By: Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly Editor 
"I think he's one of the best stories of the draft," said NFL Draft analyst and Philadelphia native Mike Mayock. "He's Temple tough."
Tough certainly describes Haason Reddick. The Temple alumnus turned top draft prospect is now participating in his first NFL season with the Arizona Cardinals – the Eagles opponents this week.
"I got a whole city coming out," said Reddick in a conference call with the media on Thursday regarding his homecoming. Reddick played his college football at Lincoln Financial Field as a member of the Temple Owls, and now will get to play in The Linc for the first time as a professional on Sunday.
Reddick anticipates a strong reception on Sunday even though he is playing for the enemy. "The Philly crowd has always been a wild crowd, I like to say. Growing up, going to a couple of Philadelphia Eagles games, I would alway see how the crowd would react. But I'm from Philly. Philly will always be home. I will always have love for Philly," said Reddick.
Reddick grew up an Eagles fan in Camden, New Jersey. "Initially, growing up, I was an Eagles fan, back when they had Duce Staley," Reddick said. Staley stuck out to Reddick because he played running back as a young player at Haddon Heights High School.
Reddick walked on to the Temple football squad in 2012 as a safety and a running back. After redshirting in 2012 Reddick switched to play linebacker in 2013. He was asked to leave the squad before making the switch to defensive end, and no one could have foreseen Reddick's switch being his key to the NFL.
Reddick's position switches would not be done in college however; when Reddick was drafted 13th overall – one pick before the Eagles went on the clock – he was announced as a linebacker for the Cardinals.
When he was drafted last summer the city that he loves gave the love back to him in spades:
Reddick has spent this season playing as an inside linebacker in the Arizona defense, but this weekend the Eagles will have to prepare to see Reddick in his element. Pass rusher Markus Golden is dealing with an injury that will sideline him this week and Reddick is being moved once again to play as a 3-4 outside linebacker.
Reddick is yet to get his first NFL sack, but he does have eight sacks at Lincoln Financial Field from his time on North Broad.
Reddick is enjoying his time in Arizona so far, and especially his head coach Bruce Arians who went to William Penn High School and served as head coach of the same Temple football program that Reddick attended from 1983-1988. According to Reddick, Arians is "the coolest coach I have ever had. He just has this cool swagger to him."
Arians returned the praise when asked about Reddick. "First of all, we knew he was tough. He came up the right way. Great mom and pop. Nothing handed to him, had to work for everything. He's brought that work ethic with him. Temple kids are very, very proud," said Arians.
We've heard Mike Mayock say it, and Bruce Arians say it, but what exactly is "Temple Tough?"
Ex-Temple head coach Matt Rhule introduced a tradition during his tenure at Temple where he gave jersey numbers one through nine to his nine toughest players. Rhule placed a premium on toughness at Temple and Reddick lived up to that standard. Reddick wore multiple numbers at Temple, but the last number that he would wear at Temple would be the number seven.
Interestingly Reddick now wears jersey no. 43, two digits that when added together equal Reddick's final uniform number at Temple. Reddick is proud of his time at Temple, and he should be. He is Temple Tough, he is Philly tough, and a whole city will be proud of Reddick when he steps on the field this Sunday.
