Who needs an RSS feed when you have us? The best of the 215 blogs from the past week.
Who needs an RSS feed when you have us? The best of the 215 blogs from the past week.
At this point, all bets are off. Regardless of the roller-coaster season they've had, the Eagles are fun to root for again.
Things got hot in LA this weekend and it looks like we may have a real series on our hands. A few head-seeking fastballs, a little bench-clearing, and a whole lot of jawing just turned this NLCS into a tense and competitive slugfest. Game 4 is tonight. Joe Blanton is winless in Chavez Ravine this season. Derek Lowe is pitching on 3-days rest. Gear up, Philly, this could get good as the Phils try to take control in a 3-1 series, or allow the Dodgers to knot it up at 2-2.
Last night, in case you missed it, the Eagles were topped by familiar foe Dallas. If you did miss it, shame on you. The teams combined for 54 first half points. If you didn't miss it, you'll know that six of those points were not awarded to DeSean Jackson. We all know rookies make rookie mistakes from time to time. Intentionally dropping a ball on the ground at the one-yard line is not a rookie mistake; it's a bonehead move. Lucky for him, Westbrook tumbled into the endzone on the very next play. Otherwise, he might have ended up eating a half-time knuckle sandwich from Andy Reid (assuming Andy didn't save his knuckle sandwich for himself). Nonetheless, Philadelphia entered the half up 30-24 over a very good Dallas team.
Donovan might be able to get some of those players he’s so desperate for—the Eagles are about to have a windfall. Well, that’s maybe stretching it a bit, but what it lacks in amount it makes up for in sweet, sweet revenge: T.O. owes us money. That’s right, the man who has loved every quarterback he’s ever played with, except when he didn’t, lost his grievance with the Eagles, who were trying to recover $1.725 million of the $2.3 million signing bonus they paid Owens when he signed a seven-year contract back in 2004. Seems the games he was suspended from during his last, painful season with us cost him $764,704 in pay, and when his lawyer didn’t respond to a letter requesting a return of the signing bonus, the Birds didn’t release his last five paychecks, which totaled $955,880. For those math whizzes out there, that means there was still an outstanding $769,120, which an arbitrator ruled last week Owens had to repay to Philadelphia. Don't feel too bad: he can take it out of his roster bonus (Jerry Jones is a sucker). The man who told reporters that "In my heart, I'm getting the last laugh" before Dallas got Tony Romo’s cute little ass handed to them by the Eagles last month apparently laughed a little too soon.
There were some strong contenders for Asshole of the Week this week, a couple of whom probably might have won on another week. But this week, there was one asshole who stood knees and ankles below the rest. Our Asshole of the Week is...
I like this Top (Insert Your Number) thing that Phillyist has going right now. It allows you to write without a clear beginning-to-end narrative, something that comes in handy when you aren’t really watching the game that you are supposed to be “reporting” on. This week, I didn't have something as deathly important as getting my dog's photo taken with Jolly St. Nick. No, I blew the game off because my wife was having her family over for dinner. Now I like the in-laws, but, more importantly, I really like TACOS. The wife made some really delicious ones and I wasn’t going to let some game with “playoff” implications get in the way of my “Should I have beef or pork tacos” dilemma. It just really wouldn’t be fair to the family. That and the fact that I've officially graduated to the "don't really give an ass" mode of this season. But since I’m not going to let the fact that I didn’t really watch the game get in the way of a deadline, let’s start the fun and cheeriness!
It is against my journalistic morals to report on a game that I did not watch in its entirety, so I’m not going to do a huge story on the Eagles today. I’ll keep it real: I went to bed with ten minutes left. Someone told me that a guy named Hank Baskett scored a touchdown before the game was over? Good for him. I was already in Dreamland, sickened by the prospect of watching another minute of the horrid, masturbatory exercise that the Eagles call football these days. The fact that I missed Dexter AND Curb Your Enthusiasm to watch T.O. get his dance on in the Linc end zone made me want to put a five-iron through my 56-inch plasma (Full disclosure: It’s really just a tiny thing I got at Target). But like the immortal Oran “Juice” Jones did in his classic hit “The Rain”…I chill. And put together this lovely ditty to commemorate the Eagles 38-17 suckfest loss to Tony Romo and the far superior Dallas Cowboys. Take the jump for a very beautiful poetic dedication to our boys in green.
Less than twenty-four hours after Tony Romo committed one of the most embarrassing, costly blunders in football history, not much else will be talked about after the Eagles defended Lincoln Financial Field in a 23-20 Wild Card Weekend triumph. The final 137 yards of Tiki Barber’s career—now overshadowed. Brian Westbrook’s leadership, not to mention his forty-nine-yard touchdown dash despite stomach cramps—no longer headline making. Jeff Garcia continuing to lead the Eagles to an improbable six-game winning streak—already an old story.
How cruel of the Eagles to win on Monday night, pulling us all back into the hunt for the playoffs like that. Why did they have to beat a Panthers team expected to win Super Bowl XLI and take their spot in the playoff ladder? Why couldn’t Jeff Garcia have just embarrassed himself and taught coach Andy Reid a lesson for not opting for A.J. Feely? Why did they have to build our hopes back up, only to disappoint us in heartbreaking fashion?