Just Sayin'

Michael Vick has received some harsh criticism by Eagles fans ever since they signed him.

What he did was indeed downright disgraceful, but I personally wonder if it has something to do with the fact that people care more about their pets than their fellow human beings.

To wit, Brett Myers had an incident of hitting his wife in public (a case where charges have since been dropped), but now Philly fans are clamoring for him to pitch as a closer in place of the struggling Brad Lidge.

Eagles fans also went nuts when Cowboys' receiver Michael Irvin was taken off on a stretcher.

Let's not forget that our fair city's favorite sports icon is Rocky... a guy who punched meat and bloodied many an opponent (albeit in a fictional world).

And speaking of meat... that hamburger you're eating right now? Think about how much abuse that cow went through to get to your mouth.

I'd like to see us live in a more civilized world, but until then, let's at least be consistent in who we love and hate in this world.

Vague as Vick

The controversial signing of QB Michael Vick by the Philadelphia Eagles has raised much uproar throughout the country, though particularly here in the Philadelphia metro area. Some fans are downright belligerent about his signing, saying that he's a dog killer and he doesn't deserve the chance to play again; others are all for it, saying that he paid time for his crime and everybody should have the opportunity to get a second chance in life.

So with this controversy, I figured there would be some corporate reservations about endorsing this polarizing athlete. But unfortunately I haven't seen much of a stance one way or the other from the corporate world thus far. The closest I've seen has been a Philadelphia Inquirer article which discusses Dick's Sporting Goods and their stance on the issue of selling Michael Vick jerseys in their stores. In a nutshell: if people want them, Dick's will stock them, if not, they won't. Gee, don't go too far out on a limb there, guys.

I would like to have seen somebody take a stance on this issue. Either hold the line and say we choose not to stock Michael Vick jerseys because of his questionable character, or say, yes, we will stock his jersey and we have decided that 10% of all revenue from the sale of his jerseys will go to the ASPCA, to help animals in distress. To me, it's pretty lame to act vaguely and say that you will wait and see how people react, or just glaze over the issue until it subsides. Grow a backbone for once!

Oh Well

Well, I stand corrected. Having predicted a playoff victory for the Eagles today, I must say that the Cards are deserving of a Super Bowl berth.

The Cardinals' offense was on a roll, and their defense, though not dominant, held their own. The Eagles gave a good fight, but got outplayed.

Some mysteries from the game:

-What happened to David Akers? He missed a field goal, extra point, and kicked a kick off out of bounds.

-What was Quentin Demps doing out there? He got burned several times and had a ridiculous penalty.

-How was there no pass interference on the Eagles' last pass of the game to Kevin Curtis? Maybe it wasn't a hack job, but seemed noticeable enough that a flag should have been called.

Well, whatever, I'm not going to go all sour grapes up in here. Eagles lost, time to move on.

Today's Battle of the Birds

The soaring Eagles take on the high-flying Cardinals today in the City of Desertly Love to determine which team earns a trip to the Super Bowl. Should be quite a battle as both teams have been hot during the playoffs.

Yesterday I watched the classic movie Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Very apropos to today's game. In the movie, the two "gentlemen bandits" get chased by a squad of hired hitmen, so to speak, who are hot on the trail of the two wanted gunmen. What ensues is an epic chase where the two outlaws try every trick in the book to get away from their followers. Ultimately, they head for the hills to escape capture. I have a feeling that is what today's game will be like. A back and forth chase, where one false move could determine the outcome of the game. And with the backdrop of the Squaw Peak/Piestewa Peak, it's eerie how much the movie and the game could have in common. Well, metaphorically, at least.

That said, I think the favored Eagles do pull it out by less than a TD, 27-24, and wind up flying down to Tampa for a final battle with another bird team... the Baltimore Ravens.

Phair Weather Phans: Phoenix, not Philly

So the Arizona Cardinals will be hosting the Philadelphia Eagles in the Battle of the Birds, at next Sunday's NFC Conference Championship game.

And surprise, surprise, demand is at an all time high in Arizona as the tickets sold out in six minutes, according to this Inquirer article.

But also in that article it states that the Wild Card game that the Cardinals hosted needed an extension in time to sell out the game, or else it would have been blacked out.

Way to go Cards fans, you really showed your true colors there.

Meanwhile I guarantee you that there will be plenty of green in the seats as Philadelphia Eagles fans trek down to Phoenix to show them what real sports fans are all about.

Can you imagine a playoff game in Philly NOT selling out... ever? P-shaw! :-)

Ugly Win? I Think Not

The Philadelphia Inquirer's Bob Ford wrote a column entitled "Eagles win ugly, but they win" after the Eagles beat the Vikings yesterday in Minnesota to advance in the playoffs.

In the column, he goes on to say that Donovan McNabb turned the ball over twice, there were times when they should have scored touchdowns instead of field goals, and tackles were missed on defense. Okay... and?

I don't know what better way there is to say this, but when you get to the playoffs, you're playing the cream of the crop in the league. Chances are your opponents are going to come out and play you tough and force things to happen against your team. That's the name of the game. Even though the Eagles weren't "perfect" they showed a solid team effort and stuck with it the whole game. Personally, that's all I can ask of a team. True, in games in the past, the Eagles have collectively dogged it (see: Eagles v. Cincinnati, November 16, 2008). But that didn't happen yesterday, and the word ugly should not play into it.

Sometimes I just get this feeling that if Coach Andy Reid and McNabb don't execute to perfection in a game, so many people in this city get up in arms. And this column is a perfect example of this micromanagement by fans. Like I said to a friend who kept sending me emails during the game, sarcastically pointing out the Eagles' faults... chill out! Enjoy the team, enjoy the game, and if they lose, THEN you can have some concern, especially if they played an ugly game.

Let's just say that if the Eagles can score 26 points in a game, and win by double digits, I'll take that "ugly" win any day of the week.

Clever Television Programming

On one channel sports fans can find the Miami Dolphins playing against the Baltimore Ravens in an AFC playoff Wild Card game.

On another channel, movie buffs can watch Ace Ventura, Pet Detective solve the crime of what happened to the Dolphins' mascot Snowflake, right before a pending Super Bowl game between the Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles.

After the Dolphins' game at 4:30, the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC playoff Wild Card game.

Well played.

Rooting for Oakland Raiders, New York Giants, and Houston Texans, and Other Philly Oddities

Yesterday Philadelphia Eagles fans had the privilege, errr, duty to root for three teams that we normally would have ignored or hated. The Oakland Raiders needed to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, to help the Eagles pave the way to earn a playoff berth, which they did (sorry once again Tampa Bay!). Then we needed either the Houston Texans to beat the Chicago Bears (which indeed happened), or the New York Giants-- yes, the Eagles' bitter rivals-- to take down the Minnesota Vikings, which they didn't, but no matter.

The stage was set for the Eagles to have a chance at making the playoffs with a win against the Dallas Cowboys. And the rest is history.

But when, if ever, has the Philly fan had to root for three disparate teams to pull out wins like that? It could prove that yesterday was one of the weirdest and most historical days in Philly sports history. This will especially prove true if the Birds wind up winning the Super Bowl. But let's just root for a first round win by our boys in green before we think that far ahead...

Tom McHale: Off to Pancake Block Heaven

The Philadelphia Eagles mourned yet another death of a former player from the early 90s, 6'-4", 290 lb. offensive lineman Tom McHale. While McHale was never a star athlete in the NFL, it is a sad affair and hopefully the last one for a long time. McHale can be added to the list of died-too-young Eagles from that era, including Jerome Brown, Reggie White, and Andre Waters (am I forgetting anybody??).

Considering that most players who played then are or would be only in their late 30s to early 50s now, that is a disproportionate number of deceased players from one team. Hopefully this is just coincidence, but it makes one wonder about the level of danger and damage these young men battled thru week in and week out. Not a pretty picture when you think about it.

R.I.P. Tom... be sure to give Reggie a pancake block in your next practice game in the big football field in the sky...

Former Eagles Coaches Making the News

I recently reported here on this blog about the wealth of former Phillies players and coaches that have gone on to coach elsewhere in the big leagues. Now that trend is shifting to the Eagles as well.

In today's news, you may have heard about Ray Rhodes being scooped up by the Texans to serve as a defensive backs coach, as well as Rex Ryan being signed by the Baltimore Ravens. Okay, so Rex Ryan never coached or played for the Birds, but his dad did, and it's important to note that he'll now be working under former Iggles coach John Harbaugh.

Assistant coaches aside, this (un-updated) list of NFL head coaches shows that quite a few are indeed ex-Eagles, namely:

-Brad Childress (Minnesota), former coach
-Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay), former coach
-Jeff Fisher (Tennessee), former coach
-Emmitt Thomas (Atlanta-- okay, well he was only there temporarily), former coach
-Herm Edwards (Kansas City), former player

Perhaps if I have time I'll dig down deeper to find assistant coaches that were once Eagles, but that could take a lot of time which I don't quite have since there are so many assistants out there!

But all in all, even though the Eagles have been in a slump of late, it shows they must have done something right to have so many alumni in the head coaching ranks.

Good job gents... now do us proud and make your teams lose to us so we can go on and win a Super Bowl, wouldya?

(Thanks to viewimages.com for the photo!)

Cris Carter: Hall-Worthy?

In an old Seinfeld episode, the character of Elaine hordes a stash of sponges (the prophylactics, not the dishwashing kind), and quizzes each potential mate to determine whether or not he is sponge-worthy.

Well, a similar process goes on in the world of sports, and this one has to do with making the Hall of Fame in a player's respective sport.

Cris Carter, the famed former Eagles wide receiver is up for nomination this year, which brings the question, "Is he Hall-Worthy?" Let's take a look at some of his highlights, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com and discuss...

*8 Pro Bowl selections and 4 All-Pro selections
*1101 Receptions, placing him second all-time
*13,899 yards all time, ranking him 6th
*130 career receiving TD's, good for second, and sixth all-time for TD's for all wide receivers and running backs
*5 2-point conversions made, ranking him third (okay, not the most important stat, I just thought it was kinda cool!)

So those are Cris Carter's highlights. Based on them, and other stats you can find at the above link, is he Hall-Worthy???

My verdict...

YES! Send him to Akron to the Hall of Fame.

He had a stellar career and deserves to be enshrined. Too bad that most of his career was spent outside of Philly, else we may have seen a Super Bowl, assuming he could have done just as well here as he did in Minnesota.

For the record, Carter, an Ohio State alum, was drafted in the 4th round by the Eagles in 1987, and stayed in Philadelphia on the steely Veterans Stadium turf until 1989. He spent the bulk of his career with the Vikings, and then fizzled out with 5 games in Miami in 2002.

Unfortunately Buddy Ryan let him go, as this statement from Wikipedia reveals:

During training camp in 1990, while coaching the Eagles, Ryan released an up-and-coming young wide receiver named Cris Carter. Ryan subsequently explained to the media that he had cut Carter because Carter "only catches touchdowns" - an explanation for which Ryan was widely ridiculed for several years, especially after Carter was signed by the Minnesota Vikings with whom he almost immediately developed into one of the NFL's premier passcatchers. Years later, however, it was revealed that Carter had had a serious drug problem, and that Ryan had released him from the Eagles to send him a wake-up call. Carter credits Ryan's actions with helping him to turn his life around.

So there you have it. At any rate, good luck on your HoF bid Cris, and you're more than welcome to suit up and try out for the Eagles again this summer...

Eagles Throwback Jerseys: Which One Would You Choose?

At Modell's the other day, I peered up at a wall of throwback Eagles jerseys. I was looking to spend my gift card and I wanted an Eagles jersey since I didn't own one, and didn't particularly feel like getting a current player, for no other reason than pretty much every Iggles fan has a Westbrook, McNabb, Dawkins, or other familiar player's uniform. So the throwbacks caught my eye but I had a decision to make on which player to spring for. The choices were:

Harold Carmichael (#17)
Randall Cunningham (#12)
Keith Jackson (#88)
Ron Jaworski (#7)
Vince Papale (#83)
Mike Quick (#82)
Reggie White (#92)

For any Eagles fan, this is a tough call!

Quite honestly, on any given day I might have chosen a different one depending on my mood. I must have been in a hungry mood that day because I wound up going with the "Jaws" jersey. In reality, it was a very close call for me, with each player having a different selling point. Cunningham was silky smooth and wore my favorite number, Vince Papale was gritty and a unique star (though I was too young to see him play), Reggie was a legend, and so on and so forth. Once you get thinking about it, it gets pretty tough!

So I ask you... what throwback Eagles jersey would you have chosen?

An Eagles Analysis from a Different Point of View

Please pardon me as I stray away from my normal undertaking of digging up Philly sports minutiae, but I just had to jot my thoughts down on the 2007 Eagles.

I saw two amazing stats that were pretty much buried deep in the Philly Inquirer, one from today one from the weekend. Before you read what I'm going to report, you need to essentially drop any knowledge you have about the Eagles... forget any opinions you have about the coaches and players, and just take in the stats for what they are:

1. The Eagles had the HARDEST strength of schedule in the ENTIRE NFL. Teams that the Eagles played won 56% of their games. The next closest team was Washington. Meanwhile out of all the playoff teams other than Washington, the next highest percentage was 51%.... and most of the playoff teams had much easier schedules. That definitely makes a HUGE difference over the course of the season.

2. The Eagles were one of only FOUR teams to be in the top 10 for both offensive yards gained and defensive yards allowed. Patriots, Dallas, and Indy were the other 3 teams. If that company doesn't amaze you then I don't know what does.

So all in all, I think we can all agree that the Eagles should have had a better record this year, but unfortunately a few costly mistakes and poor executions and coaching decisions when needed killed this team. But I think that on the whole this team's still on the right track, despite the flukiness of this past year. If they can fill in a few key positions, watch out in '08.

Unfortunately the Inquirer sports writers tend to focus on the same issues of "we need another wide receiver" (true, but so do most teams), or "we need to run the ball with Westbrook more" (debatable, since if he runs the ball 20-25 times a game he's a lot more likely to get injured or worn down during the course of the season and ultimately shortening his career), or "McNabb/Reid/fill-in-the-blank must go (or must stay, depending on the time of year)". While they do make good points, it gets pretty tiresome reading the same basic commentary over and over and over. Though he's not perfect, I generally trust Andy Reid and his decisions and I think it's a waste of time to second-guess every single one that he makes. Move on with life!

That's all I wanted to say. Happy New Year's y'all!

Seen at Today's Philadelphia Eagles Game

A guy wearing one of those hats with the fake pony tail hanging out of it.

That's blogworthy, right?

Eagles Fun Fact of the Day

In light of the recent excitement over the selection of the Eagles' starting punter this season, here's a fun bit of Eagles trivia to show off at your next Birds party:

The Eagles' leading punter by yardage, Adrian Burk (1951-1956), punted the ball over 9 miles (16,122 yards) during his Eagles career. On top of that, Burk also QB'd the Eagles at the time and threw for 6,203 yards, which is equivalent to more than 3 miles.

You can thank me later for dropping some knowledge up in here.

Arkansas Fred Goes Wireless

Wireless Philadelphia, an initiative organized by controversial Philadelphia Mayor John Street, announced that it has named a new member to its board... none other than "Arkansas" Fred Barnett of Philadelphia Eagles fame.

Barnett, who racked up over 5,000 yards and scored 32 TDs while playing for the Eagles (1990-1995) and Miami (1996-1997), apparently is quietly active in the Philadelphia community as he also handles public relations and fund-raising for the Institute for the Development of African-American Youth in Philly, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Sounds like a hard-working and dedicated man who is definitely doing good things for the city.

Now for some more good things about Mr. Barnett...

• In two playoff games in which he had more than 100 receiving yards per game, the Eagles won both games by a combined score of 94-57. In the two games he caught for less than 100 yards each, the Iggles lost by a combined score of 64-21.
  
• One of the most memorable plays in Birds' history was his 95 yard catch against the Buffalo Bills in 1990, thrown by the seemingly unsackable Randall Cunningham. (Editor's note: that play has to go down as one of the league's top plays of all time, right?) Simply amazing.
  
• Here's a good article from 2005 about Fred's life.

I'll end this by saying, wired or wireless, Fred Barnett will always have a place in Eagles' fans hearts... and now, apparently, computers.

Looking for Eagles' Season Tickets? Just Hang in There...

For those of my fellow diehard Eagles fans who have a yearning to own a season ticket, you may have to wait a little while to obtain them.

As a matter of fact, if you recently put your name on the waiting list to be eligible to purchase a ticket, then according to various sources such as this AOL Sports article you will have to wait approximately 4,000 years to obatin one.

So good luck in getting one and give me a call in 6007 when you get your Iggles tixx in the mail. (Hopefully the Birds will have won a a Super Bowl by then...)

Ricky Watters Rumor Mill

I just got back from a lovely honeymoon in Aruba. While there I received word from a reliable couple that stayed in the same resort as I did that the famous (or perhaps infamous?) Ricky Watters, the former Philadelphia Eagle, got married at our resort, the Divi Aruba Phoenix Beach Resort this past week. If this rumor is true, congrats Mr. Watters! Many happy years to you and your new bride.

On a side note, no word on whether or not he replied to the officiant's question of "Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" with "For who, for what?"

Sorry, just had to take that easy one there.