By KEVIN NOONAN
The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

PHILADELPHIA - Randall Cunningham never thought about the impact he was having on the sport he loved to play. He didn't really consider the thousands of kids who watched him during his glory years with the Eagles and wanted to play football the way he played it. It's not that he didn't care, as much as he was preoccupied with the business at hand.

Now, he knows. Now, he looks at mobile, play-making quarterbacks like Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick and realizes he changed the way the game is played, perhaps as much as any player in the last 20 years.

McNabb will lead his Eagles against Vick's Atlanta Falcons on Saturday night in an NFL playoff game at Veterans Stadium, and the two quarterbacks are the star attractions.

But before there was McNabb or Vick - or Steve McNair or Daunte Culpepper or Jeff Garcia or Jake Plummer or Mark Brunell or Aaron Brooks - there was Randall Cunningham.

"It really hit me when I heard players like Donovan and Michael Vick and some others talk about what an influence I had on them and their careers," Cunningham said this week from his home in Las Vegas. "You know, when you're playing, you're not thinking about the big picture, about what everything will mean years down the road. But eventually you get down that road and then you realize things.

"So, it was a huge thrill for me to hear these young kids talk about me that way. And it's an even bigger thrill to think I may have had something to do with it, that I helped pave the way for them."

Cunningham was a sensation when he took over the Eagles in the mid-1980s, an All-Pro quarterback who could throw 80 yards for a touchdown or run 80 yards for a touchdown. But it was the running that set him apart, and he finished his NFL career as the all-time leading rusher among quarterbacks with 4,482 yards.

And even though his Eagles always came up short in the playoffs, he was once dubbed by Sports Illustrated as the Ultimate Weapon in the NFL.

"Other quarterbacks had run before me, and I always admired guys like Fran Tarkenton," Cunningham said. "But I did things a little differently. I didn't just try to run to avoid the sack, I ran to pick up yardage and score touchdowns and, most of all, win games."

While he was doing that, young Donovan McNabb was sitting at home in suburban Chicago, watching and dreaming. And in Newport News, Va., young Michael Vick was doing the same thing.

"I grew up watching Randall," McNabb said. "Some of the moves he did, I tried to simulate them when I was in high school or Pop Warner."

Said Vick: "Steve Young and Randall Cunningham were my idols growing up. ... The things those guys did were things I used to do in the back yard, just having fun and making plays.

"That's the way they changed the game. They were momentum shifters. Any time, they can change the momentum of the game and play a play that will determine whether their teams won or lost."

Cunningham played for the Eagles from 1985-95, a roller-coaster era in Eagles history. They had plenty of talent under coaches Buddy Ryan and Rich Kotite and one of the most dominating defenses in NFL history, but they never made it to the Super Bowl.

Even though Cunningham had a cannon for a passing arm, it was his legs and his willingness to use them that separated him from the pack. The Eagles offense in those years consisted of Cunningham making three or four big plays a game while the defense did the rest.

And now, what was once rare is common - running quarterbacks. And none of them runs as well as the two who will take the field at Veterans Stadium Saturday night.

"The game has changed a lot, and I think it's a change for the better," Cunningham said. "You still have guys who sit in the pocket, but more and more teams are finding out how dangerous a running quarterback is.

"That was definitely an advantage I had. Nobody else was doing what I was doing. Now, there are a lot of quarterbacks playing the way I played, and there will be even more in the future."

The success Cunningham had is a big reason more and more teams are going for mobile quarterbacks, and more and more athletic players are going out for quarterback instead of running back or receiver.

"That's not something I thought about while I was playing, but now that I can reflect back on it, it's very nice to hear," Cunningham said. "Especially for young black kids, who didn't have many role models playing the quarterback position.

"Now, it's no big deal, but back then it was. Back then, there was me and Doug Williams and James Harris, and that's about it. Now, if a black kid wants to play quarterback, he can see a lot of them in the NFL and he knows it's possible. And we're going to see two of the best on Saturday night."

And now, Cunningham will tune in to watch the two kids who once tuned in to watch him.

"Of course, I'm pulling for Donovan. I'm an Eagle, man, and I always will be," Cunningham said. "But I appreciate and respect what Michael Vick does and the way he does it. He's an incredible talent, as is Donovan.

"But what really excites me is what those guys are going to be like in four or five years. They're both young and they're still learning the game."

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