In Philaelphia, It is Sunny Outside but Raining in Our Hearts

You go away for a few days and the world just does not stop. Besides Michael Richards going completely insane (and if you missed it, you can see his tirade by searching his name on you tube), a lot has happened since we last talked, so let’s get to it. Today I will focus on what is going on in Philly, tomorrow go a bit more National with additional focus on college hoops and football.

In a nutshell, it pretty much sucks to be a Philadelphia sports fan.

The Phillies started their offseason in completely unimpressive fashion. They missed in signing their key target of Alfonso Soriano, who could have provided powerful protection to Ryan Howard and a right handed bat between Howard and fellow left Chase Utley. So how do they make up for this whiff? They sign Jamie Moyer as a 5th starter, Wes Helms as a 3rd baseman, and Adam Eaton as a 4th starter. 3 years, $24 million, with a $9 million for a fourth year. This guy has been hurt for huge chunks of the last two years. He has never pitched 200 innings in a season. His ERA was over 5.00 last year in only 65 innings, and in his career it has never been below 4.00. He is a fly ball pitcher who gives up a lot of home runs and he is coming to pitch in a stadium that gives up home runs at a more prolific clip than the Eagles defense gives up rushing yards. It is starting to look like this GM is just as bumbling as the last one. He has basically made crappy moves and not made many good ones since taking over last offseason.

The Flyers are the worst team in hockey. They fired their coach and General Manager, then when the team played just as bad if not worse, they rewarded the new coach with a two year extension. What is wrong with these people?

The Sixers are 2-9 in their last 11 games after starting 3-0, and now have a guy in their starting lineup (Shavlik Randolph) who came out of college early before last season because he was not good enough to get the minutes or the touches he wanted at Duke.

And that brings us to the Eagles. Oh the Eagles. The Mighty Birds. This is the team that, according to the NFL, was the “gold standard”, the franchise by which all other franchises measured themselves (yes, he said about 15 months ago). On a side note, I thought maybe teams measured themselves against the Patriots, who have won three Super Bowls in the last five seasons, which is three more than the Eagles have won since the big game’s advent in 1967. This is the team that went the four straight NFC Championships and one Super Bowl from 2001-2004. Man does that seem like a long time ago.

This Eagles team is the most depressing of all. So close to the mountain top for so long, but never quite able to get to the only place they really wanted to go. And now, their fingertips, which had been hanging desperately to the edge for a while, slipped off, leading to a rapid descent that promises a long fall and no quick way back up toward the top. This team has always relied on a vicious defense to apply pressure on quarterbacks and keep them in ball games. This defense is now slow and lacks any teeth. It is the opposite of intimidating. The Indianapolis Colts became the third team in the last four games to rush for 200 yards against this defense. The personnel is either old and declining (Jeremiah Trotter, Brian Dawkins), or simply inadequate (defensive line, remaining linebackers). The Eagles just gave Mike Patterson a pile of money to stay with the club for eternity and he has basically been a non factor. But at least he has made all the team flights, which is more than we can say for Broderick Bunkly, their other first round defensive lineman selected in consecutive years.

At the end of the day, Jim Johnson and Andy Reid have lost this team. They are not able to punch the buttons to get the most out of this team. It is certainly time for a new defensive coordinator, and probably a new head coach as well. The problem is that the General Manager is the same guy as the head coach, and not likely to make a move on himself. Which brings us to the next problem. The General Manager has done a horrible job of analyzing talent. His draft this year was a complete bust. His draft last year was not much better. And he seems to let the wrong guys get away from this team (has anyone noticed that Derrick Burgess has led the league in sacks since he left the Eagles two seasons ago?

We could go on for days about this Eagles club and dissect every little area and find a lot of issues to yell about. But the bottom line is this: Philadelphia, there will be no Super Bowl title this year. There will be no Super Bowl title any time soon. And the window is likely closed on Donovan McNabb ever winning one. That fact is utterly disappointing to those of us who wanted so badly to break that 23 year curse. That fact is so upsetting since we got so close and winning one at some point seemed a foregone conclusion. That fact is the definition of what it means to be a Philadelphia sports fan.

Tomorrow, I will have my college and NFL picks for the weekend, and also talk through some college basketball and football items. Until then, to those in the city of brotherly shove, enjoy the weather and maybe a cocktail or two. You will need them to dull the pain.