PRO FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : NFC PLAYOFFS : Cunningham Appreciates Reception

Randall Cunningham, an unrestricted free agent next season after playing 11 years for the Eagles, said he left the field with tears in his eyes knowing he might have played his last game in Philadelphia.

“I’m just as fresh as when I first got here,� he said. “The way the fans received me when I went into the game today, I could go out on a note like that.�

Speculation had Cunningham moving on to Arizona next season to be reunited with former Eagle coach Buddy Ryan, but Ryan was fired this week.

“I was sorry to see Buddy get fired, not because I might have had an opportunity to play there next season, but because he’s a great man,� Cunningham said. “I know he had plans for me playing there, but what bothers me is firing him so quick.

“Overall, though, I think he went out laughing at them because they still have to pay him.�

*

Cunningham had advised the Eagles earlier in the week that if his wife went into labor at their home in Las Vegas, he would leave to join her.

“No baby yet,� Cunningham said, showing reporters his beeper. “I was just curious, that if I happened to get in the game in a crucial situation and the call came in from the trainers, would they actually tell me. That’s what I was concerned about.�

Cunningham, who knelt on the final play to run out the clock, kept the game ball for his unborn child.

*

Detroit cornerback William Clay on the one-sided outcome: “We left the game in the locker room before we left,� he said. “I would never have believed it; I’m still stunned and shocked.�