earned him attention from pro scouts, and he would go on to be selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth round of the 2001 NFL draft.
The Midnight Green Years
Buckhalter hit the ground running in his rookie season. He set an Eagles’ rookie record with 586 yards on the ground at a solid 4.5 yards per carry. A highlight of the season was his 50-yard performance in the NFC Championship game. The lowlight of his first professional season was a one-game suspension for his involvement in a traffic stop that turned up marijuana (though he was not charged).
However, Buckhalter was living up to the hype on the field, and he seemed poised to dethrone Duce Staley as the team’s top ball carrier heading into Year Two.
However, his sophomore season was when the injury bug first bit. And it bit hard. Buckhalter tore his ACL in the team’s first minicamp of the 2002 offseason. He would not see the field that year.
He bounced back in 2003 after a successful rehab, however. Buckhalter would finish the 2003 season with 542 yards and a career-high eight touchdowns on the ground. Things seemed to be back on track.
Until they weren’t. This brings us to the biggest gap in Buckhalter’s football resume. Once again entering the season expected to seize the reigns as the team’s lead rusher, Buckhalter ruptured his patella tendon in the preseason. He was done for the year, once again.
Fast forward one year, and Deja vu struck. After a full year of rehabbing, Buckhalter was back on the field leading up to the 2005 season. Until, once again, he ruptured his patella tendon, ending yet another season before it began. This marked his third serious knee injury in four years, and his third missed season in four campaigns. Truly heartbreaking.
However, if there is one thing we now know about Correll Buckhalter, he is a fighter. He was not done with football. After yet another full year of rehabbing, Buckhalter would return to the Eagles in 2006. He would spend the next three seasons as a solid backup runner, never exceeding 369 yards in a season but consistently averaging nearly five yards per attempt. He would also contribute on special teams as a kick return specialist during this span.
Certainly not the legacy he had hoped to leave in Philly after showing superstar potential as a rookie. However, a more than respectable career in the City of Brotherly Love, particularly when taking into account how incredibly hard he worked to come back from three major knee injuries in a short span.
Buckhalter would close out his career with a two-year run in Denver, including a 2009 campaign that saw him amass a career-high 642 rushing yards at an outstanding 5.4 yards per carry. Truly impressive, just half a decade after such potentially career-ending injuries.
The Years Since
Just like his early days and his playing career, Correll Buckhalter’s post-playing days have been marred with more challenges and adversity. Buckhalter found himself dragged into an investigation into big-name drug dealer Styles N. Beckles at the end of his career, though he has staunchly denied any connection to the case. Beckles himself has also since changed his narrative and now claims he never sold drugs to Buckhalter.
More recently, Buckhalter pleaded guilty to one count of attempted to commit wire fraud in July of 2020 for his part in a highly publicized healthcare fraud scheme. He received a ten-month prison sentence and 300 days on house arrest.
It is truly tragic that, despite the incredible adversity that Correll Buckhalter has overcome in his personal and professional life, he has seemingly been unable to stay out of his own way as his life has progressed.
We here at Fly Eagles Nation are grateful for Buckhalter’s incredible work ethic, toughness, and amazing drive to overcome and succeed. He was an inspiration to Eagles fans, and we are all rooting for him to get the help he needs, bounce back once again from his latest challenges, make things right, and get his life back on track.
Do you have a favorite memory of Correll Buckhalter in an Eagles jersey? Let us know in the comments!