Bits & Pieces Before A Stress-Free Weekend

Afew things this morning, although I might be back a little bit later, depending upon how things go.  But for now:

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AOL Fanhouse asked me to put together a little preview deal for the Cowboys game.  It's not officially live yet, but they sent me the link anyway, so I'm posting it here to give Eagles fans a first crack at it before the Cowboys commenters show up:  http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2008/09/12/behind-enemy-lines-iggles-blogger-discusses-huge-monday-nigh/

I banged that out earlier in the week and they're just posting it now, which is why it says what it does about McNabb and tight spaces.  Came before the press conference.

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Also, the Fanhouse folks must have a no YouTube highlight policy, because here was my answer to the third question in full:

Most memorable?  McNabb throwing the pick to Roy Williams and then ripping his groin to shreds trying to tackle him in 2005.  That baby is burned into my brain, sadly.

Second place:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk8onB6Lm64

Man I love that video.  The little delay before the crowd roars gives me chills.

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Speaking of Cowboys commenters, I've never had to delete as many stupid comments as I have this week.  It's funny, for as much as Dallas fans like to act like their team is some kind of NFL royalty, the fact that they haven't won a playoff game since the first Clinton administration means that too many of these idiots don't know how to handle themselves.  Act like you've been there, man.

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Here we go with the people trying to mess up a beatiful theory.  Rich Hofmann:

"This has always been about McNabb. In recent years, it has been about his injuries and his caution with the football. Between the sports hernia and the major knee surgery, he lost something - not his nerve, necessarily, but his knack for gauging risk and reward. He just wouldn't throw it into the tight spots for fear of the ball being intercepted, neutering his wideouts and the red-zone offense in the process."

It's not a "recent years" kind of thing.  And it has nothing to do with the injuries.  McNabb has always played the game a certain way as a direct result of the fact that he has:  1) A cannon arm, and 2) Fleet feet.  The first part means he can afford to wait a little longer for a guy to show that he's open because he can fire the ball in faster than most guys.  The second part means he could always scramble around a bit to give guys who weren't necessarily open the time to become so.

He didn't lose his "knack" for anything.  He lost his legs.

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Bowen, unsurprisingly, gets it right.

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Lastly, don't get baited by all this TO stuff.  You know and I know and Andy Reid knows and Donovan McNabb knows and Terrell Owens will probably understand when he's 80 that what happened in 2005 was not about jealousy from the QB or a refusal to hug it out or because the Eagles "chose the easy way out."

Nor is it at all surprising that the self-absorbed asshole is far less retrospective about the mess he caused than the reflective, aware-of-things-larger-than-his-own-id quarterback he stabbed in the back.

This is just the same revisionist history bullshit we get to deal with twice a year for as long as Owens and McNabb are still on these teams.  If morons want to treat this as some kind of moral equivalence deal, fine, let them.  But if you get all worked up about it this time, you're only guaranteeing that they'll do the same thing next time.