Fan commentary on the Philadelphia Eagles and other Philly sports happenings. "Our capacity for hurt is matched only by our capacity for loyalty." -- Bill Lyon.
In a stat sure to warm the heart of Andy Reid: In all of NFL history, only Neil O'Donnell and Jeff Garcia have been intercepted less frequently than Donovan McNabb. So says my Eagles desk calendar. This is perhaps the only time anyone might dare compare O'Donnell and McNabb.
Also, congratulations to Jim Thome on his 400th home run.
Not to pick on one of the most knowledgeable scribes in football, but Peter King's misanalysis of Joe Horn's contract probably should have mentioned the hit the Saints would take in next year's cap space by whacking Horn now.
Still, he more than made up for his oversight by thinking that "if anyone can do major surgery on the image of Terrell Owens, it's the Eagles. And boy, are they trying."
That's the spirit.
One of the least understood aspects of professional football is the salary cap. It can be very confusing to the typical fan and even some journalists don't have a firm grasp of its intracies. Still, it was more than a little bit surprising that Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King would bungle an analysis of it. What was especially ironic is that King noted the "massive misconceptions about the way the process, and the cap itself, works" as a preface to then misconcieving it himself.
The subject of this error was New Orleans Saints' WR Joe Horn's contract. King earlier had speculated that the Horn might be cut for his off the field headaches, but was subsequently informed by the Saints' front office that Horn was definitely staying (this eyar) in large measure because of Horn's cap friendly contract.
King notes that Horn got a $5.1 million signing bonus in 2003 as part of a 3-year deal. His base salary for 2004 is $700,000 which King reports as the cap cost to the Saints. Problem is that signing bonuses are pro-rated over the duration of the contract meaning that Horn might be getting $700,000 in his paycheck this year, but his cap cost is $2.4 million ($5.1 million divided by 3 (years on the contract) plus the $700,000 in base salary for 2004).
Sure it's enough to make your head spin, but how the salary cap is calculated and managed by teams is the key to success in today's NFL. It's part of the reason why the Eagles have been to 3 straight NFC championship games and one of the raison d'etres of this blog - to comment and correct the inaccuracies so often published by the "experts" on the intracies of the game. I may not be an expert on the X's and O's, but I do understand the salary cap.
To see King's mistake, go to http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/peter_king/06/07/king.mmqb/index.html
Smarty Jone's loss in the Belmont was a painful but instructive reminder of just how impressive Secretariat's Triple Crown winnning race was.
It's easy now, with the distance of history and the benefit of hindsight, to see how epic Big Red's run for the ages was. But having watched Smarty this past weekend with a surprising emotional attachment, I have a newfound appreciation for how it must have felt to watch Secretariat at that moment in time.
I'm reminded of William Nack's retelling of Secretariat's Belmont run in ESPN's profile of the horse for its "Athletes of the Century." Nack says that as he watched Secretariat jump to the early lead, he thought "the horse is going to damn fast" and that Ron Turcotte, the jockey, was going to burn him out well before the mile and a half. Like I said, the result seems obvious now - even foreordained, but I can now see how I would have been similarly freaking out. What I still can't imagine, however, is the feeling, the epiphany, the overcoming emotion specators must have had when they suddenly became aware that not only was Secretariat not going to fade, but was getting stronger and faster the closer he got to the finish line.
The story's been often told that golf legend Jack Nicklaus wept as he watched Secretariat win the Belmont. A sportswriter later attributed Jack's reaction to one penultimate athlete/competitor acknowledging another's bid for athletic perfection.
That feeling that Nicklaus and the rest of the witnesses to Secretariat's win must have felt is, I think, the very reason to watch sports and why I am such a fan. Because sports offers us moments when greatness announces itself in such a time and such a place that it lifts me, and all of us, to a better place. If only for a little while. (If you don't know what I mean, then check out the cook's explanation to Loudon Swaine why he took the night off to watch him wrestle Shute in Vision Quest for a better description).
It's also why I've been so distraught over Smarty Jone's loss. Sure I feel bad for John Servis, Elliott Stewart, the Chapman's and Smarty himself, but more than that it's a selfish reaction to the joy I personally missed out on. The feeling I would have had had Smarty been able to hold on for that last 1/4 mile. What might have been. Ahh.
Here is one of the 10 things SI writer Peter King thinks he thinks on June 1:
"I think the one factor in Terrell Owens' arrival in Philadelphia that I haven't heard discussed much is the impact it will have on TE L.J. smith. Last year, as the season progressed, teams began paying more coverage attention to Smith. Now, with the big-bodied Owens in the lineup, Smith should see single-coverage pretty exclusively, and fewer strong safeties playing over the top of him. They'll hae to be more concerned with Owens."
Andrew Beyer is the country's foremost writer on horse racing. Here is his analysis of Smarty Jone's defeat at the Belmont published in the June 6 edition of the Washington Post.
"If anybody's failing cost Smarty Jones the Triple Crown, it was not Elliott and Servis, but the beloved horse himself. Smarty Jones had accomplished his triumphs in the Derby and Preakness by overcoming his pedigree; he is the son of a miler, and his female family is dominated by sprinters and milers....Like so many Triple Crown aspirants before him, the Belmont distance defeated him."
For the full story, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18877-2004Jun5.html
Well, the anticipation of Smarty's Belmont race was as exciting and nerve wracking as a Phillies or Flyers playoff game. and the results and feeligns were pretty much the same too. So close, yet so far Heartbreak.
Still, it was a good run. And it certainly made the last five weeks truly exciting for Philadelphia fans everywhere. At least we can console ourselves with the thought that Seabiscuit didn't win the Triple Crown either.
The Washington Post's former beat writer for the Redskins, Mark Maske, has been moved to cover the NFL in general. Towards that end, he is anaylzing each team leading up to training camp. His reports aren't in the paper but are posted to the Post website.
Maske looked at the Eagles yesterday. Interesting to get a distanced view of the team from a guy that used to cover their division rival.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6316-2004Jun1.html
Wow, Smarty Jones got a police escort up to Belmont Park. Now, I'd expect that of PA state troopers, but was kind of surprised that NJ and NY staties gave him the same lead. Just imagine what kind of motorcade he gets if he actually wins the Triple Crown.
Speaking of which, I'm having a Smarty Party on Saturday. Anyone know if there is an "official" drink of the Belmont or of NY? The Kentucky Derby has their mint juleps, and the Preakness has their "black-eyed susans" (a drink and the state flower), but is their a Belmont drink? I mean, other than Manhattans, Martinis and/or Cosmopolitans?
And is there an official Philadelphia drink? I suppose the default is a shot and a beer. Of course, the classic was a warm, watery, overfoamed Bud draft from the Vet concession stand. Mmmm...Vet beer.
Related to the Skins roster whacking of J. Trotter. Could there be a starker contrast between two teams' approaches to the salary cap.
Say what you want about Andy Reid and Joe Banner, but they have been flawless when it has come to managing the salary cap. They have not had to release a player or renegotiate a single contract to clear cap space. The way the Trotter talks imploded may not have been handled well, but you've got to give Big Red props for refusing to overpay or to overvalue Trotter's talent.
For that, you should look at the Skins where Danny Snyder throws money at anyone who's played in a pro bowl and where the salary cap day of reckoning is looming closer every day. We'll have to save for another day the post/analysis of the new Joe Gibb's "short term plan (four years max) to get the team to the playoffs, recertify me as a football genius, and let some boob (the 21st century version of Richie Petibon) try to clean up the mess after I go back to my NASCAR garage" blueprint.
Well, it's official. The Redskins cut Jeremiah Trotter, two years after signing him to a seven year, $36 million deal which included a $7 million signing bonus.
I don't mean to gloat over Trotter's misfortune, but it seems pretty clear that his career took a nosedive after leaving the Eagles, and which was just compounded by tearing up his knee in the Thanksgiving 2002 game vs. the Cowboys.
In retrospect, it's laughable now to think that Trotter was demanding "Ray Lewis-type" money from the Eagles when he became a free agent after the 2001 season. In fact, the high point of his career probably came during the divisional playoff game vs. Chicago when he was being favorably compared to Brian Urlacher and was considered, at worst, the second best LB in the NFC. Nine months after that game, you could have made the case that he wasn't even the second best LB on his own team (LaVar Arrington and Jesse Armstead).
Having watched him play in DC, Trotter confirmed all of the negative knocks against him the Eagles whispered to the media when the franchise tag was removed (ie, the Eagles defensive schemes played to his strengths, he was weak in pass coverage, and that he was undisciplined (particularly frustrating to Skins D-coord Marvin Lewis)).
The saddest thing about the Trotter situation is that it didn't have to be this way. His agent should be sued for malpractice. Had he accepted the Eagles' extension offer way back when he was a restricted free agent (the 2000 season I believe) he would not have gotten the gaudy signing bonus that was so obviously important to him, but would instead have earned the equivalent in annual salaries that he eventually wound up getting from the Skins. Plus, he would have been putting in the years to fulfill the contract's length (and not risked a career ending injury before getting the big signing bonus) and still been in a position to sign another deal while still in his prime. From the Eagles perspective and for all his faults, Trotter would have stayed an Eagle and was clearly a superior talent to the situtational run stopper Leviathan, er Levon, Kirkland or the second stringer Barry Gardner.
Finally, maybe the best thing that can be said about the entire situation is that it sticks the Skins with $5 million in dead cap money next year as they retire the Trotter signing bonus pro-rated portion.
There will be some cap casualties today, June 1, the date on which teams can cut players and pro-rate the remainder of their contracts (i.e, signing bonuses) over both this year and next. Eddie George, Jason Gildon and Jeremiah Trotter will lead the list. We'll get to Trotter at a later post, but Jason Gildon could be an intriguing player for the Eagles.
Most everyone I know is down on Mark Simoneau. Everyone but the guy that matters most, Jim Johnson. From what I've been able to gather, the team is generally pleased with Simoneau, although he did appear to wear down as the season went on last year (which was only exacerbated by playing behind a decmiated D-line). Still, while the focus has been on Simoneau it seems that at least internally, the disappointment of the LB corps has been Nate Wayne.
Fans have become accustomed to the team just plugging in a player at that position and them excelling: Mike Caldwell, Shawn "the playmeker" Barber, etc. Depending on his price, Gildon might not be a bad pick up to compete with Wayne for the weakside spot, or to play Gildon at strongside and move Dhani Jones over to weakside. Plus, with Gildon at 6'4" 255 and Wayne at only 6 foot, 237 lbs. it would add some size to the LBs that they currently don't have having gotten the smaller Dhani Jones to replace Emmons and, of course, there is Simoneau in the middle. Just something to look at.
Hello. Welcome to the Eagle Eye blog. As I've mentioned in my profile, I hope this blog will provide insights and information about my favorite football team, the Philadelphia Eagles. While not privy to any inside information myself, I hope this can be a forum for intelligent analysis, commentary and an alternative to the conventional wisdom of the mainstream press, which I have found to be rather pedestrian and pedantic in their reporting. Having said that, I admit to having to rely on them for a significant amount of news, but hopefully using multiple sources and mediums and "reading between the lines," this blog can offer new news on occassion. Enjoy.
