City of Pain

we’ve updated the free agency list. a couple things stand out. not a lot of movement. quite a few one year deals. not a lot of phillies action. but who’s surprised at that?

go here for the whole list.

The Eagles season has officially ended. They tried to suck us back in, but in the end they took a giant dump on their fans. They are so average, so mediocre, and so lifeless, that I feel like spending time talking about the game would be an insult to all of your collective intelligence. Too many penalties, zero offense, and bad clock management/timeouts wasted are just the tip of the iceberg. Lose out, losers. Get a better draft pick. Lose some season ticket holders because you don’t seem to want to address some glaring holes this team has. Keep telling us McNabb is our QB next year (I don’t believe them by the way) and keep making excuses about ‘being close’ or ‘needing to do a better job’. Kill me. You know what you need to do a better job at? WINNING. You are so far behind New England, Indy, and Dallas it’s not even funny.You do not have the talent necessary to compete at a high level week in and week out. With the exception of the running back and a random offensive lineman, I don’t think we are better in any other area than any of those three teams. Our kicker is average these days. Even our cheerleaders are a bunch of pigs.

Every week they find a new way to lose. Late interceptions, allowing a garbage Bears team to drive the length of the field on you with no timeouts, giving up an NFL record for sacks in a game, muffing punts, and hitting the post on a game tying field goal. I fully expect them to lose next week by forfeiting the game because the equipment manager forgets to bring their helmets.

Maybe there is no quick fix. Maybe the Eagles are going to be an average team for the next five years and waste away Westbrook’s prime years. Maybe we’ll have to watch the Cowboys win the division year after year. Maybe we’ll continue to think we are ok at the wide receiver position.

I want to see Joe Banner lay out a game plan and tell us how he plans on fixing our problems. I want to know why we are 2-5 at home this season and how we scored 17 points or less in 8 out of 13 games. I want to know how you plan on fitting Kevin Kolb into the starting lineup and when that is going to begin. And for Mr. Lurie, I want to know how loyal you really are to Andy Reid. I want to know how long the leash is and if the fact that we went to all those championship games gives him a free pass for life. We want answers.

so apparently inside the offices at lincoln financial field, it’s still february 2005 and the eagles are the defending nfc champions. we were 13-3. donovan’s got weapons a plenty and looks like one of the top three quarterbacks in the nfl. andy reid’s offensive schemes and coaching prowess are already evoking statements like “andy reid is the best coach in the league.” we really were the gold standard as jeffrey lurie said. three years later, everything has changed to the outside world.

but apparently, nothing has changed to joe banner (unless he’s blowing smoke up our collective asses). let’s break down some of his quotes from his interview on howard eskin’s show yesterday.

on donovan mcnabb’s future…

“I can’t envision a situation in which (Donovan McNabb) is not our quarterback next year… (really? i’ve been dreaming about it since the miami game)

I believe there is a very, very sizable silent majority who realize how lucky we have been to have Donovan McNabb. (i’m included in the silent majority who know mcnabb was freaking amazing and kept us from the qb carousal of years past…but in the last three years we’ve had six different qb’s take a snap. i don’t see any wooden horses, but that sounds like a god damn merry go round to me.)

I mean, we are talking about a quarterback who went to four straight (NFC) championship games. There are only four quarterbacks in the history of the league that have done that. (aikman, jim kelly, stabler, mcnabb…good company. two of them have one a title though. and their records in the title game… aikman 3-1, kelly 4-0, stabler 1-3, mcnabb 1-3. funny that the two who made it to the super bowl more than once are in the hall of fame.)

You are talking about a quarterback who has had a higher winning percentage in his first seven years in the league than Peyton Manning. (that ended two years ago. since then mcnabb 9-10, manning 22-6. peyton has also played 9 more games. and won a super bowl. and has somehow surpassed the annoyance level of donovan’s soup commercials. it could have been donnie shouting cut that meat…)

You are talking about a quarterback that has one of the highest quarterback ratings over the first seven seasons, one of the best TD-to-interceptions ratios of any quarterback in the history of this game in his first seven seasons in the league… (that’s nice. that’s also two years ago. and those things don’t win championships. leaders do. just ask brett farve. and oh by the way, donovan’s highest int total in one year 13. farve’s lowest int total in one year…13.)

My expectations, and I can’t really even picture a different scenario, is that he’ll be the quarterback (next season).” (if this is true, our only hope for next year is that he really is hurt this year. and that’s he going to bounce back.)

listen, i have no axe to grind with mcnabb. he and randall are the only two quarterbacks we’ve had in my time who’ve been worth a damn for more than half a season. i’m just sick of the mediocrity of the past three years and i’m hoping that, between counting stacks of money, lurie and banner are sick of it too.

I’m sure I’m late the party on this one, but http://straightcashhomey.net is freaking great.

One day soon I have to make it up there with my Jevon Kearse jersey.

billy king’s going to get shit-canned today, and i couldn’t be happier. this team “plays hard” is “entertaining” and they’re all “nice guys.” which is a great way to describe an 8th grade basketball team, but not necessarily a storied nba franchise like the sixers. philadelphia could really use a plan for its basketball team, and i’m glad it’s not billy king who’s writing it.

look at the overpriced and/or under-talented slop he’s brought to or kept on this team since the glorious run to the finals:

Dikembe Mutombo – $68 million extension
Aaron McKie – $35.5 million
Eric Snow – $29 million
Greg Buckner – $18 million
Kenny Thomas – $40 million
Brian Skinner – $25 million
Kyle Korver – $25 million
Samuel Dalembert – $60 million

and he traded for other gm’s worst contracts like Keith Van Horn, Glenn Robinson, Kevin Ollie, and Chris Webber

and he’s had a mixed bag of drafts:

2007
Thaddeus Young
Jason Smith
Herbert Hill

2006
Rodney Carney
Bobby Jones

2005
Louis Williams

2004
Andre Iguodala

2003
Kyle Korver
Willie Green

2002
Jiri Welsch
Sam Clancy

2001
Samuel Dalembert
Damone Brown
Alvin Jones

2000
Speedy Claxton
Mark Karcher

1999
Todd MacCulloch
Jumaine Jones

1998
Larry Hughes
Nazr Mohammad
Casey Shaw

at the end of the day, they stunk before he arrived with larry brown, they were pretty good for a stretch there (5 straight trips to the playoffs) and now they stink again. they drafted some decent players but haven’t hit on anyone who’s changed the face of the franchise. at the end of the day, he’ll be the guy who traded allen iverson for andre miller, joe smith and jason smith and some cash. here’s hoping this guy, ed stefanski:
can spend the cap space that billy king has created in a creative way instead of boldly resigning all his own players that have been overvalued for the last ten years.

thank you ed snider. and thank you larry brown for not getting in the way of this. now let’s go lose some games and get a good draft pick! go team!