I got a call at 6:30PM PT awaking me from my sleep. News from the east. My father was gonna come out to visit in February and he picked the dates. And oh yeah, there are whispers that T.O. broke his leg. It wasn’t announced yet, but everyone in Philadelphia knew it. Now I did. What the hell? I had gone to sleep about 4 hours before and on ESPN and PhiladelphiaEagles.com, the MRI was inconclusive. I guess we should have known what that meant. How it went from sprain to inconclusive boggles my mind, but this is just another stunning blow that comes every year around this time. There are players like Donovan who used to put their body on the line and with that comes injuries. However, then there are too many players like Hugh Douglas who are always worn by the end of the season and are unable to make the same impact in the playoffs that they were able to make throughout the first 13 weeks. These players just can’t keep up with the constant physicality of the game. Most teams have bangs and bruises, but the Eagles seem to have a major problem. There is bad luck, and then there are players constantly going down week after week as we head towards the real season.
The Eagles do not have a one man coaching staff. If a player goes down, Andy Reid has to continue coaching his players. Someone else has to worry about the injuries. So tell me why was T.O. allowed to hobble, even run, off the field when he was obviously injured? Why was Donovan McNabb able to play practically an entire game after breaking his leg? Why are the coaches and medical staff in charge of taking care of our players not held accountable for the poor conditioning of our players? It makes me wonder if Wilma McNabb actually is the person in charge of taking care of the Eagles and the organization actually does believe that Chunky soup is the answer to athletic conditioning. Some may believe Defense wins championships, others may believe Offense wins championships; I don’t think you’ll find anyone who believes that Chunky soup wins championships. To say the least, I didn’t sleep easy the rest of the night.
So what’s next? Knowing Andy Reid, he’s gonna want to come out and say, “Hey, don’t count us out just yet.” We got a meaningless game in St. Louis, a tough place to play, and a coach and team with too much pride to just lay down. I don’t know how I’m going to interpret the events that are going to take place on Monday. If Andy comes out with all our starters and tries to blow the Rams away… but it doesn’t work, what do we think of that? But what might scare me more is if Andy comes out and is resting our starters. Does this mean he’s giving up, or does it mean he’s just had a change of heart and is tired of injuries? Could Andy do that? My guess is he’s gonna go with plan A. Against a pitiful Rams team, I don’t know what’ll happen. However, they definitely have something to play for as we do not. This might just cause some more unecessary injuries to our already fragile team.
They say T.O. could be ready for the most Superest Bowl of our time… the one that I still think we should get to. I’ve already had someone talk smack about us having no chance to make it to the Superbowl. I know the entire city of Atlanta thinks they got an early Christmas present, and the rest of the Eagles haters are breathing a sigh of relief thinking they have one more year of laughing at us. I think everyone needs to relax. Remember, without T.O. we still have a team that has made it to the NFC championship 3 times in a row. We still have McNabb playing his best season yet, and this year, barring a total disaster, we should still have Westbrook. That woulda most probably put us in the Superbowl last year. Sure, there might not be T.O., but we did it with that piece of Thrash before, and FredEx and the rest of our offense who gained confidence this year should fill in just as nicely. The defense will most likely have to step up like they did against the Cowboys, but they are stretched mighty thin. They have however been stretched thin the last few years. Making it to the Superbowl might not be easy anymore, but with the state of the NFC, it is still a good possibility. Do I think we will win the Superbowl? I didn’t think we’d win even with Owens… we still need all those other injured players back; Buckhalter, Andrews, half our defense… but I most certainly think we will make it over the hump this year. And for all those haters, our team is still growing and learning. Have fun thinking about that one.
What I’m listening to: Dru Hill – I Should Be (Steps)
