Stop the bandwagon, I want to get off. That’s right. After three meaningless preseason
games, I’m ready to stop talking about the Eagles finally winning a Super Bowl
and start talking about why they won’t.

Please understand that I want everything that follows here today to be dead wrong. I
want a championship for the Eagles more than any other team, because the fans
have waited long enough. Heck, most of them weren’t born the last time the
Birds won it all in 1960. It’s time.

But now that the joy of the front-office assault on free agency is over and coach Andy Reid
is back prowling the sidelines, reality is setting in again. And the truth
about the 2011 Eagles is that they have the same problems they have had
throughout Reid’s 13-year run.

Right now, there are two areas that clearly are not championship caliber, offensive line
and linebacker. The line is young on the left side and terrible on the right –
so terrible that Reid moved veteran guard to right tackle over the weekend. How
smart was it to ignore the blind side of Michael Vick while overindulging on
cornerbacks?

Because of Reid’s flawed philosophies, the Birds just keep making the same mistakes. Even
when they had big anchors on the offensive line like Jon Runyan and Tra Thomas,
Reid consistently filled the other positions with retreads and hacks. Artis
Hicks, Max Jean-Gilles and King Dunlap? That’s the best Reid could do?

Meanwhile, his devaluing of the linebacker position remains absurd. The only time his
Eagles made it to the Super Bowl, Jeremiah Trotter was a menacing presence at
middle linebacker. Now Reid thinks he can fill that spot with Casey Matthews, a
rookie so raw he couldn’t believe it himself when he was listed on the first
team. Welcome to our world, Casey.

When it comes to football, Andy Reid must be clinically insane. Why else would he keep
repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different result? Was anyone still
paying attention early in the fourth quarter last week, when the coach elected
to challenge Cleveland’s first touchdown? Reid earned a 15-yard penalty for the
challenge, because those plays are now automatically reviewed.

Reid spent 135 days in virtual isolation during the NFL lockout. Is it too much to ask
that he study the few new rules? And while he was at it, why didn’t he spend a
day or two reviewing his horrific record on officials’ challenges, perhaps even
making a tweak or two to his ineffective system?

Forget it.  Andy Reid is doomed to keep making the same ridiculous blunders week after
week, year after year. And we fans are doomed to relive the same nightmares
every season, thanks to him. That’s why I’m jumping now, before the rush. Stop
the bandwagon, I want to get off.

———-

Michael Vick is revolutionizing the position of quarterback. He is the most
popular player in the history of ESPN. He is generous to friends and relatives,
an inspiration to young people. He now owns a new $100 million contract.

Uh, hold on a minute here, please. Could the man win something before we petition the
Vatican to make him our first living saint?

     ESPN the Magazine is dedicating an entire issue this week to Vick, because there is
no one more important person in the sports world today than our beloved hero.
The magazine arrived at this conclusion after polling 44 current NFL players
and learning that all 44 like him, an ESPN first.

The magazine also has concluded that fans either love him or hate him; there’s no middle
ground. Wrong. Many of us I have never been more conflicted about a player in
our lives. What he does on a football field can be magical, but what he did off
it will never be forgotten.

And ultimately, the only thing that matters is whether he can take this talented
Eagles team and make them champions. Others have purged from their memories the
fatal, underthrown pass that ended last season. I have not and will not, and
neither will the fans who care about nothing more than ending a half-century
championship drought.

All of the praise being heaped on Vick these days is nothing more than meaningless blabber
until he proves he is worthy of it. If Michael Vick really wants to be an
inspiration, he’ll win us a championship. Then we can all petition the Vatican
together.

———-

The Phillies are on automatic pilot already, cruising to another NL East title and their
fifth straight trip to the playoffs. So what’s the problem? Apathy is the
problem.

What the Phils are doing right now never works. Taking the foot off the pedal with five
weeks left in the season is not just a bad idea, it is often a fatal one. The
Phils will deny they’re trying less hard to win games these days, despite their
3-4 mark against the putrid Nationals, Mets and Marlins over the past 10 days.
But we know better, don’t we?

Cole Hamels said he felt terrific last week – while on the disabled list for nothing more
than a forced vacation. Ryan Howard was rested for a game with a foot problem
he said was actually no problem. Howard and Chase Utley were yanked from games
in progress, to rest a little more. Check the box scores. Kyle Kendrick,
Michael Schwimer, David Herndon and Michael Stutes are getting more and more
work on the best pitching staff in the big leagues.

Manager Charlie Manuel thinks he’s using common sense right now, planning ahead for the
big games in October. What he is actually doing is sending exactly the wrong
message to the best team in baseball. Just ask the Yankees, who conceded a
close division race last year to Tampa just to set up their pitching rotation.
Then they got crushed by Texas.

Players are trained from their childhood to play to win, and tampering with that mentality
is a recipe for disaster, The Phillies should play all 162 games with the same
intensity. They should fulfill the destiny of this fantastic team and shatter
the all-time Phils win total of 101 set 34 years ago. And then they should roar
into the playoffs and finish the job.

The best time to relax, history shows, is after the parade.

———-

Idle thoughts . . . .

• Is it time to downgrade the Phillies’Big 4 to a Big 3? In an
  injury-riddled season, Roy Oswalt has not pitched like an ace. He has a 3.77
  ERA, has given up 115 hits in 98 innings and somehow has compiled a losing
  record (6-8) on a team destined to win at least 100. Right now, Vance Worley is
  better.
• The new Flyers goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov, said Philadelphia reminds
  him a lot of his homeland of Russia. There was a time when that comment would
  have been considered an insult, especially by chairman Ed Snider. Now,
  especially with Bryzgalov’s thick accent, it is just really funny.
• Speaking
  of the Flyers, Chris Pronger said last week that he is ready for a new season
  after three surgeries in the past year. During his latest love-hate session
  with reporters, he proclaimed: “I feel no pain, other than my brain.” Pronger
  should be named the new captain – today.
• The Eagles have a new slogan for the 2011 season: “Heart.” Hey, at
  least it’s better than the “One Team, One City, One Dream” insult of a few
  years ago, when they thought they were the only show in town.
• Andy Reid will be resting most of his starters in the preseason
  finale Thursday night against the Jets. Why? Because that’s what the Eagles
  coach always does – despite his poor early-season record. Why change something
  that clearly doesn’t work?

What was Eagles owner Jeff Lurie thinking last week when his amazing new team was failing so spectacularly in Pittsburgh? Was there even one fleeting moment when president Joe Banner wondered what the heck coach Andy Reid was doing while the Steelers were obliterating his proud new roster?

I have no answers to the two big questions above, but I can tell you what I was thinking — and what many of you were thinking. We were questioning again whether Reid can lead this team to a championship. We couldn’t believe that a club this talented could play that badly. We were harboring serious new doubts about the coaching of Andy Reid.

Yes, it was only the second preseason game. There is no reason to panic. But if you shrugged at that disaster at Heinz Field, you are either a pie-eyed optimist or you are totally brain dead.  Either way, you need to face some painful facts.

The defense was abysmal – so much so that Pittsburgh controlled the ball for 23 of the first 30 minutes. The coordinator of that defense is a man who has never held that position, and coached like a novice in that game. Reid insisted that Juan Castillo would be terrific in that new role. Of course, Reid said the same thing about Sean McDermott. What if Reid is wrong?

The linebackers were an embarrassment. If Casey Matthews is going to lead the defense at middle linebacker, the rookie is going to need to know at some point where to go and what to do when he gets there. He was steamrolled against the Steelers. Reid has always downplayed the value of the linebacker position. Will Reid’s bias against linebackers ruin this season?

Michael Vick looked exactly like the Michael Vick of five years ago, before his stint in prison and rebirth with the Eagles. Reid has gotten one media testimonial after another for his reshaping of Vick, and especially for bringing discipline to the quarterback’s game.  After that disaster, is it fair to wonder whether Vick will revert to his old ways now that he’s no longer fighting for the starting job?

It isn’t just that Andy Reid has never won a championship as a head coach; there is also the matter of his attitude when he doesn’t win. When someone asked a valid question about Matthews’ many mistakes, Reid snapped, “Your question was about as good as we played.”

No, the question was actually much better. The only thing that was as bad as the Eagles’ performance last week was Reid’s insulting behavior after it. This is a new season, with hopes above and beyond any in the 13 seasons of Reid’s tenure here. The stakes are higher now.  The pressure is greater.

Let’s just hope Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner are asking the same tough questions about Andy Reid right now that we are.

———————————–

The eyes have it. After an alarming
weekend in Washington, the back end of the Phillies bullpen has become a
muddle, with three candidates for the closer role as the playoffs draw nearer.
And that’s why the eyes hold the key to resolving this problem.

At the moment, Ryan Madson has the job.
He isn’t the most experienced ninth-inning pitcher; that distinction belongs to
2008 World Series hero Brad Lidge. And Madson certainly hasn’t won the job
based on performance; Antonio Bastardo is having a historic season in the bullpen,
despite his blown save on Sunday.

Madson is not the best choice here, for
two reasons. First, his velocity is down. At his most effective, he throws the
ball between 95 and 97 miles per hour. Right now, he’s in the low 90’s, making
his lethal change-up much more hittable. Also, Madson still looks skittish in
big moments. He’s an excellent set-up man, nothing more.

Lidge is done. He doesn’t trust his
fastball anymore, nor should he. It isn’t fast. And his slider has still been
effective at times, but he doesn’t have the same control, or the same
consistency, that he did three years ago. At best, he’s a seventh-inning guy –
and maybe not even that if Jose Contreras returns.

Which leaves Bastardo, who has allowed 19
hits in 49 innings – a batting average of .119. Even after squandering his
first save in nine attempts by permitting the game-tying homer to Ian Desmond
on Sunday, Bastardo came right back and blew away the next hitter. He is
unflappable. He is the one pitcher in the Phillies bullpen that opponents don’t
want to face.

Manager Charlie Manuel has six weeks to
decide on a closer for the playoffs, but the answer should be obvious by now.
All he has to do is use his eyes.

—————————–

Finally, we know the truth about Jeremy
Maclin. The Eagles wide receiver is not suffering from AIDS. And he doesn’t
have lymphoma, or any other form of cancer. He has been fighting nothing more
than a hard-to-shake virus.

So why has a cloud been hanging over him
since March? What it all comes down to is privacy. Maclin insisted that the
medical tests being conducted be kept confidential, leaving the Eagles no
choice but to dance around all questions until he and his family agreed to
explain the situation.

My philosophy on secrets is a matter of
public record. I think they’re stupid. With very few exceptions, the guy next
door has the same issues in his life that you have in yours. The best way to
end damaging speculation, and to build understanding, is simply to tell the
truth.

In Maclin’s case, the recent rumors were
far, far worse than the reality of the situation. Questions about his lifestyle
and his future completely overshadowed the actual facts in the case, and all
because he felt the need to hide the nature of his illness.

What shame was there in the cancer scare
Maclin was experiencing? What need was there to go mum in a city that is
unfailingly compassionate in situations like this? Did Maclin think the fans
would think less of him if he had cancer?

There was no good reason for Maclin to
hide the secret of his medical crisis. With secrets, there almost never is.

—————————–

Idle thoughts . . . .

• Michael Vick said the NFL talked him
  into signing with the Eagles two years ago, but then he issued a statement
  saying the league did NOT do that. Hmmmm. Should we believe what he said before
  the P.R. spin, or after it? Tough one.
• Why is it so easy for some players to
  connect with fans, and so hard for others? When Hunter Pence pointed at his
  head with a goofy expression on his face after absent-mindedly sliding into
  third on a run-scoring single last week, the new Phillie won an army of new
  fans – just by being himself.
• The Sixers are planning some informal
  workouts in Los Angeles this week, just in case the NBA lockout ever ends. The
  only reason I offer this item is that I haven’t mentioned our basketball team
  in months. I just wanted to remind people that we still have one.
• David Akers, the greatest kicker in
  Eagles history, lost $3.7 million in a Ponzi scheme after Ty and Koy Detmer
  convinced him to invest with one of their advisors. Wow. The hillbilly Detmers
  were offering financial advice? And somebody was actually listening?
• Tony Romo actually said last week that
  he and 14 friends played hide and seek during his bachelor party. Then the
  Dallas quarterback proudly added that he won both games. So here are his
  updated career numbers:  NFL playoff
  games, 1-3; hide and seek, 2-0.