Welcome to Negadelphia

Wow, it sure is Negative Day over at the Philly newspapers this morning.  Check out this collection of greatest hits:

But it is getting harder. This has been a lousy summer for the Eagles - it really has. You tell yourself that the preseason means nothing, and you know in your head that the preseason means nothing, and yet you look back on it and just keep shaking your head...  Because the rest of this just doesn't look very good. Check that - it looks OK, but not at the level to which we have become accustomed. Questions litter the defense. Questions pester the offense. Questions define the special teams. Other than that, there are no questions.

-- Rich Hofmann (who nonetheless predicts a 10-6 finish)

As the defense unraveled at times last season, there was plenty of blame to go around. The middle linebacker was ponderously slow, the initial strong-side safety couldn't cover, and the next one couldn't tackle. The outside linebackers were just guys running around out there. It wasn't a short list. But the line, particularly the middle of it, was at the epicenter of the tremor that shook the defense... The Eagles want to get back to that basic in 2007 in the middle of their defensive line. Everything else, if the plan succeeds, will follow along. If not, the off-season could be long and tedious once again.

-- Bob Ford

Not that they're necessarily wrong, either.  And it wasn't just the Eagles in the line of fire:

FORMER GIANTS running back Tiki Barber, who retired after last season, is the latest athlete-turned-author to write a tell-all book. Yawn.  And like others before him, he reportedly is taking shots at his teammates and coaches. Double yawn.

Tiki had a great career as a running back and now he's a successful television broadcaster. Apparently, he wants to sell whine, too.

-- Tom Mahon

"Pack up your gun, slinger"

-- Paul Domowitch's headline writer for his article about the "new" Brett Favre

And then sometimes, you don't even need the writer, since the player's words speak for themselves:

The seven-time Pro Bowler said he had every intention of reporting to camp at the University at Albany in July when his desire to play suddenly waned.

"As you train and get ready leading up into the season, sometimes you wait for that feeling to come, and for me that feeling didn't come when camp was there," Strahan said in a 10-minute news conference in Giants Stadium.

"So instead of going there and being halfhearted into something and possibly getting hurt and not wanting to be there and leaving after initially showing up, I decided I have to do what is right for me."

What a team guy.  Reading that crap, I almost felt bad for the Giants fans who have to root for this jerk. 

It passed.