The Birds are Back (if you ask their Fans), A.I. vs. T.O., and the Cameron Cowards

There is a lot of stuff that I won’t get to today as I just want to focus on three items: the Eagles, the Iverson situation, and the so-called Cameron Crazies. I will be back tomorrow with focus on many additional items.

O.K. So now the Eagles have won two in a row behind strong to quite strong play from Jeff Garcia (first QB in franchise history to have a QB rating of at least 100 in each of his first three starts), and the fans here are drinking the Kool Aid again. People all over town are talking about how the Birds now control their own destiny and, as scary as it sounds, will win the division if they win the rest of their games. Of course, I could counter by telling them that the 76ers will also win their division if they win the rest of their games. Not going to happen! Look, the Eagles very well may limp into the playoffs at 8-8. All they pretty much have to do is beat the Giants on Sunday OR the Falcons in the end of season finale. There is one problem with that. Their defense stinks. I know they stepped up and made some timely big plays this week (Gaither interception, Lewis TD, Dawkins), but the bottom line remains that they cannot get pressure on the quarterback and they cannot stop the run. At all. Their run defense may be the second worse of all time, behind the 2006 Indianapolis Colts, but that is another issue. So, yes, the Eagles may eke their way into the playoffs, but they will not go anywhere once they get there. Is that good enough in a year when your franchise QB goes down for the year (again)? I argue no, that the QB play has not been the problem. That the defense has come up woefully short, and they need major talent upgrades everywhere on that side of the ball. On the bright side, the Eagles are sending out invoices to their season ticket holders today for two home playoff games. Now there is about a .000001% chance that this team could host two playoff games. But enjoy it while you can. With the clip at which this defense is fading, it may be the last such invoice you could see for a couple years.

The Allen Iverson era is all but over. The comparison that I have not seen, but that is fascinating, is A.I. vs. T.O. The similarities are many. They are both superstar players in their sport. They both give 110% every time they are on the court/field. They could be viewed by some as selfish and immature. They were both responsible for, at times, leading their teams close to the mountaintop (T.O. helped the Birds get to the Super Bowl two years ago, A.I. led the Sixers to the 2001 NBA Finals). And, ultimately, they were or will be unceremoniously suspended then ushered out of town. So the big question is, why is T.O. hated on an Osama bin Laden level, while A.I. is still held in relatively high regard. Why do I believe that most fans would be happy for A.I. if he went somewhere and won a championship while fans would sooner suffocate in their own vomit than watch T.O. win a championship? As you might guess, I have some theories.

• First, I think fans tend to give the Eagles the benefit of the doubt, a privilege the Sixers lost a long time ago. The fans look at the Eagles management and see that they have done everything they can to put a winning team on the field. They have not won a Super Bowl, but they have had a lot of success on the field. They have put themselves in a position to succeed, and while that has not resulted in hoisting a Lombardi Trophy, they have been to four championship games and a Super Bowl this decade. The Sixers, on the other hand, have no credibility as an organization because they have bungled the salary cap, made terrible signings, bad trades, and bad draft choices. In short, they have not earned the fans’ trust. So who can blame A.I…..
• Iverson may be a pain in the ass, but he is OUR pain in the ass. We drafted him 10 and a half years ago, and he has played every game of his career in our uniform. T.O. was nothing more than a rented part who could not keep his stupid mouth shut.
• A.I. embraced the city and the team. He repeatedly said he wanted to be in Philadelphia, that he loves the team and loves the city. T.O. put his house up for sale months before he was gone. He never cared about Philadelphia, it was just where his paycheck was coming from.
• A.I. represents more of what Philly is all about. He is a little guy who is not afraid to get in there and mix it up with the big fellas. He is a blue collar guy with some flash to his game. T.O. would not know blue collar if it hit him in the face.
• A.I., while his style of play sometimes made it hard to co-exist with, always thought team-first. He was always quick to laud his teammates during interviews and clearly thought himself part of a team. There has never been a more “I-focused” athlete than T.O.

A.I. may be on his way out, but he will always be a Sixer to us. And I, like most, hope they do him the service of trading him to a team with whom he can help win a championship. It would be about as close as us Philly fans get to one for a while. And, as for T.O., I will continue to hope he shatters his leg or something, and continue to root against any success or happiness for that scumbag.

I am a Duke alumnus. As any of you who either know me or read this blog on a regular basis are aware, I am as a result a huge Duke basketball fan. I believe that Coach K is one of the two best coaches of all-time (along with Wooden) and has built America’s best program (you may disagree with me, but this is not really my point here). Anyway, with that being said as background, it is time I come out and bash the Cameron Crazies.

First of all, the Crazies are not as creative, fun, or loud as we were 15, 20, 25 years ago. And they take themselves way, way too seriously. Nowadays, they distribute a list of cheers for each game. That is not spontaneous. And to make matters worse, they have gotten so spoiled by the success of the program that they have started taking for granted their right to sit in the best seats in the best arena in the world for free. For example, in a couple of there recent games, the student section has not even been close to being filled. I guess there is not reason to camp out for weeks when students are not even using their full allotment of tickets. The fact that Duke gives up sizeable income opportunities to provide these tickets to their students for free also means these students have a responsibility to show up and represent the university well and make a difference in the game by being loud and creative.

Now all of this has been bugging me for a while, but the latest controversy puts me over the edge. Duke and North Carolina have a joint scholarship program called the Robertson Scholars. These students are given scholarships and have full student rights and both Duke and North Carolina. Well, some of these folks showed up to the Duke/Carolina game last year in light blue shirts, and that did not sit well with the Dukies. So the student government (not sure why they have autonomy in this area but apparently they do) has now banned Robertson Scholars from camping out in “Krzyzewski-ville”, and subsequently from receiving any free student tickets to the hoops games. As a Duke alum and a huge Blue Devil fan, I find this censorship outrageous. How can we decide who attends these games? And how can the administration sit idly by and watch as the students make such a stupid decision? What’s next, students with red hair are barred because they may be mistaken for rooting for Virginia? The administration needs to step in and overrule this decision. It is terrible. And how about showing up for the ALL the games before you get any say in deciding who can and cannot show up? These Duke students are embarrassing and appalling. If something like this happened in a different circumstance with political overtones, we would all be up in arms. Well, it always starts small and builds. The time to nip it in the bud is now.