The funeral for Garrett Reid, son of Philadelphia Eagles head football coach Andy Reid, will be held Tuesday morning, according to the website of the Philadelphia funeral home handling arrangements.
PHILADELPHIA -- In an NFC East that features the moxie and resiliency of the defending Super Bowl champion Giants, the fresh dose of energy and excitement Robert Griffin brings to Washington, and the always intriguing talent and potential of the Dallas Cowboys, it's the Philadelphia Eagles -- Team Underachievement last year -- that I think is in the best position of all as the 2012 season looms in the not too distant future.
PHILADELPHIA -- The late March trade that brought middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans to Philadelphia has a chance to be one of the shrewdest moves of the NFL's offseason and should help solidify the middle of the Eagles defense, which got gouged repeatedly in 2011, especially during Philly's stupefyingly bad 4-8 start.
The book is closed on the 2012 NFL draft after 253 players were selected in seven rounds over the past three days. As is the case every year, there were a lot of head-scratching moments. Highly-rated prospects slipped through the cracks while several players were chosen much earlier than their talents warranted. Here's a look at the steals and reaches from the past three days ...
The Philadelphia Eagles and head coach Andy Reid have to find upgrades at the linebacker position as well as along the offensive line to protect QB Michael Vick. With WR DeSean Jackson expected to see the Franchise Tag, let's take a look at some prospects that match the Eagles top needs heading into the draft.
Four weeks remain in the regular season, and this is the time of year when we begin to convince ourselves that we see the 12-team playoff field taking shape in great clarity. But there are almost always developments and postseason drives that we didn't anticipate, and assumptions that get proven false as the final weeks of results roll in and upsets play havoc with our preconceived notions.
Now that the underachieving Eagles have been effectively -- if not mathematically -- eliminated from the playoff picture, the calls for Andy Reid's head are on the rise in Philadelphia.
Don't weep for Jack Del Rio. The just-fired Jaguars head coach was playing with house money. Or at least Wayne Weaver's.
It's somehow fitting, in that come-full-circle kind of way, that it's once again Giants week in Philadelphia. Because perhaps only the Eagles' annual trip to New York offers the ideal vantage point and perspective needed to stand back and survey just how much has been lost in such a short span of time in Philadelphia.
Before we get to the teams still playing for something, I bring you the most disappointing team of recent years, the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles. In the span of seven days at home, the Eagles blew their season by doing what they've done all year: disappear down the stretch. The 3-6 Eagles have been to fourth quarters what John Lackey is to baseball free agency. Their two-month history of fine fourth-quarter play:
Seven weeks into the NFL's regular season doesn't begin to tell the whole story, but it's plenty long enough to spot the trends of underachievement surfacing in 2011. This week's Indianapolis at Tennessee game throws a spotlight of sorts on the not-getting-it-done set, what with this year's poster child of underachievement -- Titans running back Chris Johnson -- being on one sideline, and Team Underachievement, aka the winless Colts, occupying the other.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we absorb an unforgettable, and in some cases unfathomable, Week 6 in the NFL.....
One year ago this weekend, the NFL changed the way it disciplined players. Forever. No longer would brutal helmet-to-helmet hits get a $7,500 wrist-slap. Three big hits in Week 6 drew a combined $175,000 in fines, and new points of emphases set up a new way of hitting by angry defenders. The defenders are still angry, but there's been progress in decreasing helmet-to-helmet hits and the hits on defenseless ballcarriers.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Donovan McNabb took a seat in a cramped office at the Vikings' training facility and brushed his right hand over his face. He let out a long sigh, flashed a broad smile and, in a nasal baritone that is as much his trademark as his No. 5 jersey, repeated the words that had greeted him moments earlier:
FOXBORO, Mass. -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest Week 5 in the NFL and watch the unfolding resumption of the Jets-Patriots blood feud in the AFC East....
BALTIMORE -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take in a Week 4 that made the state of Texas feel like the center of the NFL universe, with Houston winning a biggie to get to 3-1 and Dallas gagging away its shot to build a three-game winning streak with a historic (and horrific) second-half collapse....
It never takes long for an NFL season to prove us wrong. Three weeks into the tale of 2011, conventional wisdom is already on something of a losing streak. Things might be all hiccups and giggles in Detroit and Buffalo, where the 3-0 Lions and Bills appear headed for a Rust Belt Super Bowl matchup -- wouldn't that be something? -- but early season problems abound in some unlikely venues around the league.
CHICAGO -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we take in a tight, taut and thrilling Week 3 in the NFL that featured seven of the early eight games being decided by a touchdown or less ...
ATLANTA -- After practice concluded last Friday with a short talk from coach Mike Smith, Falcons players quickly made their way into the locker room so they could change and take advantage of the rest of the afternoon. Roddy White was an exception. The standout wide receiver walked off the field, through a back door and made a hard right into a dark meeting room. There, he took a seat near the back wall, grabbed a laser pointer and began drawing tight red circles on the large projection screen in the front of the room.
There are times in a life, and in football, when a person is ready to do things differently. The Patriots got rebel-without-a-cause Albert Haynesworth at the right time this year; whether he ends up a great player, the one thing we do know is he's working at it, in part because he feels he's finally taking orders from a smart coach.
We're invariably drawn to the storylines that involve the concept of second chances and second career acts in professional sports, and the NFL in Week 1 provided numerous examples of players who were starting over, either with a new team in a new city, or under the auspices of a new coaching staff that offered them a clean, blank slate.
SI.com is previewing all eight divisions throughout the week in anticipation of the 2011 season kicking off. (Send comments to siwriters@simail.com)
Michael Vick, who spent nearly two years in jail on dog fighting charges and was later declared bankrupt, has signed a six-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles which will make him one of the NFL's highest-paid players.
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on NFL training camps across the country. For an archive of all camp postcards, click here.
PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- You know what's particularly fun about NFL camps this year? The new.
IN THE USO-MOBILE, ON I-81 IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA -- Camps are open. Football's back. I'm on the road, writing Monday Morning Quarterback in the cab of a big rig near the Blue Ridge Mountains. Intrigue's happening. Life is good.
The Philadelphia Eagles on Friday quietly executed a perfect coup de stat -- that's when a team sneaks into the free-agent market to capture the best available player who, most importantly, fills a position of great statistical need.
A Federal appeals court is expected to rule Monday on a permanent stay of the injunction to lift the NFL lockout. If the court rules against the owners, it could be business as usual on Monday and free agency would begin. If not, free agency will most likely have to wait for the lockout to end, and might look radically different from usual -- especially if the labor issues aren't solved by the time the regular season is slated to begin. No one knows exactly what will happen to standard practices like restricted free agency and franchise tags, or if they'll simply revert to 2010 rules.
The NFL rolled out the 2011 schedule with its usual amount of prime-time fanfare on Tuesday, and yet what do we make of a regular season that has the potential to be anything but regular?
PHILADELPHIA -- The Packers-Eagles wild-card game was supposed to be a showcase of quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Michael Vick. No one expected it to be running back James Starks' coming-out party. Not even Starks.
Grading out the performances from the Packers' 21-16 victory over the Eagles in the NFC Wild Card playoffs ...
Things we learned from the Vikings' shocking win over the Eagles on Tuesday night ...
(AP) -- Sports teams were scrambling a day after a blizzard dumped more than a foot of snow along portions of the East Coast, stranding two NHL franchises near New York City and forcing Philadelphia to dig out before Tuesday night's NFL game.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Five things we learned from the Eagles' improbable 38-31 win over the Giants:
Things we learned from Philadelphia's 34-24 defeat of Houston Thursday night at Lincoln Financial Field ...
Musings, observations and the occasional Week 12 insight as we thankfully get treated to another eventful Sunday of NFL action ...
On a night when Donovan McNabb signed a potential $78 million extension with the Redskins, Eagles counterpart Michael Vick played like the quarterback more deserving of a megadeal.
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Musings, observations and the occasional Week 7 insight as we await the second annual Brett Favre Lambeau Reunion Weekend, which all but slipped off the radar screen in the NFL's recent news-intensive atmosphere ...
ColdHardFootballFacts.com breaks down Sunday's Philadelphia at Tennessee game (1 p.m. ET, Fox).
On a Sunday full of big hits, the one DeSean Jackson took might have been the biggest. The Eagles wide receiver -- who returned to his 2009 form with two long touchdowns in the first quarter -- took a hit from Dunta Robinson Sunday that left both players with concussions.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Musings, observations and the occasional Week 6 insight as we watch the NFL's most desperate two teams, Dallas and Minnesota, fight it out for an all important second win at the Metrodome ...
Quick-hitting insights from the slate of 1 p.m. games.
NEW YORK -- Five very preliminary things I think:
PHILADELPHIA -- Maybe in the end it had to be the strange, mixed-bag sort of day it was Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.
It's Donovan McNabb-goes-back-to-Philly week, and we do love our reunion games in the NFL, don't we? With as much player and coach movement as the league features these days, every season provides a handful of reunion games of varying degrees of significance and intrigue. But some of them, like this week's, really deserve the screaming headline treatment.
Before we turn our attention to Week 4 and the Armageddon that will be the Donovan McNabb vs. Michael Vick Bowl in Philadelphia on Sunday, 10 final observations on an intriguing Week 3 ...
ATLANTA -- There was a massacre here last December, on the carpet in the Georgia Dome. You could almost smell the burning feathers. Three of the best Falcons were injured, and they started a quarterback who hadn't started a game in two years. My brother John and I paid more than $100 per ticket for the privilege of sharing an upper-level section with loathsome buffoons in Eagles jerseys. No surprise there: Atlanta fans are often forced to cohabitate with carpetbaggers from the North. But today we felt a new kind of shame. A throng of fans in Falcons colors wore the name and number of the backup quarterback for the other team. His name, of course, was Michael Vick.
As a member of roughly 384 fantasy football leagues in the last seven years, I do not recall ANY 0-3 club ever winning the Fantasy Bowl -- regardless if four, six or eight teams qualified for the playoffs. So, if you're sitting at 0-2 but realistically harboring thoughts of a championship ... welcome to your first must-win week of 2010!
The NFL's ever-spinning quarterback carousel is so minute-by-minute these days that the Eagles' Michael Vick went from clear-cut backup, to temporary starter, to permanent starter -- all in the span of 10 days.
PHILADELPHIA -- Each week I'll provide 10 quick-hitting insights into the 1 p.m. games ...
PHILADELPHIA -- Each week I'll provide 10 quick-hitting insights into the 1 p.m. games ...
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. Here's what Pablo S. Torre had to say about Eagles camp in Bethlehem, Pa. For an archive of all camp postcards, click here.
The majority of NFL fans may not have any interest in the Green Bay Packers' annual financial report that was released on Wednesday. They may not pay much attention to the issues that surround the labor talks between the league and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). After all, in a battle between millionaire players and billionaire owner, what fans think hardly matters anyway, right?
Every NFL season starts with a host of unanswered questions, and this year it's even more so. With the opening of the first training camp less than 10 days away -- Dallas, on July 24 in San Antonio -- here are 20 pressing questions, in no particular order, that begged to be answered as the 2010 preseason looms:
A few observations on Michael Vick's situation that need to be brought up amid daily reports that the Philadelphia Eagles are considering releasing him:
One of the things I miss most about playing is the unlimited access to all of the coaches' tape teams use to evaluate players and game plan for opponents. Watching games on television with the ever-increasing technology is outstanding, and you can certainly glean some information about players and teams in this manner, but it just isn't the same as the coaches' tape. To truly critique players and coaches at a deeper level, you have to check out the "all-22" and "end zone" cuts that are only available at NFL team training facilities and NFL Films headquarters in Mount Laurel, N.J.
The biggest decision made by the NFL and its owners Tuesday was not where the Super Bowl will be played in 2014. Though it unsurprisingly got lost in the New York moment, the more significant move was tabling a vote on whether to apply the new overtime format to the regular season. And if you ask me, the NFL should gone one step further and repealed the new revisions for the postseason. Not only would that bring continuity and uniformity to the 2010 season, but also it would have been the right thing to do.
Charlie Whitehurst is getting used to a new life in Seattle, a life with a little more pressure than he had as the number three quarterback in San Diego. There will be expectations now -- that he can push Matt Hasselbeck for the starting job, and even if he loses that competition, that he'll be ready to play at a moment's notice for the Seahawks this year. Until now, the thickly brown-bearded, long-haired Whitehurst has been known for one thing as a Charger: his resemblance to Jesus Christ, at least to how Christ looks in the photos and images we've become used to seeing.
Andy Reid lied to me. That was one of my first thoughts Easter Sunday when news broke of the surprising intra-division trade that sent Donovan McNabb from the Philadelphia Eagles to the Washington Redskins. I couldn't help but recall what Reid had said to me at the Scouting Combine in February, when I asked him about the rumors that McNabb might be available.
While we can debate the wisdom/insanity of trading an in-his-prime quarterback within the division to a rival that desperately needs a QB, we won't know for two or three years whether Eagles coach Andy Reid did the right thing for his franchise Sunday night in dealing Donovan McNabb to the Redskins.
This is what the most interesting trade in the NFL since Eric Dickerson to the Colts in 1987 came down to:
Five observations about Philadelphia's Sunday night trade of Donovan McNabb to Washington:
Five things to know about Week 1 in Major League Soccer:
Maybe it'll be the Raiders who at long last pull the trigger on the deal we've all been awaiting for years, or maybe there's an 11th hour surprise entry when it comes to the Donovan McNabb sweepstakes. But one way or another, the Eagles quarterback appears closer than ever to ending his love-hate relationship with Philadelphia after 11 always-eventful seasons.
Whoa. Looking like a dead Sunday, middle of March, with me still incredulous over the Browns paying Jake Delhomme $7 million, and all of a sudden, LaDainian Tomlinson flies to the Jets, Brady Quinn gets a new life in Denver and the Raiders take a chance on a pass-rusher who was a big disappointment in Cleveland, Kamerion Wimbley. In an hour.
With the demise of the NFL's salary cap dramatically changing the landscape, free agency is such an unknown this year that one club executive told me this week the only thing he knows for sure is Washington will throw money around like it's playing Monopoly.
There are times when the pace of activity in the NFL's long offseason actually seems busier than in the six months in which the games are being played. That's why I always laugh when people ask me what I cover once the Super Bowl is over. My answer? More football. Just no games.
Grading the performances from the Cowboys' 34-14 win over the Eagles on Saturday in Arlington, the second of four wild-card weekend games.
Here's what we learned from the Cowboys' 34-14 victory over the Eagles on Saturday in Arlington.
Breaking down the four best position battles in the wild-card weekend games...
Even more stuff you need to know before the NFL playoffs kick off this weekend with four first-round games...
Breaking down the NFC wild-card matchup, Eagles at Cowboys, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, NBC
My weekly look at key matchups and storylines to watch in one game at each time slot. (All times Eastern).
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- On paper at least, the NFC East race will enter the final three weeks as an entertaining three-team jumble (or three-ring circus) that figures to not sort itself out entirely until the highly anticipated Philadelphia at Dallas showdown in Week 17.
Being two days shy of Thanksgiving means there's only six short weeks left in the NFL's regular season. The clock is ticking, so here are some things you need to know as we stare down the stretch run to the playoffs....
My weekly look at key matchups and storylines to watch in one game at each time slot. (All times Eastern).
PHILADELPHIA -- When we last saw the Dallas Cowboys leaving this very same Lincoln Financial Field late last December, they were a battered and humbled group, having put the final, galling touch on one of the worst chemistry experiments in the history of the NFL. It was one last hard knock for the once-celebrated boys of "Hard Knocks,'' and the failure was epic-sized.
Breaking down Sunday's Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles game (8:20 p.m., NBC)...
GREEN Bay, Wis. -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as a rather unconventional but fascinating homecoming weekend here in Titletown wrapped up with the Vikings' 38-26 win over the Packers ...
My weekly look at key matchups and storylines to watch in one game at each time slot. (All times Eastern).
MINNEAPOLIS -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we try to fathom the latest comeback miracle, and undoubtedly one of the greatest, in Brett Favre's long and eventful 19-year NFL career....
PHILADELPHIA -- Thirty-three months after he last played in a regular season NFL game, Michael Vick returned to the field today on an overcast and intermittently rainy afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight from an eventful and jam-packed Thursday night of preseason football ...
Michael Vick made his Eagles debut at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night during the Eagles' 33-32 win. While he only participated in six plays, all in the first half, we did get a glimpse of what he might become this season. Here are 10 key things we learned.
Is there any other professional sport that discards players as briskly and unceremoniously as the NFL? Longtime stars go from heroes to zeros in the blink of an eye. I mean, how is it possible that guys like Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison and Derrick Brooks can't even get a decent contract offer?
The City of Brotherly Love isn't exactly embracing the news that one-time quarterback phenom and convicted dogfighter Michael Vick is joining their Philadelphia Eagles.
updated: Fri Aug 14 2009 16:20:00
Tony Dungy explains why he told the Philadelphia Eagles that Michael Vick would be a good addition to their organization.
The Philadelphia Eagles welcomed Michael Vick back into the National Football League on Friday after the quarterback spent almost two years in federal prison on a felony dogfighting conviction.
PHILADELPHIA -- Marisa Scully's family has had Eagles season tickets since they played at Franklin Field in the 1960s. She's gone to every home game since she moved back to Philadelphia from college six years ago. She also trains pit bulls for a living and owns two. Her lifelong devotion to the Eagles is no match for her disgust at the team signing Michael Vick.
When Michael Vick would see visitors during his two-year exile from football -- either in federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., or, more recently, while in home confinement in Virginia -- one refrain was clear:
Is it possible that the best case scenario for the Eagles with their signing of Michael Vick is also the worst case scenario?
Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we digest the newsiest Thursday night of NFL preseason football in memory....
SI.com has dispatched writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. Here's what Peter King had to say about the Eagles' camp in Bethlehem, Pa. For an archive of all the camp postcards, click here.
SI.com has dispatched 10 writers to report on the 32 NFL training camps across the country. For the complete schedule of postcards, click here.
The vast majority of team rosters are set barring an unforeseen injury early in camp. Though there are still some "name" free agents available, like one-time Colts teammates Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James, most of those players are past their prime and still on the market for a reason. Here's my look at the best and worst offseasons for NFL franchises:
One of the best perks of being an NFL player -- aside from, you know, getting paid a lot of money to play a game -- is the amount of free time you have in the offseason.
In light of the Philadelphia Eagles' giving Donovan McNabb a significant pay raise over the next two years, it occurred to me that he has to be among the most underappreciated players in NFL history.
The first decade of the 21st century is rapidly coming to a close, and it's been one of the most explosive periods in pro football history -- especially on offense, where it seems new records were set each and every year.
First, a Brett Favre prelude. A semi-brief Favre prelude. I don't know what he's going to do. But I, like some of you, am suspicious. There's no good reason to ask for his release from the Jets unless it's to leave open the option to play again. I am told he may be feeling the urge to play again.
The game of musical chairs that is the NFL draft has already begun and no team wants to be left standing.
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