Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

No Way

Dad forces son to don Pack jersey
Associated Press

PORTAGE, Wis. - Upset that his 7-year-old son wouldn't wear a Packers jersey during the team's playoff victory Saturday, a man restrained the boy for an hour with tape and taped the jersey onto him.

Mathew Kowald was cited for disorderly conduct in connection with the incident with his son at their home in Pardeeville, said Lt. Wayne Smith, of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department. Pardeeville is about 30 miles north of Madison.

Kowald, 36, was arrested Monday after his wife told authorities about the incident. Kowald was taken to the county jail and held until yesterday, when he pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $186 and was released. Kowald's wife has filed a restraining order.

Great Moments in Sportswriting

From Sam Donellon:

Yesterday, Favre started a conference call with his mouth full of deer sausage, which seemed appropriate.

He'll try anything, right?

"Kind of like a spicy barbecue flavor," he said.

"Tastes like chicken?" he was asked.

"No, I wouldn't say it tastes like chicken, either," he said. "Tastes like sausage to me."

Looking Forward to This

No snow in the forecast for Sunday night just yet, but man it's gonna be cold in Green Bay.  From Accuweather:

Day
High: 6°F
RealFeel®: -7°F
Mostly cloudy and bitterly cold

Night
Low: 3°F
RealFeel®: -13°F
Cloudy and cold

And in Foxboro, let's all keep rooting for these winds to increase:

Day
High: 15°F
RealFeel®: -4°F
Windy and frigid with sunshine and patchy clouds
Winds: WNW at 19mph
Wind Gusts: 37 mph

Franchise Tag Question

What makes a tight end a tight end? 

I asked that because everyone is assuming the Colts -- having locked up Bob Sanders to a long-term deal -- are going to franchise Dallas Clark ... leaving L.J. Smith as the best available tight end on the market. 

But is Clark really even a tight end?  Sure, he lines up there sometimes for blocking purposes, but heck, so does Hank Baskett.  I bet if you went through every snap he played this season, you'd find the clear majority of the time he's line up in the slot or on the outside -- to the extent that it's probably fair to ask if he's even a tight end or rather some sort of new hybrid.

This matters (to Clark) because the franchise numbers for WRs and TEs are so different.  So who gets to say what position he plays?  Does anyone out there know the rule for those things?

(If you want to consider an example that's somewhat closer to home, check out the Eagles' roster.  He's a long, long way from having to worry about any franchise tags, but the Eagles have a guy who's actually listed at two distinct positions...)

The Definition of "Unnecessary Roughness"

I've been saying this all year:

The manner in which Gates was injured raises a broader point regarding player safety. It was noticed over the weekend that plenty of ball carriers were being hit while down, most often by defensive backs. (The problem was most prevalent in the Jags-Steelers game, coming from the Steelers players.)

If one of the league's goals is to protect players, why aren't flags flying when bodies are flying after players are on the ground?

I'm not sure when the problem started, but it's much worse this year than it has been in a long time.  And it's not just dirty players like Rodney Harrison -- although he's still doing it as much as he always has.  It seems like at least once every game a guy from the secondary will come up and tag a player who's already down and making no attempt to move forward. 

I have no idea why this isn't being called, when it's clearly described as "unnecessary roughness" in my copy of the league rulebook:

(d) running or diving into, or throwing the body against or on a ball carrier who falls or slips to the ground untouched and makes no attempt to advance, before or after the ball is dead.

I've been saying to friends for awhile that it was obviously going to take a high-profile injury before the league would do anything about it.  We may have that injury -- even if, ironically enough, the Gates play wasn't really the best example of this foul since he did indeed appear to make an effort to scramble forward on the play. 

That Clicking Noise

Is the sound of tens of thousands of remotes being frantically buttonmashed as people look for a channel they've never thought to watch before.  Don't be alarmed -- It should stop in a minute or two.

Extrapolating Wildly From the Flimsy Reed of Personal Experience

I think this whole blood feud between the NFL and the cable companies over whether and on what tier those guys will carry the NFL Network is one of the silliest public debates I've ever seen.  If you're a pissed off cable customer, just pay the extra money for the sports tier or switch to satellite.  If you're the NFL and you really want to get special favors from the cablecos, maybe don't sign monopolistic agreements with their fiercest competitor that restricts the availability of your signature programming package.

As for the cable guys, asking those companies to stop acting like douchebags hasn't worked for 30 years.  For this we now want to get Congress involved?

However, based solely on personal experience, I do think the terms of the debate are about to shift.  In the year-plus that the NFL Network has been showing games, no one has ever, ever, asked if they could come by to watch a game.  I skipped most of the match-ups last year and didn't even realize DirecTV was showing the games in HD on a different channel until almost the end of the season.

Fast forward to tonight, and right now we have four five people coming over to watch the game.  All of them are cable customers.  If tonight's game lives up to the hype, the water cooler chatter might take a significant shift tomorrow.

The Hype Machine Churns Onward

Peter King couldn't even be bothered to slog through this week's slate of just-completed games before jumping right to you-know-who.

Three Crazy Thoughts

What would happen if the Eagles drafted guys who could actually get on the field?

Can the Eagles really lose to their own fourth-string quarterback?

Am I crazy for thinking the Redskins actually have a chance in this game?  I think it's going to be a lot closer than everybody thinks, and the Skins might even win.

Wow

What. A. Game.

Wow.

Thanks for nothing, Buffalo, by the way.  Did it never occur to your defensive coaches that maybe playing half your secondary 20+ yards off the line of scrimmage when the Cowboys only needed 10 yards to move into field goal range was maybe not the best strategy?

But hey, five INTs for Romo, Owens can't catch a cold and the Cowboys just struggled on Monday Night Football against what really isn't a very good team.  You can call it a look-ahead game if you want, but I think it's more that the hot start is officially over.