Somewhat out of the blue two interesting articles about the Cowboys showed up in the Philly media this week. First, Eagles president Joe Banner gave his thoughts on the Cowboys acquisition of WR Roy Williams.

"I mean, they paid a lot,'' said Banner, who confirmed the Eagles (3-3) did attempt to trade for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez prior to the Oct. 14 deadline. "Time will tell. I wouldn't pay that much for a player like that.''

While addressing the team's approach to improving the roster, the Birds' president took yet another swipe at the Cowboys.

"Our goal is to win a Super Bowl, forget win a playoff game, which is something they are still working on,'' Banner said.

Dallas, which defeated the Eagles 41-37 Sept. 15, have not won a playoff game since 1996.

Whaddya know Joe?

Reuben Frank gathered some numbers that suggest our favorite soon to be 35 year old WR may be slowing down.

After his latest disaster – two catches for 31 yards in St. Louis Sunday in the Cowboys’ 34-14 loss to the Rams – Owens has now gone 11 consecutive games without a 100-yard performance. And in most of them, he hasn’t been close. He’s been held under 50 yards in seven of those 11 games, including performances with 49, 48, 37, 36, 31, 21 and 17 yards.

Since Week 14 last year, T.O. has fewer yards than such household names as Greg Camarillo, Bobby Wade and Anthony Gonzalez and fewer catches than such superstars as Kevin Walter, Lance Moore and Tony Scheffler.

Heck, during that span T.O. hasn’t even been the best guy in the league with his name. Owen Daniels of the Texans has three more catches than T.O. since late last year.

That's only a few of Reuben's stats... He's got quite a bit more that seem like evidence of Owens decline. He also suggests that maybe the Cowboys themselves have seen it.

Maybe this is just a little blip for Owens. Maybe he’s about to heat up. But he turns 35 in six weeks. He’s been held without a catch of 20 yards or more in four of his last five games. And the Cowboys are so concerned about T.O. that they went out at the trade deadline and acquired Roy Williams and gave a guy with one career 1,000-yard season $54 million over six years.

Williams has three 100-yard performances in his last 18 games. He should fit right in.

Good news on the current WR front as Andy Reid said yesterday that Kevin Curtis could return sooner than first thought.

Reid suggested there's a chance Curtis makes it back before the Eagles' Oct. 12 game against San Francisco, the game before the bye week.

"I'm optimistic today that it won't be [longer than a month and a half], but we'll see," Reid said Monday. "The month and a half takes you to about the bye week, so hopefully we can get him back a little sooner."

Curtis, who led the team last season with 1,110 receiving yards to go along with six touchdown catches, echoed his coach's sentiment.

"I might surprise you guys," he said. "I'm definitely ahead of schedule."

Andy has also had good news on Reggie Brown saying he "actually feels pretty good today." I'm guessing that watching Desean Jackson rack up over 100 yards receiving at his position might have helped Reggie's hamstring to heal a bit quicker...

As for WRs of Eagles past... you may remember earlier this offseason when a wrote an editorial titled "It's time to get over TO"

Finally, it sounds like the local media is getting frustrated as well.

The Eagles' next game is at Dallas, and the question was about whether Reid felt he could have done anything differently in the handling of the T.O. situation.

Reid reacted to being asked this better than I would have, which is to say he didn't yell "AIIIEEEE!!" and run out of the NovaCare auditorium waving his arms.

"He's doing great right now," Reid said of Terrell Owens, after declining to serve up one more helping of rehash. "He's happy and he's playing good football, and that's all right."

Here's what I was thinking: It was 3 FREAKING YEARS AGO. The Eagles have played the Cowboys TWICE A YEAR ever since. Do we have to do this every time they play? Forever?

Note to editors: Insert photo of long-dead horse being flogged here.

If we're going to talk about that this week, how about we chew over the draft-day booing of Donovan McNabb in depth one more time? Didn't people here once throw snowballs at Santa or something? I heard that somewhere. Let's discuss!

By the way, Moose Johnston DID bring up the McNabb being booed thing on Sunday. Considering that's a 10 year old story... I fear this TO nonsense may be a long way from over...

Suffice to say, I wholeheartedly agree with Les Bowen...

AJ Feeley has earned his own place in the Urban dictionary. His name now has something to do with couches and hoes... (Hugging Harold Reynolds)

HHR also has an interesting take on the Brian Westbrook contract situation. Really, who owes who here? (Hugging Harold Reynolds)

Is it possible that we could see the fade pass entered into the Eagles offense this year? (Iggles Blog)

We all know how Eagles web guy Dave Spadaro feels about the Eagles... but what about entertainment and politics? (Poor Sports)

The word is that Victor Abiamiri's wrist injury could end his season, but what happened to the days of putting a club on your hand and playing? (Eagle Scout)

I'm sure Winston Justice really appreciated Osi Umenyoria's kind sentiments... (Bounty Bowl)

Just because you're a multi millionaire pro football player, doesn't mean you don't need online dating to find love. Right Mr Herremans? (Eaglesville)

At least we know that Desean Jackson knows how to take a hint. (Bleed Eagles Green)

If this year was last year... The Eagles would have won the Bears game thanks to a new rule change. (700 Level)

Santa may have deserved it, but LJ does not. (Santa Deserved It)

Here's a headline about Brett Favre I think we can all agree on. (Huge Tiny Mistake)

Speaking of Favre... if he went to Tampa Bay, Madden 2009 thinks he'd lose a playoff game to the Eagles (SI.com)

If Shawn Andrews is especting sympathy from his teammates at Lehigh, he's not getting it. At least not from Jon Runyan. (Eagletarian)

You know how I titled this edition of The Linc "Pacman forgot something?" Well what forgot was how to cover a WR.  Seriously, I don't know if I've ever seen someone faked this bad! (With Leather)

Finally. hands down no possible argument can be made... This is the hottest Bar on earth. (WWTDD)

I thought this was a really great piece from Les Bowen in today's Daily News. Probably the most informative and revealing piece on Desean Jackson I've read to date. There's great stuff about his family and his realization that he needs to be making his own decisions. Some interesting stuff from his former coach and other people in his life... Definitely go check it out in it's entirety, but there were a couple tidbits I found especially interesting.

I thought this was just kinda funny...

DESEAN JACKSON met Terrell Owens, however briefly, at a promotional appearance in Los Angeles last weekend. Jackson ended up meeting Freddie Mitchell at a workout a few months back, also in LA.

Jackson wants to be that playmaking wideout Eagles fans covet, but he said yesterday he does not want to be T.O. - at least not in the sense of "talking about your teammates'' - and he does not want to be Freddie, the guy Jackson has heard "talked his way out of the league.''

I'd love for some of the attitude and fire I hear from Jackson here to rub off on Reggie Brown...

"The top-notch guys, the guys who really go out there and make big plays, and expect the ball to always be in their hands when the game's on the line, I definitely feel like you have to have, not a chip on your shoulder, but you have to have that within yourself,'' Jackson said yesterday, as he began a minicamp for Eagles rookies and select veterans that continues through tomorrow, before resuming next week. "You've gotta want the ball. You gotta know when it's a crucial time, you gotta step up for your teammates and for yourself and make big things happen. If you're a coach, you don't want your go-to receiver to not want the ball . . . the best of the best receivers want to be in that position.''

I can't agree more... 9 times out of time the guy that gets the ball is the one who wants it most. It's true in most any sport.

About 5 years ago I moved to a part of New Jersey that lies just outside of the coverage area for 610 WIP, Philly's sports radio station. While I've certainly leveled some criticism at the station and some of its personalities at times, that doesn't mean I'm not a big fan. Growing up in the Philly metro area WIP was by far my most listened to station until the day I moved. If I still lived in the area, smart money says my radio would be usually tuned to 610.

Why? Well first and foremost I'm a sports fan with a nearly insatiable appetite for more talk, more news, more coverage, more rumors, more... everything to do with sports. Specifically my hometown sports. Plus, it's a great way to take the pulse of the fanbase. It may be the most vocal and reactionary part of the fanbase, but it's still interesting to hear. So whenever I'm back in the area I always make it a point to tune in.

It just so happened that I was in the city 2 weekends ago to catch the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the art museum . A crazy Eagles fan and a lover of fine art you say? Oh yes, it's possible... I stayed over in the city and of course took the opportunity to drink in some weekend sports talk on WIP. What was the subject I heard discussed for at least the hour I listened in?

Terrell Owens

Yes, TO left the city going on three years ago and yet somehow he still remains at the center of all too many Eagles' fans discussions. They don't talk about how the Eagles can gameplan against Owens the Cowboy... no, it's all still about Owens the Eagle. Not just the callers, but the hosts Hugh Douglas and Rob Charry explored everything from whether Donovan McNabb's personality was/is "too sensitive" to deal with TO, whether McNabb wasn't "a good enough leader" to sit TO and set him straight, to whether Hugh Douglas himself ever did anything to pacify TO, whether the team would have been better off getting rid of McNabb and not TO(as if that were the choice), and of course "why didn't the Eagles just give him more money?"

Three YEARS later this discussion dominated the airwaves of Philadelphia's sports station. Bear in mind that I only listened for an hour, the discussion was already going on and showed no signs of stopping when I flipped it off... Maybe regular WIP listeners can tell me, did I simply stumble upon on a freak occurrence or is this more or less the norm? Judging by what I've read on some message boards and conversations I've had... I suspect it's more regular than I'd hope. But why? Why  are fans still obsessed with this one player who spent one and a half seasons here and absolutely dissed them? Never was there a player who came into with such fanfare and got such immediate love and acceptance from this fanbase... and squandered so quickly and willingly. The fanbase is quite literally a jilted lover that still hasn't gotten over the one who didn't love them back. Either that or in a town obsessed with the WR position, TO was the one fix of "the good stuff" that Eagles fans haven't gotten since... and they're jonesing for another fix real bad.

Whatever the reason, it's time to let it go. You wanna know what word I'd use to describe how I felt listening to this discussion? Kind of embarrassed. We're Eagles fans. We're supposed to be the biggest, baddest, toughest guys on the block! Has the elimination of the 700 level really caused us to get so soft that we're still obsessed with a player 3 years after his departure? There's no doubt in my mind that some of the same people who booed the guy in his return and chanted "OD" were the same people calling up that weekend wishing they could have him back. We can't have it both ways. I don't remember this kind of obsession over Reggie White after he left, and he's a flat out better player than Owens ever was. Reggie left on very bad terms with the organization and took shots at the ownership when he left. He had far too much class to blame teammates, but it wasn't an amicable divorce. White went on to win that superbowl we all covet so much, while Owens has been unable to even win a playoff game in Dallas :)

We all remember how great 2004 was. We all know how close we were to winning it all... but it's 2008 now. Only a handful of players from that superbowl team of 2004 are still here. It's over. It's history. Time to move on. I say this a guy with not one but two #81 jerseys hanging useless in his closet. We all loved the guy in that one great, but all too brief season... But now, it's time to move on.