I have a little routine every morning these days. I get up at about 5am, feed my cat Butters, take my dog Charlie out for poops and peeps, feed Charlie, make my coffee, let Butters outside to have adventures, pop on NFL Network, and put together my little morning links thing on my new NFC East site (shameless plug). Normally, it's Jamie Dukes saying something stupid, or there's some kind of poll in which 40% of fans are saying that the Eagles are going to win 7 or fewer games on NFL Total Access, NFLN's version of SportsCenter, but lately, it's been refreshing to have preseason game re-runs in the early hours. I thought maybe I'd escape the talk about the Eagles' offseason moves. But nope. As the Chiefs-Buccaneers game played in the background (That's right - The Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, two teams that have almost nothing to do with the Eagles), the game crew couldn't resist but talk about Philly. And it's not like they just happened to "come up naturally" in conversation - They had a graphic ready and everything:
Listen to the commentary here by Thom Brennaman:
"Vince Young threw out the 'Dream Team' line. We didn't make that up...those of us in the... you know... the 'media.' But we heard all of that before the Miami Heat started playing basketball last year and the last time I checked they were not crowned champions when all was said and done."
Thom, just FYI, it pretty much was the "media" that blew up the "Dream Team" comment into something it really wasn't. Vince Young's full comment, not just the part taken out of context:
"Dream Team. From Nnamdi to Cromartie, and from Jason [Babin] to myself, I know they're going to do some more things. It's beautiful to see where we're trying to go. I'm all for it. Whatever they ask me to do, to be scout team quarterback or quarterback learning, do whatever it is. I just want to be here to help and be a part of a team. I'm just happy to be a part of the Philadelphia Eagles."
Thom, show me where the Eagles are conducting themselves with any sort of arrogance even remotely close to this, or this. It's a dumb comparison.
But it didn't end there. Brian Billick (Brennaman's color guy) went on to praise the season Michael Vick had, which Brennaman felt the need to piss all over:
I've been a little surprised, Brian, I don't know about you. I think a lot of people forget, when you say the 'great year that Michael Vick had, obviously it was a great comeback year... Michael Vick had a great 8 weeks. He did not have a great final 8 weeks.
This is actually a dumb argument I've been seeing a lot of lately. Just for fun, let's look at Michael Vick's "final 8 weeks."
| Michael Vick | Comp | Att | Comp % | Yards | TD | INT | Rush | Yards | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At Redskins | 20 | 28 | 71.4 | 333 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 80 | 2 |
| Giants | 24 | 38 | 63.2 | 258 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 34 | 1 |
| At Bears | 29 | 44 | 65.9 | 333 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 44 | 0 |
| Texans | 22 | 33 | 66.7 | 302 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 48 | 1 |
| At Cowboys | 16 | 26 | 61.5 | 270 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 16 | 1 |
| At Giants | 21 | 35 | 60 | 242 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 130 | 1 |
| Vikings | 25 | 43 | 58.1 | 263 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 63 | 1 |
| Packers | 20 | 36 | 55.6 | 292 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 32 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 177 | 283 | 62.5 | 2293 | 15 | 7 | 72 | 447 | 8 |
| Projected over 16 games | 354 | 566 | 62.5 | 4586 | 30 | 14 | 144 | 894 | 16 |
As an Eagles fan, where can I sign up for those numbers? Like it or not people, the Eagles destroyed this offseason and are freaking loaded. Maybe this is their year. Maybe it's not. I'm not so delusional as a fan that I don't recognize the odds are certainly against it. Some kind of blow-back is inevitable after all the praise the Eagles have received, and I can also understand that saying "The Eagles killed the offseason" has been done to death and is boring at this point, but just think for a second before you speak. That's all I ask.