Philly
September 28, 2007
Say Hello To BountyBowl
Finally, an explanation of that little gizmo on the right (and what I've been up to of late on the Internets) I originally imagined I would write this post about a month ago. That would be the post that explained (a) why I haven’t really written much on ThatKidInTheCorner for the past couple months and (b) where I’ve redirected my blogging energies, on the off chance that (c) you hadn’t figured it out and (d) you were actually interested. The answer? My fantastically satisfying (at least to me) Eagles-only blog: BountyBowl.com. Quick FAQ on BountyBowl. What’s a BountyBowl? I’ve got a more complete description up on the actual BountyBowl site, but the main details are as follows. Bounty Bowl is the name for the 1989 Thanksgiving Day game between the Philaddelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys in which Eagles coach Buddy Ryan allegedly placed bounties on the heads of Cowboys...
Posted by thatkid at 2:19 AM | Comments (0)
April 28, 2007
Donovan McNabb's Mom Is So Totally Going To Be Pissed
Allow me to be among the first to overreact to the Eagles' first selection in today's NFL draft So this is what I get for feeling fat and happy about the Eagles' decision to trade down out of the first round of the NFL Draft. They took a what? A quarterback? With their first pick? At #36? The third QB taken in the entire draft? Seriously? I did not see this coming. Yikes. I thought the Birds would go DB (safety or corner) or DE (since they have mostly stiffs at that position right now). Instead, that take a QB, a position at which they already have three (3) veterans. WIP is already going nuts. G-Cobb is horrified. Sal Paolantonio called in and completely spazzed. Even Eagles Live! on the Birds' site was screwy; Dave Spadaro was "shocked" by the move. And suddenly, controversy in re: the Eagles and, more...
Posted by thatkid at 6:54 PM | Comments (0)
March 7, 2007
A Canticle For Michael Lewis
Looks like I'll need to find a Niners fan to take my midnight-green #32 Birds shirt It wasn't supposed to end like this for Michael Lewis. Or, more succinctly, when I bought my Michael Lewis #32 jersey a year and a half ago, I didn't expect that it would end like this: with Lewis removed from the starting lineup for most of the 2006 season and then signing a gigantic contract ($10 million guaranteed) with another team. Two years ago, he was coming off a Pro Bowl season for a Super Bowl team, and was one of the three defensive backs that the Eagles selected in the 2002 draft -- all of who seemed pretty set for stardom and/ or long careers in the Illadelph. The future looked bright for all three, even if Lewis was the only one who had yet to sign an extension. So what happened? Here's...
Posted by thatkid at 9:26 PM | Comments (4)
February 4, 2007
Everything But The Game (And Also The Game)
It's not like I'm not going to make a Super Bowl pick; also, a lot of stuff actually went down in and around the Birds this week And here I thought football season was over. Generally speaking, once the Eagles are done, my interest in the rest of football tends to flag a bit. Sure, I'll watch the other playoff game/ Super Bowl (I might even have multi-paragraph opinions about some of said games), but it's not exactly the same. Consuming all the NFL-related media just doesn't have the same juice when your team isn't in it. This year, though, was completely different, thanks to the NFL Network. As if the consistently outstanding America's Game (according to their site: "The most ambitious and all-encompassing project in NFL Films history") series wasn't enough (there was a new one every day this week as they counted down to the best Super Bowl...
Posted by thatkid at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2007
LeBron, Andre Waters, and Howard Eskin Looks Like The (Burger) King
The BronBron show comes to C@L; also, Andy Reid talks to WIP for 40 minutes so that 5 doesn't have to After a completely disastrous couple of weeks for the Sonics, the team has managed to cobble together two wins in a row -- against teams that weren't even cupcakes (Utah and Eastern-Conference-leading Cleveland). Though after seeing Cleveland, I'm at a loss to explain the Eastern Conference. Obviously they have a LeBron, and those appear to be all the rage, but past that, I'm not completely sold. I guess Larry Hughes is something of a player, but he didn't look good against the Sonics. Ilgauskas is actually one of the few centers worthy of the name in the league, and I will take back everything I said about him being useful for fantasy purposes only. LeBron was, as advertised, pretty impressive in person, especially in a bigger-faster-stronger way. He seemed...
Posted by thatkid at 8:14 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2007
I Preferred 4th-and-26 to 4th-and-15
The 2006 season is now officially subtitled "4th-and-15" Ugh. This is me making my peace with nine months of questioning Andy Reid's game management skills and/ or his ability to handle pressure from the sports blathermonkeys. 4th-and-15 will enter the Negadelphian Philly Hater Hall Of Fame. Aw man. File under "For who? For what?" and "Talkin Bout Practice." On the bright side, the Sheldon Brown hit on Reggie Bush made the all-time "Why I'm Glad There's Such A Thing As A DVR" list. I'm at three times and counting. At the end of the day/ where the rubber hits the road/ when push comes to shove, the Eagles are who we thought they were. In case you want to follow the story live: 610 WIP Live Stream Who will be first to slag Andy Reid in the Philly press? The Big Hurt Andy Reid? Andy Reid's post-game press conference Also,...
Posted by thatkid at 9:08 PM | Comments (0)
Bringing The Heat
The Eagles head to NOLA to face the Saints in the divisional playoffs -- just like the 1992 season It didn't take much for me to dig up my copy of Bringing The Heat, Blackhawk Down and Killing Pablo author Mark Bowden's account of the 1992 Eagles season. (Note that I still can't believe that this book exists; acclaimed non-fiction journo writes an insider account of the early 90s Birds? I remain stunned.) The book opens with the '92 team's wild-card playoff game against the Saints at the Superdome. That game was the last time that the Saints and Eagles met in the playoffs (which, considered the Saints franchise has played in six total playoff games -- and won one of those -- shouldn't be terribly surprising). The Eagles won 36-20. And now the Eagles return to the city that God hath smoten. It's really tough to argue with this...
Posted by thatkid at 4:29 PM | Comments (0)
January 6, 2007
Guess Who I Think Is Going To The You Know What
One can't accuse me of waffling on this one (okay, maybe a little) You know, it might sound a little crazy, but I actually think that the Eagles can make it to the Super Bowl. Surprise, surprise. Per lo usual, I can say "I told you so" in re: the Eagles making it to the Super Bowl. Of course, I can admit that the precision of these predictions is compromised somewhat by the fact that, well, I kind of say this every year (2005 edition, 2006 edition). So be it. I think my favorite team is going to win every year. So what of it? At the same time, I can admit that things felt pretty dark for this team in the middle of November -- even before the McNabb injury. After an outstanding start which had the Birds not only atop the NFC standings (following a most satisfying vanquishing...
Posted by thatkid at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2006
T.O.: Double-Agent!
Turns out T.O. was working for the Eagles all along! My my my. I really can't imagine how the Eagles - Cowboys game on Christmas Day could have gone any better. The Eagles didn't just win -- they methodically humiliated the Cowboys, in Texas Stadium, on national television, and T.O. was mostly inconsequential. I expected some sort of high-scoring back-and-forth affair of the 31-28 variety that the Eagles had at least a fighting chance to win. I didn't expect that the Birds would hog the ball and shove the Cowboys down the field four yards at a time, essentially ending the game midway through the second half. It's like the Eagles have turned into the Steelers and are just going to use their dumpster-sized offensive line to shove people down the field. And I really can't say enough about how pleasant that is to watch. On the other side of...
Posted by thatkid at 9:23 PM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2006
If The Playoffs Started Today
Outstanding implications abound for both the Eagles and the Sixers Big week for the sports blathermonkeys in Philly. Not only do we have a suddenly resurgent Eagles team poised to make the playoffs in the NFC, but the biggest superstar playing in Philly (possibly ever) has just been traded to the Denver Nuggets. My oh my. Those two stories plus the release of the new Rocky movie and Invincible on DVD add up to a lot of sports-related media content flowing out of the Illadelph. I will be the first to admit that I thought that the Birds were done when Donovan went down. And, in a larger sense, they're still sort of done, since I don't see them challenging for anything more than a second-round playoff exit, but hey, a month ago -- having lost their most expensive offensive and defensive players, respectively -- they looked like 7-9 would...
Posted by thatkid at 3:42 PM | Comments (1)
December 11, 2006
Sonics - Ray-Ray = 3 Wins and Tough Defense?
I guess all it really took was an ankle injury to the Sonics' best player to convince them to play defense? Well would you look at that! The Sonics have won three games in a row (and four in a row at home), and even gutted out a nice win last night after giving up (wait for it) 70 points in the first half to the Warriors. And they've won the last three without all-around-best-player Ray Allen, who's out with an ankle injury. Sure, the wins came against the Hawks, the Hornets, and the Warriors, but hey, for a team that hadn't beaten much of anything/ anyone this year, we'll take it. I've spent a lot of time at Key Arena of late, attending the last five consecutive home games. It seems like a lot, but given that I didn't actually make my first trip until December, it mostly just...
Posted by thatkid at 9:21 PM | Comments (4)
December 4, 2006
I'm A Total Sucker For Wins On Monday Night Football
Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in Yup, I'm officially into it again. Sure, it helps that most of the teams in the NFC are inconsistent/ playing like warmed-over crap, but the Birds are in the thick of the playoff hunt! At 6-6! Sure, they aren't going to actually win anything, but at least I get to pay attention (with some tiny degree of optimism) to at least the next two weeks. If they win one of the next two games, they're still in it. Which means they can beat the Skins and honk one to the Giants or vice versa (especially if Carolina beats the Giants this week) and still be worthy of my media-consumption attentions a week later. This is good news. In all honesty, I'd been hating on the Birds of late. Thought they were playing kind of gutless. Thought they...
Posted by thatkid at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
November 23, 2006
Happy Turkey Day From The 2-1-5
Thankful to be back in Philly for Thanksgiving So I hadn't actually been in Philly since last spring (in a my-birthday-Easter timeframe). What a treat to be back! In a lot of ways, it's sort of odd to be here in person since my internet consumption habits make me feel like I'm virtually here quite a bit as it is. That is, you read the Philly papers every morning and listen to the goofy sports-talk radio enough, and you get a pretty good pulse for what's going on. But nothing substitutes for the real thing; I will need to ingest some celebratory cheesesteaks over the weekend to complete the experience. Anyhoo, been a bit busy/ on the road of late. Some random quick hits from the past two weeks: Travel Schedule: So over the past three weeks, I've gone to New Jersey, New York, North Dakota (though admittedly that was...
Posted by thatkid at 9:15 AM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2006
Weirdest Philly Sports Day Since T.O.
McNabb's knee, Andre Waters' passing, Ryan Howard's MVP I had the honor and pleasure of being in some good friends' wedding this past weekend outside New York City. Amazing night, good times had by all -- it was a blast. As is something of a tradition, prior to the wedding ceremony, the groom gave each of his groomsmen a little gift. Typically these gifts are themed, and the chosen theme this time around was throwback football jerseys. The groom went to great lengths to select (and customize) shirts that fit with each of our particular sports personalities: Tony Dorsett for the Cowboys fan, a Mark Bavaro throwback for the Giants fan, even a #6 "R. Howard" Eagles jersey for one of the Birds fans (which, it must be said, will serve as a companion piece to this gentleman's #3 "Iverson" Eagles shirt). So you can imagine the thrill I felt...
Posted by thatkid at 4:42 PM | Comments (1)
November 13, 2006
Andy Reid Fires Himself! And Reporters In Philly Swarm!
I had no idea the playcalling would be the story of today's game; the Philly sports media turns into a caricature of itself So I was going to write a post about how much I needed the Eagles bye week. For anyone who's spoken to me about the Birds for the past two weeks, I've been deep in breakup metaphors. Lots of talk of "taking some time apart" from the Eagles and "needing my space." And also the horrifying experience I had at the sports bar two weeks ago comma alone. Then I realized that I had essentially written that post a year ago. And then I toweled off and really did take a break. My one action item from the bye week is that I've decided that I'm no longer at the point in my life where I need to wear one of my Eagles jerseys on game day....
Posted by thatkid at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)
November 10, 2006
Buddy Ryan's Fantasy Team
I think I would pay subscription fees to read a Buddy Ryan NFL blog Did the Philadelphia Daily News really just publish an interview with former Eagles coach Buddy Ryan in which Buddy discusses his freakin fantasy football team? Are you kidding me? This is phenomenal! As loyal readers are well aware, I, along with most people of my Eagles-fan generation, harbor an unconditional fondess for James David "Buddy" Ryan. He was the mastermind behind -- though not the coach of -- the vaunted and outstandingly fantastic 1991 Philadelphia Eagles defense, which, as we all know, is probably the best defense of the modern NFL era. ( I just did a search for "Buddy Ryan" on ThatKid; only (AHEM) seven (7) entries, including one where I demanded he be allowed to guest coach the final game of the 2005 season. Yikes. So I guess I'm a little obsessed with the...
Posted by thatkid at 5:53 PM | Comments (0)
November 1, 2006
Sixers Season Preview (Which Is Actually About Football)
Yeah, I don't actually have too much to say here, other than I think the Eagles could use AI The Sixers opened their 2006-2007 with a big win over the Atlanta Hawks (note: this was an excellent opponent with whom to begin the season) tonight. Good for the Sixers. I wish I could get a little bit more excited about this season's edition of the Sixers, but the team is kind of lacking for inspirational material right now. Essentially, the team that missed the playoffs last year is back and intact, save for the addition of Alan Henderson. Yup. Alan Henderson. That's all we got. So they're going to be pretty mediocre. The young guys to whom they've handed big contracts are either lazy (Sam Dalembert) or undertalented (Kyle Korver). The veteran stars aren't getting any younger or better at running and/ or jumping. Still, the season isn't a complete...
Posted by thatkid at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
October 22, 2006
Ronde Barber And A Mouthful Of Puke
After another horrifying loss by the Birds, the only question is whether it's my puke or 5's; also, class angst in the high school sports section? So that makes three (3) times this season that the Eagles have managed to lose on the final play of the game. I've really been struggling to decide how to take it; that is, I'm puzzled by the fact that this team is actually playing a ton better than their record indicates. Of course, I have to balance the "playing well" part with the fact that "playing well" is only a leading indicator of playoff participation, and that actual wins (rather than games that you mostly won but screwed up at the end) are what define entry to the postseason. Sure, the Eagles might be sitting pretty in the Football Outsiders rankings (#3 overall, #1 in offense, #9 in defense), but they're 4-3, and...
Posted by thatkid at 11:35 PM | Comments (1)
September 16, 2006
2006 Birds Season Preview
(Guess who I think is going to win the the you know what.) The start of the 2006 NFL season felt very sudden. Sure, I'd been obsessing about it for months, consuming as much NFL- and Eagles-related content as I could get my hands on, plotting out scenarios and possibilities, flipping through catalogs of officially licensed products, and generally acting in a manner unbecoming of an ostensibly literate and gainfully employed adult male. Even so, at the end of the wait, it still felt very sudden. I had meant to get my Official Eagles Season Preview posting out the door prior to the first week of games. Unfortunately, as it's one of the few things I write that I actually obsess over (for rationale, see above) and my free time's been a bit squeezed over the past couple weeks, it had to wait. You might accuse me, then, of letting...
Posted by thatkid at 8:10 PM | Comments (1)
August 30, 2006
Oh No You Didn’t
The Birds trade Simoneau for a WR and cut Pinkston and Detmer? And here I thought they’d gone soft in their old age! It’s official – Monday through Wednesday of this week have been the best three days the Eagles have had since the week before Super Bowl XXXIX. Before Monday, I was pretty fired up about this upcoming season. I mean, the team had holes, but I definitely thought the oddsmakers were selling the Birds a bit short, pricing them as the fourth-best team in an admittedly strong NFC East. Sure, the rest of the division had improved, but so had the Eagles, and in lot of the right places. The team’s stars on offense were healthy, and they’d invested heavily in both the offensive and defensive lines. Also, last time I checked they definitely had the best quarterback in their division. Whilst I don’t want to steal the...
Posted by thatkid at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2006
Hollywood Celebrates ThatKidInTheCorner Day!
In which I go to see Invincible and wonder, What if the entire world really does revolve around me? You'll have to forgive a bit of narcissism on my behalf this Saturday morning. On August 25th, Hollywood released both a Disney film about the Philadelphia Eagles, Invincible, and a Broken Lizard movie about drinking games, Beerfest. The trailer for Invincible features guys in a bar doing an E-A-G-L-E-S chant; the Beerfest commercial shows a guy shooting quarters. Birds and drinking games. On the same day. So you really can't blame me if I think this is all somehow about me. (Do you ever secretly wonder if all the other people you encounter on a given day are actually robotic drones filling out the ranks in the gigantic RPG simulation that is your life? Me neither. Never once.) Admittedly, I have yet to see the Beerfest movie (though late-night text messages...
Posted by thatkid at 1:02 PM | Comments (1)
August 6, 2006
Birds Repruhzent for Minister Of Defense
Yes, I'm just that desperate: I watched the Hall Of Fame coverage on NFL Network Okay okay, guilty as charged. In an act of presumptive pro football desperation, I actually watched some of the Hall Of Fame induction coverage yesterday on the NFL Network. Pitiful, I know. With only one day to go before the first preseason game, I couldn't help myself -- I sat through some seriously boring almost-football. (In all fairness, it was mostly on in the background while I took care of some digital errands.) At the risk of creating The Blog Post That Redefines Irrelevant And Zero-Value-Add Blog Posts, some quick observations on the Hall Of Fame ceremony (note: this is being typed whilst I listen to Rob Charry shouting at a random caller about Randall Cunningham's Hall Of Fame credentials on the WIP streaming feed -- good times indeed!): Select Birds Attend In Reggie Throwbacks:...
Posted by thatkid at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
The Curse Of T-Shirts With Slogans
McNabb has officially lost it: he's wearing passive-aggressive t-shirts with slogans. Diligent Eagles geek that I am, I made a point of not only reading the news reports from this past weekend's minicamp, but also watching the press conference videos posted on the Birds' site. (It's really the only way to be sure of what's being reported; sometimes the blathermonkeys distort the context or tone of things in their accounts. But that's an argument for another post.) Generally speaking, it was good to have some fresh Eagles content from the main characters in the drama: Coach Reid, the coordinators, Dawk, and, of course, Donovan McNabb, making his first public press appearance since his black-on-black crime comments from Super Bowl week. I'll admit to being more than a little curious about what 5 was going to say. The local media hadn't had a chance to ask him about TO in months!...
Posted by thatkid at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2006
Eagles' Draft Makes Me Giddy Like Schoolgirl
This looks like a crucial step towards the Birds winning the you-know-what Hot diggity! I'm skipping the disclaimers in re: not being able to evaluate NFL drafts until five years down the road, the absurdity of draft prognosis and analysis, the draftniks, Mel Kiper Jr., etc. That's for more sober and rational NFL fans to worry about. Me? I'm happy to be a case study for the success of the NFL Draft as both a television program and an exciting date on the NFL calendar (yes, yes, it's a year-round thing, even though they only have games five months out of the year), cause I couldn't possibly be any happier about how this draft went, and I think the Eagles did an excellent job of both addressing immediate needs and building for the future. Yup. It worked on me. And I couldn't be happier about that. I just can't disagree...
Posted by thatkid at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Actually, We Are Talking About The Game
I think this actually might be the end of AI in Philly; I am not down with that Ominous, horrifying, and otherwise unsettling NBA news has been filtering out of Philadelphia since the weekend. It isn’t that the Sixers will be back in the lottery for the second time in three years (that’s actually much better than this team making the playoffs as an eight-seed). It isn’t that GM Billy King remains employed (though that’s fairly disheartening as well). And it isn’t that Mo Cheeks considers this season to be a failure (which it most certainly was). Nope, what’s got me tripped out about the Sixers over the past couple days has been the more-real-than-ever rumblings that Allen Iverson won’t be a Sixer next year. That was all pretty bad. What went down last night was much worse. As you may have read, it was the Sixers’ final home game...
Posted by thatkid at 1:20 PM | Comments (1)
April 9, 2006
Why The Phillies Are No Good, Ever (The Long And Short Answers)
With the start of a new baseball season in Philadelphia, the local papers wonder why the team is always so bad Without dwelling too too much on the team's 1-5 start (that's one win and five losses at home, mind you), one can safely say that it seems that very little is surprising and/ or different about this year's version of the Philadelphia Phillies. This is the team that's made the playoffs just once in the past 22 years, and has managed a winning record only six times during that same span. For a while, the problem was mostly that the team was cheap, but not anymore. Lately they've spent the money that befits the baseball team in the nation's fifth-largest market (and where the people are "pretty excited" about pro sports), and they've still failed. Hmmm. Not so impressive. You know, like the Mets. Actually, it's more than unimpressive....
Posted by thatkid at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2006
Pouring Some Out For Mike Missanelli
WIP Puts My Favorite Host On Waivers I will admit to being genuinely bummed out by last week's news that Philly sports-talk-radio station 610 WIP fired mid-day co-host Mike Missanelli. And not just because Missanelli has long since been my favorite WIP personality -- though that's a big part of it. I'm actually more pissed off because Missanelli's firing directly impacts my everyday quality of life out here in C@L. I've been a loyal WIP listener for longer than I should probably admit. As in, since the seventh grade, when I would tune into Rob Charry's post-game show after Sixers games. I listened all through high school, quite possibly the Golden Years of WIP: before Cataldi got too big, and while Original Enemy Norman Braman still owned the Birds. Back then, they didn't have an overnight show, so we got syndicated national shows (would you believe I was an overnight...
Posted by thatkid at 5:18 PM | Comments (2)
March 17, 2006
Their Starters Must Be On A Bye Week
Eagles dredge the fantasy waiver wire for free agent pickups, and other sports-related quick hits on St. Patrick's Day Happy St. Patrick's Day! In lieu of a proper post in re: this glorious and important holiday, I'm going to go downmarket and indulge myself with some (mostly Philly-related) sports talk. In all fairness, it's been over a month since I talked about anything Eagles-related; I think that's extremely generous and restrained of me. Of course, I don't actually have a proper posting, just a bunch of quickies. Onwards! Like A Bad Week In Your Fantasy League: tough to get very excited about what the Birds accomplished in free agency this week. After getting pipped by the Browns on LeCharles Bentley, the Birds seemed to run out of ideas pretty quickly. We went from the best offensive lineman in free agency and a possible trade for Javon Walker (or at least...
Posted by thatkid at 4:31 PM | Comments (0)
February 6, 2006
Does 5 Get A Pass?
In which Donovan McNabb dares to talk about race and enters the hallowed pantheon of all-time Philly sports quotables The real shame of Donovan McNabb's interview on ESPN this past Wednesday, in which he (finally) abandoned his erstwhile silence on matters of T.O. and the ruinous 2005 Philadelphia Eagles season, is that its core soundbite might eclipse, if not certainly shadow, the entirety of his career. That is, despite the five Pro Bowl appearances, the years when he single-handedly led the Eagles offense into the NFC Championship game, the Super Bowl berth, and his overall class-actness/ model citizenship, fifteen years from now, we might only remember him for "black-on-black crime." That is, "black-on-black crime" has an excellent chance of joining "For who? For what?" and "Talkin' 'bout practice" in the Hall Of Fame of Philly sports quotes -- sayings so memorable and inconic that they transcend many of the more...
Posted by thatkid at 10:47 PM | Comments (1)
January 18, 2006
Don't Ever Ride Greyhound. Ever.
In which a Greyhound bus from New York to Philly ends up heading north on the Boulevard Through the wonders of corporate travel, I spent last weekend on the East Coast. Not only was this a welcome respite from the then-record-threatening 24 consecutive days of rain out here in C@L, but it also offered me a chance to pull a whirlwind tour of my erstwhile East Coast haunts: New York, Philly, and The Squan. The Philly part was particularly exciting -- a trip down to the Wachovia Center to check out the Flyboys against the Avs. Given that (a) I hadn't seen pro hockey in around two years, (b) there's no pro hockey option in C@L proper, and (c) it was part of a larger birthday experience for a buddy, I was, as they say, pretty Flyered up. The game started at 2 pm on Saturday. As an experienced New-York-to-Philly-sports-complex...
Posted by thatkid at 7:43 PM | Comments (2)
January 14, 2006
Birds Post Mortem, Part Two
The coach, the legal department, and the Dirty Little Secret So yeah, it was a pretty crappy year in terms of wins and losses. The blame, I think, sits mostly with the folks in charge. That is, management had a down year. Andy Reid has done wonders for Birds’ fans over the past couple years, but he really had a horrible year – people have been fired for much less. There was the complete mismanagement of the TO situation. There was the poor judgment in assembling the roster (looks like they could have used Corey Simon after all; and let us not even discuss the soon-to-be-out-of-football Mike McMahon, maybe the dumbest guy to play quarterback for the Birds in my adult life). There was also the completely stubborn playcalling (to the degree that you wonder how many years the 70-30 pass-to-run ratio may have taken off 5’s career) and the...
Posted by thatkid at 5:50 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2006
Birds Post Mortem, Part One
Most craptastic season since Ray Rhodes We are now officially a week and change removed from the last Andy Reid press conference of the 2005 season. I’ve had some time to reflect. Or, more succinctly, I've had some time to reflect on life without full-bore Eagles coverage on the Internet every morning. Sigh. No more multimedia on philadelphiaeagles.com. No more beat writers filing daily stories (for at least a couple more months). And no more real football until next September. Ugh. Double ugh. In terms of wins and losses, this season was perhaps best described as craptastic. The Birds only won 6 games, and lost (gasp!) 10. For a team that folks might thought make it back to the Super Bowl (and certainly back to the playoffs), this was, ahem, something of a bummer. One might argue that some of those 10 losses were tough breaks, close games, whatever. The...
Posted by thatkid at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2005
The Eagles' Dirty Laundry (Like in the Commercial with Swoop and the CBs, Only Different)
Just in case you didn't read through the complete text of the T.O. arbitration So, gigantic Eagles geek that I am, I remain a bit shocked at the lack of response in the press and among fans to the text of arbitrator Richard Bloch's T.O.-and-the-players-union-versus-the-Eagles decision. Here we are, three-and-a-half weeks after the decision was released, and the papers are still talking about T.O. and how he divided the Eagles' locker room, blah blah blah. This week it was his freakin' birthday party. The national and local blathermonkeys continue to prattle on about T.O., and 5, and Andy Reid, and what happened to the Eagles, etc etc, extending the debate (and the soap opera) that by all accounts ended over a month ago. The thing is, there really isn't much of a debate. T.O. definitely screwed up the Eagles season. How so? Well, just read the arbitrator's report. Turns out...
Posted by thatkid at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005
The McNabb Nookie Theory
What took me so long to figure this out? For all the theories that have been floated in re: the Eagles, TO and the lousy/ borderline insane play of Number 5 (and I really got a kick out of the Avon Barksdale - Stringer Bell analogy floated by Jason Whitlock on ESPN.com; man, am I jealous! I thought I was way clever with my Sith nonsense from a couple weeks back, but dropping the Wire? Damn. This is specifically why I don’t have the talent or imagination to make my living as a writer...anyhoo), I really think there's an Ockham's Razor explanation that hasn't yet been properly explored. Something so simple and clean and pure that it really might be the answer we've all been looking for all along. Could it all really have been this obvious? After having the best season of his career in 2004 (which followed four...
Posted by thatkid at 9:57 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005
The Revenge Of Michael Irvin
Always two there are! Among the many conspiracy hypotheses being trotted out to explain the TO-Eagles media circus/ disaster is the ESPN Theory. Said theory goes like this: ESPN masterminded a week's worth of "sports controversy" involving TO in order to hype their Sunday Night broadcast of the Eagles-Redskins game as well as four days of run-up programming. Assorted blathermonkeys had floated the idea for a few days, and one could say that it was formalized in a Phil Sheridan column in the Philly papers earlier this week. Apparently the story/ conspiracy theory had enough momentum to actually elicit an official response from the ESPN Ombudsman. And yes, ESPN takes itself seriously enough to actually have an "Ombudsman" on staff. Because ESPN is soooooo important, and isn't just Brad-and-Angelina for the male 18-34 demo. While I appreciate the idea of a plot behind the TO-Eagles divorce, I think the ESPN...
Posted by thatkid at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)
November 6, 2005
NJT Eagles Roundtable
Semi-Live Chat From New Jersey Transit! And we’re semi-live en route from Manasquan, New Jersey to Penn Station on New Jersey Transit’s always charming North Jersey Coast Line. After a solid morning of Philadelphia Eagles overexposure (in the papers, on ESPN, on the local news), we are pretty fired up for this evening’s prime-time broadcast of the Eagles-Redskins game from Fedex Field. In anticipation, ThatKid is bringing you exclusive analysis from our expert team of analysts in Car 5507: ThatKid: Is today the whole season? The Production Assistant: Absolutely. If they lose this they don’t make the playoffs. McNabb hurt and no TO. Unless Greg Lewis and Reggie Brown step up and have great games. Maybe they’ll wise up. Give Westbrook the ball more. ThatKid: What about the defense? The Production Assistant: Looks spotty at best. They’re getting their asses handed to them every other pass play. What’s going with...
Posted by thatkid at 1:16 PM | Comments (0)
October 23, 2005
Eagles Defense Thank-You Note
Proper Football Etiquette/ Superstition Demand It Dear Philadelphia Eagles Defense, Thank you so much for winning today's football game! That sure was a close one! You might even say that the Eagles didn't deserve to win, but I don't think that's very fair, because you, the defense, sure did! Not only did you force two game-saving turnovers, but you even blocked a kick and scored the touchdown that won the game! Some people might call that last one a special-teams touchdown, but it doesn't really matter to me -- I think you earned that one too. After the first half, I didn't think the Eagles' offense would need your help so much. They must have thought so too, 'cause they acted like they didn't even want to score at the end of the first half! They must have thought that they were too good for scoring just three points. I...
Posted by thatkid at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
Official Philadelphia Eagles Season Preview
Guess what I think the Eagles are going to win? Aw man, this Monday night thing is just a killer. As, ahem, noted earlier, I'm pretty excited about the return of football. And although I definitely enjoyed yesterday's slate of games, I still don't feel like the season has actually begun. And that's because it hasn't. The NFL schedule-makers have cruelly put my most favorite of franchises in the Monday Night slot in Week One. As if waiting seven months for football isn't enough! It's like landing after a 12-hour flight and then waiting half an hour on the plane because of problems with the jetway. Ugh. And this is the second time in three years this has happened (and I did not enjoy the results the last time). But here we are. Time for real football starring the Birds. My thoughts on the coming season and my participation therein:...
Posted by thatkid at 10:58 AM | Comments (2)
September 9, 2005
TO Goes Homer
In which TO does his best Homer Simpson w/r/t Number 5 From the Associated Press Updated: Sep. 9, 2005, 7:26 PM ET Owens 'getting along just fine' with McNabb PHILADELPHIA -- Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb have resolved their feud, according to the enigmatic All-Pro wide receiver. Owens said Friday in a radio interview on Miami's 790 AM that he spoke to McNabb and the two Philadelphia Eagles stars are "getting along just fine." "We both have a mutual respect for each other and I think we probably understand that both of us may have been wrong in the situation, but that's between Donovan and I," Owens said. In other words: I know you're mad at me right now, and I'm kinda mad too ... I mean, we could sit here and try to figure out who forgot to pick up who till the cows come home. But let's just...
Posted by thatkid at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2005
New York City: Northern Bucks County
In which I defend the city where I grew up from the city I just left, or at least from its paper of record's Sunday Styles section As per my previous posting, I now live a solid 3,000 miles from the East Coast. One might imagine that said distance would lead me to forfeit my right to comment on Northeast Corridor rivalries, perhaps in favor of a more general East-Coast-versus-West-Coast conversation (of which many of my West Coast friends, specifically the transplants from the Deep South living in, COUGH, AHEM, COUGH, L.A., are so fond). And then I read the piece in the Sunday Styles section of the Times describing Philadelphia as "The Next Borough." Ummm, yo? I mean, I understand the Sunday Style section has a certain audience, with a certain set of expectations (by this I mean the sort of status-and-money-obsessed folks who enjoy waiting on long brunch...
Posted by thatkid at 1:23 AM | Comments (1)
May 11, 2005
You're Not Wrong, TO, You're Just An ________
In which I cut TO some slack before explaining just how badly he blew it in Philly with his offseason nonsense So that Terrell Owens guy is pretty tough. Played in the Super Bowl on a broken leg, against multiple doctors' orders. Had nine catches for 122 yards in the loss. He played with grit, determination, and passion. He had done pretty well in Philly, PR-wise, until that point; the Super Bowl thing was going to put him over the top, in "Most Heroic Performance Ever" sort of territory. Hell, I was even set to buy myself a fresh number-81 shirt (in midnight green, to complement my white number-5 shirt) for the upcoming season. And then it all went wrong. He switched agents (trading his longtime partner for NFL superagent Drew Rosenhaus) and announces that he wanted to renegotiate his contract. That would be the seven-year contract that he signed...
Posted by thatkid at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)
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