Damon and Millwood - 2 wrongs don't make....

We at Red Sox Nation weep. What would Johnny Damon do? Go for the money, of course! Damon, shorn of his Jesus-like locks, is now the $52 million Yankees' center fielder. Ugh. The only thing worse would be the Sox signing Kevin Millwood, who failed in Philadelphia, especially down the stretch.

Fly Eagles Fly (or were those just penalty flags?)

The Eagles beat the Rams Sunday, but it wasn't pretty. Over 200 yards in penalties. More false starts than TD passes. I see the Eagles with a different backup QB next year, because Mike McMahon can't get it done. And the fact that McMahon is starting instead of Koy Detmer speaks volumes about Andy Reid's (lack of) confidence in Detmer. And why does Reno Mahe continue to get second-half carries when Ryan Moats isn't winded?

And did you catch the latest Campbell's chunky soup ad where McNabb's mom has him running right, running left, running right, then throwing? Looks like he did more running in that ad than he did all year long. I'll agree with J. Whyatt Mondesire on one thing - defenses get flustered when McNabb runs.

Piling on No. 5

J. Whyatt Mondesire, President of the Philadelphia NAACP and publisher of the Philadelphia Sun, recently blasted Philadelphia QB Donovan McNabb in an editorial. Among other nuggets, Mondesire called McNabb a "mediocre talent" who cheats his fans by not running the ball as often as he could, and consciously made the decision not to run because, in McNabb's mind, this would somehow make him less of a field general.

Reaction ran the gamut. Michael Wilbon of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption and The Washington Post, called the article "hateful" and blasted Mondesire. John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News had this to say:

If McNabb were Caucasian, I am positive white people would not have been motivated to call into talk radio shows and debate whether the quarterback was a true white man.

But debating Donovan McNabb as a true black man is exactly what a good number of African-Americans in Philadelphia are doing since the Owens-McNabb flap became the focal point of the Eagles' demise.

It's fascinating that this has spiraled way beyond the confines of a football debate. And don't tell me it hasn't, when terms such as sellout, token, company man, Uncle Tom and other racially charged ones have been thrown into the debate.

What this black-on-black verbal violence has caused me to wonder is: Who gets to determine who is truly African-American and what is or isn't a part of African-American culture?

Stephen A. Smith of ESPN's Quite Frankly and The Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed Mondesire for today's Inquirer:

Q: How do you feel about the ramifications, how this has affected the life of Donovan McNabb? Black and white folks are now opining on McNabb's blackness because of a column written by you.

A: I'm not sorry it happened, because I felt strongly about it. I think you've seen in the latter part of my piece that we were disappointed in the way he failed to step up in a leadership role. I raised the issue at the end of the piece about why he wouldn't share some of his dollars with either T.O. or Westbrook.

Had McNabb chosen to do that, they would have circled the wagons around him, run through hot coals barefoot for him. It would have cemented the team, kept the T.O. debacle from growing into the massive scandal that it became, and kept the team concentrated on winning football games.

Q: So you're saying Donovan McNabb should have taken a portion of his salary and given it to T.O.?

A: Or offered to do so. The same way Tom Brady did with New England.

Kind of. The difference was, McNabb was already under contract and Brady was negotiating a new contract. And I don't see Brady's teammates backstabbing their QB, either. If a teammate's throwing grenades at you, you don't throw money at him.

And this is how Smith opined about McNabb's season:

Balls were repeatedly underthrown or overthrown. At times, there was no rhyme or reason to his lack of production. His accuracy and timing were sporadic at best.

2005? Yes. But Smith could have just as easily been talking about any other season in McNabb's career, save for last season. McNabb is not mediocre. But he's not the greatest QB since Elway and Montana, either.

since I last posted...

The Eagles squeaked by Green Bay, were slaughtered by Seattle, and lost to the Giants on an overtime field goal.

While the offense remains largely inept in the absence of a healthy Donovan McNabb, you can spread the blame around. Despite Jeremiah Trotter's assertion that some offensive players "quit" against Seattle, looks like his team's 'D' could use some help.

For instance:
Sacks: The lack of sacks and hurries, as noted previously by Rich Hoffman of the Daily News. Trotter himself has one sack this year. One. That's a Mike Mamula-like number.
Red-Zone Efficiency: Opponents scored touchdowns 63.2% of the time against the Eagles once they got to the red zone (prior to the Giants game) - worst in the NFC.
Points per game. We'll give up the yards, the Eagles always said. But judge us based on points. OK. The Eagles are giving up 24.2 points per game. Even if you discount the generous gifts offered up by McNabb against Dallas and McMahon against Seattle, that's still over 22 points per game.

And as for the QBs....
McMahon is not the answer. His horrid passing accuracy is just one reason.
Detmer is not the answer. Koy is still the # 2 QB (apparently in name only, since McMahon got the call first this year), but why? Because David Akers is comfortable with Koy holding? Not acceptable any longer. And for those fans who argue "what about Koy coming to the rescue?" that was three years ago and for part of one game before he got injured.

TO: Bloched

Now that arbitrator Richard Bloch has ruled against Terrell Owens and the NFLPA's grievance, what now?

For starters, Bloch will be fired as an arbitrator by the union, according to ESPN's Chris Mortenson. Terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement permit either side to request termination.

Anyone remember Peter Seitz? Same circumstance (following an arbitration)....in that case Seitz was fired by Major League Baseball immediately following his award of free agency to Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally.

And what got the NFLPA so riled up about Bloch's ruling? Perhaps the fact that it was a complete legal victory for the Eagles. Bloch addressed three key points made by the union: that the severity of the punishment was unwarranted due to the player's actions; that Owens was not properly warned of the consequences of his actions, and that the team had a contractual duty to release Owens should his services no longer be desired.

The point of progressive discipline is to properly advise an employee of unacceptable behavior, to warn that their tenure is becoming increasingly challenged and to attempt to provide for the possibility of better behavior in the future. The repeated, unambiguous warnings accomplished all of this....
But the critical issue that continues to elude the Player is that, without regard to who was right on the true meaning of the statements, the team and McNabb were upset by them. Owens knew this. And, he knew that any suspension could be immediately avoided by addressing his teammates, and McNabb, in an effort to make things right. Yet, with full knowledge that discipline was hanging in the balance, he refused to take these steps.......The Association argues that, to the extent the Coach wished to keep the Player from the fields or the locker room, he should have released him. It is a mark of the highly unusual nature of this case that this should be regarded not only as not disciplinary, but as the desired goal of the Player and his representatives. More to the point, while releasing the Player is an available option, it is not a mandatory one.

Reaction was mixed. Stephen A. Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who should no longer be confused with a TO defender, retorted that

They just didn't rob Owens of the right to work. They slapped him, then threw him change for good measure.

Phil Sheridan, also of the Inqy, writes that

The more the Eagles hurt Owens at this point, the more they ultimately hurt themselves. Other players are watching now, around the locker room and around the league. They are watching, and they are forming lasting impressions about what kind of organization the Eagles are running....If this is winning the battle with Owens, what would losing look like?

Bottom line is, there really are no winners here. The Eagles made their point that no player is above the team. But at what cost? Their season is over, with TO out due to suspension and quarterback Donovan McNabb out with season-ending surgery. And as Jason Whitlock of ESPN and the Kansas City Star notes, it's not like a lot of McNabb's teammates came to his defense in the TO mess. I agree with most of what Whitlock says. The Eagles' players are looking at McNabb's $115 million contract, looking at the team drag its feet when re-signing Brian Westbrook and David Akers, and looking at veterans heading into free agency with little hope of re-signing with Philadelphia. Above all else, Eagles President Joe Banner wants cap space. But exactly what did extra cap space help with this season? What veteran wide receiver did the Eagles sign to replace injured WR Todd Pinkston? What help did the Eagles get for the defensive line after letting free agent DE Corey Simon go after slapping him with a franchise tag?

And speaking of defense, this season hasn't been entirely McNabb's fault. The fact that McNabb was hampered by his hernia injury, coupled with some horrible throwing decisions and poor late-game clock management, resulted in bad losses to Washington and Dallas. But the defense is nothing like the unit that has dominated the NFC the last five years. They're giving up big plays (Lito Sheppard and Shelden Brown, for starters), yards and points. And as Rich Hoffman of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote on the eve of the second Dallas game, the Eagles' pass rush has a lot to do with this year's problems, too:

One more stat thing, outlining the impotence of the Eagles' pass rush. Last year, in the 14 games when the starters played, the Eagles got pressure (a sack or hurry) on the quarterback 37.3 percent of the time. In 2003, when they had multiple defensive line injuries and such an alarmingly weak pass rush that Andy Reid reacted by spending a billion dollars to sign Jevon Kearse, they got pressure 30.5 percent of the time.

This year, it is down to 25.7 percent of the time, which is a lot weaker than alarmingly weak. It is the killer stat of the season so far, a number so bad that it exposes not only the pass rushers but also the people left to clean up the mess behind them. That it has nothing to do with McNabb is self-evident.

Of course, that night McNabb proceeded to throw the interception from hell to Roy Williams and put the spotlight back on himself. The next six games won't be fun, folks.

Next Question

Now that agent Drew Rosenhaus torpedoed Terrell Owens's chances of getting reinstated by the Eagles, Ralph Nader and Rev. Jesse Jackson have joined the fray. Nader argued in a letter to Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue that Owens should be reinstated as a consumer protection measure, since there are fans who bought tickets to see Owens play. Jackson noted that

"This does not warrant a one-year ban from the game" and is "much too severe for the charge"

Given that Owens played seven games for the Eagles and may not play for nine, that doesn't add up to a one year ban. Oh, and as for Rosenhaus's argument that the media caused all this trouble, just remember that Owens generally refused to talk to members of the media other than ESPN, and when he appeared on ESPN, his comments didn't exactly shy away from controversy. The Eagles should have cut Owens in the summer, but that's another story.

No go on T.O.

T.O.'s greatest dream comes true: The Eagles lose after suspending Owens for the Washington game.

T.O.'s nightmare comes true: the Eagles punt T. O. for the rest of the season, which means possibly no money for four games.

And did you catch T.O.'s wink at Monday's press conference after a reporter asked agent Drew Rosenhaus what else he had done for Owens other than getting him kicked off the team? Rosenhaus quickly said "next question" while T.O. (behind Drew) smiled and then winked at the questioner. As Sam Donnellen of the Philadelphia Daily News observed, it's what would have happened if Quentin Tarantino had written the screenplay to "Jerry Maguire."

Hurricane T.O. Blows Over

"It has been brought to my attention that I have offended the organization and my teammates."

Terrell Owens was suspended by the Eagles Saturday for "conduct detrimental to the team." Of course, his worst nightmare came true Sunday: Brian Westbrook got the long-term deal he wanted (at least 5 years) and Reggie Brown (T. O.'s replacement) scored the Eagles' first touchdown against Washington.

And as for Owens wanting Brett Favre over Donovan McNabb? Going into Sunday's games, McNabb had a higher passing rating, more yards and the same number of TD passes (15). Favre had a higher completion percentage but six more interceptions than McNabb. Maybe he can talk with T.O. about how some of his picks killed the Packers' momentum in their 6 losses.

Sorry, that's 7 losses after today's wipeout against the Steelers. And even McNabb can't fumble as well as Favre can - just ask Pittsburgh's defense.

Hammerin' Hank strikes out

Hank Aaron is upset that the Astros were the first World Series team since the 1953 Yankees without an African-American player, according to a story in the Washington Post:

"It is very disturbing to see something like this," Aaron said. "And you would think that this ballclub could find at least one or two African Americans, especially in this city. It's very disturbing. I think they need to look at that very carefully. They need to talk to people in the scouting department and everybody else because this needs to be addressed."

Perhaps Aaron is galled by the fact that he and other blacks in the 50s, 60s and 70s who worked so hard to break down barriers and make baseball accommodate blacks, now face a league where barely nine percent of players are African-American. Now, that's not counting Latino blacks. I mean just Black Americans. And Houston, in town that's 25 percent black according to the 2000 census, couldn't manage to have any. Neither did Baltimore.

This is not new. For years, the Red Sox had one or two blacks at the most, and given the fact that they were the last MLB team to integrate (Pumpsie Green, in 1959 I think), Boston has a long history characterized by obstructionism at best, racism at worst. Same with Philadelphia, a city that booed Dick Allen unmercifully and where manager Ben Chapman famously refused to shake hands with Jackie Robinson. A few years back Doug Glanville was the "token" African-American. Now that the Phils have Jimmy Rollins at short, Kenny Lofton in center and Ryan Howard (at least part-time) at first, the team doesn't have to face the same racial criticism it once did.

The larger question is whether baseball has fewer American blacks because of design (i.e., by conspiracy to not hire more blacks), because of benign neglect, or because baseball just isn't as popular as it once was in this country among youth, not just black youth, but all youth. These days basketball and football rule, especially in urban areas. There is a growing effort in major cities across the country to make baseball popular again, but this takes time, effort, equipment and space. And desire, which Hammerin' Hank can wish for, but may not happen again.

Congrats ChiSox

Dap to those OTHER Sox, who broke through after 88 years. Maybe Chicago will never be anything other than a Cubs town, but at least the other team has rings.

One year after

So one year after Boston finished as the AL Wild Card winner....Boston is the AL Wild Card winner. I would have preferred a one-game playoff to decide the East, but them's the breaks. That's what you get for losing to Tampa Bay and Toronto down the stretch.

I still miss Pedro, DLowe to a lesser extent. Just for kicks, here are stats for those two compared to the three pitchers brought in to replace them :

Martinez 15-8, 2.82 ERA
Lowe 12-15, 3.61 ERA
total: 27-23
50 decisions

Clement 13-6, 4.57 ERA
Wells 15-7, 4.45 ERA
Miller 4-4, 4.95 ERA
total: 32-17
49 decisions


Did Theo make the right call? The Sox are back in the postseason. They finished 95-67, same as the Yankees. The record was three games worse than 2004 and the same as 2003.

Talkin' Baseball

The Sawx are 2nd, but in the playoffs. Again. The Phils are out. Again. And by the way, Ed Wade's contract as GM was (shhhh!) quietly rolled over for two more years a few weeks ago. Didn't hear about that? Didn't think so.

Brian Westbrook - essential or interchangeable part?

After seeing Philadelphia eek out their win over Oakland, I can give credit to quite a few Eagles. But Brian Westbrook's multi-dimensional game stands out. While naysayers say he's not worth a new contract, let's look at the reasons why not, and why:

Why not:
He gets hurt a lot.
No, he gets hurt sometimes. Other times, the coaching staff has held him out of games. I really don't know if he can play a whole season.

He's not as talented as LDT or the great power backs in the league.
Oh? Based on what measurement?

He doesn't have as many yards or rushing TDs.
That's because the Eagles' offense is designed around the run, like San Diego's offense is, for example. On Sunday, Drew Brees threw 22 passes. Donovan McNabb threw 52. You can't compare LDT and Westbrook if they get vastly unequal carries per game.

In Sports Illustrated's pro football issue, an opposing scout said TO is far more important to Philly than Westbrook. If Westbrook goes down, Ryan Moats can step in and do well. If TO is out, who's going to pick up the slack?
Hm. TO is vital to the offense, no doubt. McNabb's 2004 stats are testament to that fact. But keep this in mind: NFC Championship vs. Panthers: average receivers, no Westbrook, loss. NFC Championship vs. Falcons: average receivers, Westbrook, win.

But they needed TO to get homefield advantage.
And how is that any different from the year before, or the year before that? Bzzzz. Time's up.

And now for the reasons why Westbrook should get some more dough:

He's a multi-dimensional player who flourishes in the West Coast offense.

Many teams in the NFL use the West Coast offense.

If they let him go, they will regret it.

He makes #5 better.

He makes the receivers better.

Have a nice day.

Hammie

David Akers gutted out Sunday's game against Oakland, hitting the game-winning field goal. Akers will likely miss the Kansas City game with a pulled right hamstring.

MNF flashbacks, Bronco-style

The Rocky Mountain News takes a trip down memory lane and looks at Monday Night Football, as it starts its last season on ABC. Are you ready for some football?

Data Mining Goes Too Far

I read this article on New Orleans by Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times, followed on the page by these Ads by Google:

Saints (a ticket site for games at the Alamodome)

Permanent Odor Control

Water Filtration

Mold and Mildew Cleaner

Eliminate Vaginal Odor

That pretty much covers everything, doesn't it?

Roaming Saints

Word has it that the Saints will play four games in San Antonio's Alamodome and three in LSU's stadium, following their "home" opener at Giant Stadium in two weeks. Some drawbacks to the LSU plan: the campus is still being used as a staging area for medical teams and their patients, while Baton Rouge hotels are getting full with refugees. Somehow I don't think they're going to kick out 250-300 people just so visiting teams can get rooms. Unlike Florida, for example, where state law requires hotels to honor confirmed reservations.

New Orleans

Our prayers are with you, New Orleans

Deion hits a home run

Deion Sanders of the Baltimore Ravens has challenged every pro athlete to contribute $1,000 to Katrina relief efforts. Sanders can be a jackass sometimes. But this is putting his money where his mouth is.

WPEN returns to sports

WPEN, the low-watt station that carried Phillies games from 2002-2004, is getting back into the sports business. Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the station will be Philadelphia's second all-sports station, in addition to Sports Radio 610 WIP. That would be news to ESPN 920 from Princeton, which bills itself as "Philadelphia's real sports station." ESPN 920 covers a six-county region, three in PA and three in NJ. Naturally, it has a weak or non-existent signal in Delaware and Chester counties, which is where I do most of my driving.

WPEN's talent will include nationally syndicated yapper Jim Rome from 12-3 (whom ESPN 920 already includes in its lineup from 12-2) and former WIPer Jody MacDonald, who will compete with 610's Howard Eskin from 3-7. That has mismatch written all over it. MacDonald, who used to co-host 610 middays with Glen Macnow before leaving for WFAN in New York, also works for the Eagles pregame show on 94.1 WYSP-FM.

I'm not sure if the region really needs three sports radio stations. We'll see how much cash they hemorrhage before they call it quits.