Levy: '... The Eagles got booed on draft day'

BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON INTERNATIONAL - Just got an interesting link from Dan Levy's Twitter feed or @OntheDLpodcast  #sblog as the kids like to say. The link was to a story on Levy's blog in which he talked to mouthy quarterback Jay Cutler of the Brian Dawkins' led Broncos. Apparently, Cutler took a view barbs at Donovan McNabb and Brett Favre (amongst others), which led to some stute analysis from Levy. He kind of told McNabb to shush.

Or at least the notion that McNabb ought to not be so sensitive.

The money quote from Levy via his story in The Washington Post (phew! all this aggregating makes me sleepy...):

Take Donovan McNabb. He thinks he got booed on draft day. He didn't get booed on draft day. The Eagles got booed on draft day. Silly, uniformed Eagles fans at the behest of equally uninformed sports radio talking heads thought that Ricky Williams would be the best fit for the Eagles and vowed to boo any person the Birds chose other than the running back from Texas.

There's more, of course, but this was such an illuminating graf to me that I had to seek out a spot on the floor next to an electrical outlet here at the airport to write about it.

Good stuff.

To think, all these years in Philadelphia and deconstructing every move from McNabb and I never thought that the boos from that gang in New York that fateful draft day weren't personal. It was just business.

So maybe all those apologies from the guys at WIP, etc. weren't really necessary. After all, nobody booed McNabb that day, but yet the QB thought it was all about him.

And maybe the media and fans didn't quite get it.

So how about a little astute revisionism courtesy of Dan Levy. And while you're at it, go check out his stuff. The dude brings it.

What we Learned from Super Bowl 43

So, what did we learn from Sunday’s Super Bowl 43? Was there anything gleaned from that magnificent and furious finish in which the lead changed hands twice in the final two-and-a-half minutes? Is there anything we can learn about the Eagles from watching Big Ben, Kurt Warner, Santonio Holmes and Larry Fitzgerald?

Why yes. Yes there was.

First, we learned that the devastated economy is all encompassing and has even affected the quality of the television commercials broadcast during the game. C’mon, was anyone really impressed? Does anyone remember any ad that really stood out? There are people who write/blog about the cultural relevancy of the whole Super Bowl show and nobody really dived in to the commercial aspect of it.

And this is a good thing. Maybe it means advertisers are finished treating the audience like they are idiots. Besides, we’re all broke. We can’t buy what they’re selling anyway.

Continue reading this story...

Nothing doing

It's easy to tell when there is nothing going on in the Philadelphia sporting scene. For one, media types begin to look at the blogs. Usually it's the other way around. Blogger types[1] need the professionals or else there wouldn't be any substance. It's the commentary or the parsing of the information that makes each so-called blogger unique. Or something like that... we generalize because we have nothing else to go on.

What? Do you think I'm going to dial up Conlin to ask what he thinks about the subject? He's too busy chasing the neighborhood kids off his lawn.

Anyway...

Yet when there is nothing going on and media types read those blogs, sometimes they react to something. Take Donovan McNabb, the quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles, for instance. As most folks who follow this sort of thing have come to learn, Donovan McNabb is a blogger, too. And like most bloggers Donovan McNabb reacts to the news being reported by the pros.

Hey, a guy needs to dig up material from somewhere.

Nevertheless, in reacting to news that the Eagles were 8-8 during the 2007, McNabb opined that his team just might need a few "weapons" in 2008. No big news there. After all, McNabb had pointed out as much after the Eagles beat the Buffalo Bills in the final game of the season on Dec. 30. That was nearly two weeks ago. But in a struggle to fill space on his Yardbarker.com page, McNabb reiterated the idea that the Eagles need "weapons."

Let's digress a bit and give the situation some perspective, because it really is a "situation." In most cities if the quarterback of an 8-8 team expressed a desire to add some better players to the team it might be met with a yawn or a rolling of the eyes with the comment, "Tell us something we don't know" attached to it. That's because in most cities 8-8 isn't very good. Actually, in a lot of cities the fans and media of the local football team would admit that most 10-6 teams have a little room for improvement. Hell, even the New England Patriots have areas where they can get better and they went 16-0. For one thing, the Patriots have to do a better job at not getting caught when spying on the opposition. That little misstep cost them a draft pick.

But in Philadelphia it isn't that the folks don't agree with the notion that the Eagles - an 8-8 team that was lucky to be 8-8 [2]- it's just that there isn't anything else going on. Sure, there are other sports teams in town, such as the punchless 76ers who are in the midst of a season-worst five-game losing streak. At their current rate, the Sixers could end up 31-51, which would put them right there with the Charlotte Bobcats.

There is also the Flyers in the NHL, who might be a team to make a little noise in the playoffs. The Flyers are a young team and prone to streaks as well as multiple-game suspensions for things like unsportsmanlike conduct. But let's not kid ourselves, it's hockey and this is the United States. It's not exactly a fringe sport (though the national television ratings indicate otherwise), but it's not the glitzy and glamorous Hollywood sport either. It's more like non-fiction book publishing.

College basketball is in full swing, too, but in a sports/media saturated market place it's hard to get excited about things like conference play until March. Mix that with folks settling back into routines following the holidays and the new year, as well as the fact that Philadelphia lacks the excitement outside of sports such as places like Washington (it's a presidential election year), New York (it's New York), Boston (the Patriots are streaking to the Super Bowl and the World Champion Red Sox report to spring training in five weeks) or Baltimore (The Wire kicked off its new season last week) and it's easy to see why a sigh or a leer from the quarterback of the local football team gets scrutinized.

How would have people reacted if McNabb wrote that the team was on the right track?

Perhaps he's trying to talk himself out of town?

How would his blogging have gone over if the Eagles finished the season 7-9?

Better yet, how would have folks reacted if he and the gang had gone on a trip to Mexico with Jessica Simpson?

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[1] What? Do you think I'm excluding myself? Hey, I might be a jackass but I'm a self-aware jackass.[2] Not only were the Eagles lucky to be 8-8, but also they could have very easily won 10 games. The truth is that every other team in the NFC East was not very good.