I know the tweet was already posted mods but I’ve seen a lot of people wonder how/why this happened randomly, and Roob breaks it down in this article.

According to an Eagles spokesman, NFL officials contacted the Eagles recently and explained that they were clearing out decades-old players on various reserve lists when Williams’ name surfaced. Since the Eagles had never released Williams, he was still technically a member of the team.

The Eagles never bothered to release him and there was never really a reason to. He wasn’t getting paid, he wasn’t gaining pension credit, he didn’t count against the roster. He was a forgotten guy on an obscure reserve list, and it’s likely current Eagles brass didn’t even know he was still technically an Eagle.