Hmm, sure was a fair amount of hemmin’ and/ or hawin’ amongst the local blathermonkeys in re: a slightly snippy remark from Andy Reid in his Monday press conference. I hadn’t seen the clip until after I read the “stories” about it, and I think we can safely conclude that this wasn’t exactly a meltdown. More a gentle (and barely snide) suggestion that the blathermonkeys ixnay on the itolay.

But after the Garrett Reid news that surfaced in the 48 hours after Reid’s press conference, one might imagine that Andy wasn’t in a completely awesome mood that afternoon. That is, he knew that he was going to court the next day so that his oldest son could plead guilty to smuggling 89 pills into prison (via his rectum, we presume). Not exactly the sort of thing that puts one in a good mood.

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Despite the best efforts of the NFL PR machine (and their associated Pats-luvin’ lackeys amongst the blathermonkeys) to indicate once and for all that Matt Walsh is a fraud and that we won’t be overturning any Super Bowls, thank you very much, Arlen Specter (R-Pa. (–you like that???)) remains unconvinced. He’s still demanding a meeting with Walsh, and encourages us all to be patient until we see “where the evidence leads.”

What he means to say, of course, is that HE WILL NOT SLEEP UNTIL HE DELIVERS WHAT ANDY REID COULD NOT: AN EAGLES’ SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONSHIP.

 I find it mildly amusing that so many folks are focusing on Specter’s ties to Comcast as the motivation for his otherwise frivolous and borderline negligent pursuit of the Spygate story. Yeah, maybe. (Read the rest of this story.)

You’ve got to hand it to the Birds for the PR efforts on the Lito thing. At the same time that the local papers are covering it from all angles like an affair of state (”I like they way they surround a story”), Eagles management are playing it straight, assuring us that Lito IS A PART OF THIS FOOTBALL TEAM.

Of course, let it never be said that the Birds are not responsive to the needs of their customers! Note well that there are no fewer than four (4) photos of Asante Samuel and Lito Sheppard together (three with just the two of them, the other with Dawkins third-wheeling it in the corner of the frame) in the Mini-Camp album on the Eagles site. Never mind that neither appears with Sheldon Brown in any of the photos, or really with any other player at all except for Dawkins. Nope. Nothing to see here, folks.

Check out the photo gallery.

Also, and I don’t mean to nitpick, but could we go a little lighter on the “Sheppard flashed (first sentence) his trademark smile (fourth paragraph)”?

Come on, guys. That’s just sloppy.

Aw dude, seriously? We’re rocking the t-shirts with the slogans again? Do you realize how alternately cheesy and psychotic this makes you seem? You’re 31 years old. You’re not 17. It’s no longer acceptable to wear t-shirts emblazoned with inspirational messages.

(This one read: “If you prepare to be the best in everything you do in life, you will receive great results.  But if you are just satisfied with mediocrity, that’s what you will be.”  Did he actually buy this somewhere or did he do a custom one-off?  Dude.)

And we’re not going to comment on the “W.W.J.D.” bracelet he was sporting on the freakin’ field.

In all fairness, I’ve penned something of a screed on this topic a few years ago (complete with Randall Cunningham references). Full text after the jump.
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On a day when even the 36 Chambers of Brian Westbrook was willing to discuss the weirdness of the Lito Sheppard situation (”It was definitely awkward for me to watch that”), you have to love the all-biznass attitude of newly minted Asante Samuel. Not one to get caught up in the intra-team drama (and it actually seems like this is real drama for the players; not just the standard blathermonkey-fabricated fare), Samuel offered the following gem to the assembled media:

“That ain’t got nothing to do with me,” Samuel said. “I just do what my coach tells me to do. It doesn’t matter what I’m used to - whatever my coach tells me to do, I’m going to do it. I was happy to be out there with my new team and show a lot of love. I like the way things are going.”

Attaguy. Company man all the way. And to think we might have expected something different from a man with a tattoo that says “Get Paid” on his arm (though Wikipedia claims that it actually says “Get Rich To This” — mostly I think we get the point)!

We would have also accepted “Asante has 57 million reasons to be happy.”

Donovan McNabb is scheduled to speak to reporters as part of the Eagles’ post-draft minicamp today. I’ve been able to get an advance copy of the transcript:

Donovan, you said earlier in the off-season that you thought that the team needed to bring in “playmakers.” Do you feel that the team has done that?

Well, I said that I thought that we needed to bring in playmakers in all phases of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. Obviuosly with the addition of Asante Samuel we have a proven playmaker, and Chris Clemons as well. We also made some acquisitions of guys who can help us on special teams. I also think some of the young guys we brought in in the draft and by trade, like Lorenzo Booker, have a chance to make a difference. So we’re very excited about the team.

Donovan, do you still think that the team needs to go out and get a true number-one wide receiver?

We have some great receivers on this team in Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown and Jason Avant and Hank Baskett. We brought in a guy like DeSean Jackson to add to that. We also have L.J. healthy. I think we have a great group of receivers.
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In the context of the Buzz Bissinger-versus-the-InterWeb freakout, let me send a big Yo Whaddup to the good folks over at Eagletarian, the Daily News‘ new Eagles blog. I know that we unpaid amateur journalists, ensconced as we are in our jammies in our many parents’ many basements, do tend to sully the otherwise pristine waters of PROFESSIONAL SPORTS JOURNALISM, especially in Philadelphia. So I can’t tell you how flattered we are to have you pretend to join our ranks!

In all fairness, I’ve actually enjoyed the first couple weeks of Eagletarian (and even have the positive comments to prove it!). What with the actual access that these guys have to players, coaches, scouts, other members of the MSM (in Philly as well as in other cities), giving them a forum to publish shorter stories with a bit more niche/ nerd appeal (that is, stories for the freaks for whom no level of detail is too minute) is an actual great addition to the overall portfolio of Eagles-related media.

Things I’ve liked so far:

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And we are back for Day 2 of the Draft in about 90 seconds. The Birds still have (gulp) ten (10) picks remaining, which mostly means that we’ll see plenty of petty fourth-round trades (”We’ll give you a fourth and a fifth to move up nine picks in the fourth round”).

Other things to look for:

• The Lito Sheppard trade.  Um, they’re going to trade him, right?  And not just get pennies on the dollar for him?  It’d be cool if an actual pret-a-porter player was involved in the deal and not an additional slate of future considerations.
• Two offensive linemen you’ve never heard of.  Come on, you know we’re not getting out of this thing without multiple behemouths added to the roster.
• The obligatory I-AA/ DII/ DIII standout that the Birds will smugly tell us is a great player we’ve never heard of (and whom we’ll all secretly hope is the next B-West).
• Fifth-round linebacker(s)!
• Another running back?

Onwards.

I wish I was a little more psyched about the DeSean Jackson pick. While the vocal elements of the fanbase should be satisfied with Jackson (It’s a wideout! It’s a wideout), I’m not totally sold quite yet. My anxiety is almost certainly based on ghosts of Eagles WR/ KR failures past.; I see the upside and downside of Jackson as follows:

Upside: Steve Smith (also 5′9″, also a West Coast guy, though a wee bit more stout).

Downside: some horrific combination of Freddie Mitchell (cocky West Coast guy) and Jeremy Bloom (college return prodigy who was too small to break tackles at the pro level). 

It’d be nice if they found a way for him to get him on the field this season (assuming he can actually play, etc etc).

I spent the better part of the first round of the draft in the car driving down to the Illadelph from New York.  As fate would have it, pick #19 coincided with a dark zone on the AM radio spectrum.  That is, I was just about to lose The Fan and ESPN 1050 out of New York and I wasn’t quite picking up WIP and ESPN 950 out of Philly.  We’ll estimate my position at that point to be circa Exit 8A.

Anyhoo, I got word of the Birds’ trade at #19 from the New York media (Mike and the Mad Dog, to be precise). They thought it was an amazing deal for the Birds — total steal with the three picks (including the number one next year) for the 19. I tended to agree (though I had hoped some larger scheme was in the works all along, hopefully involving blue chip WRs coming to Philadelphia).

A few minutes later we switched over to the Philly stations and, predictably, the natives were aghast: (Read the rest of this story.)