Since I have nothing productive to do, I’ll be a malcontent.  Enjoy.

Mark Eckel is active again! I didn’t realize this until Angelo made a 6-foot penis joke on WIP this morning.  Well here’s an article where he interviewed an assistant coach and a personnel man to get their opinions on the Eagles roster.  It’s the Mark Eckel you know and love – the guy who can’t properly spell the names of the players he covers.

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If anyone has been paying attention, Nick Fierro of the Morning Call has been making a mockery of himself at every turn this season.  Have the Eagles been playing like shit?  Yes.  Do they deserve to be heavily criticized? Yes.  But there’s a point where certain writers just love dumping gasoline on the tire fire.  This Fierro article from Wednesday is beyond embarrassing.

The title:  REID IS THE LUCKIEST COACH IN MODERN HISTORY

/Check to see if I’m reading Bleacher Report where Reid’s profile will be followed by a slideshow of the luckiest coaches since the NFL-AFL merger.

OK, so the working title presumes Andy Reid, the guy who’s 21st in total coaching wins (129-85) in the modern era is also one of the worst coaches during the same time period. Seems logical right?  It’s actually a great kickoff to this chemical train derailment of an article.  Some snippets:

After Sunday’s travesty, in which the man chosen to replace the man who was in over his head as defensive coordinator called the worst game in Reid’s 14 seasons on the job, it’s valid to question whether they’ll win again this year.

Let’s take this incrementally.  The defense played a bad game against Atlanta, I get it.  They gave up 30 points, 24 first downs, and 392 yards.  But Bowles called the worst game in Reid’s 14 seasons in the NFL? Just last year there were a couple games that rivaled that Falcons game for defensive ineptitude.  JUST LAST FUCKING YEAR! AND ONE THEM WAS AGAINST THE FALCONS! Oh, and how could I forget that defensive gem against the Patriots last year (38 points, 457 total yards, 29 first downs).  But no, THIS GAME WAS THE WORST!

Oh, and the Eagles are going to go 0-9 the rest of the way.  Even though the Eagles remaining schedule currently only features one team with a winning record (Giants) and the teams’ aggregate record is 21-30.  But 0-9.  Print it.

Bowles, a calm and bright middle-aged coach, may get this defense turned around in time. But there is no disputing the game he called in his debut was infinitely worse than the worst game ever called by Castillo, whose initial promotion after an eternity spent as offensive line coach was controversial in the first place.

Infinitely worse than the Patriots game last year.  There’s no currently acceptable measuring device to calculate how worse it was!

Fact is, the Falcons could have scored every time they touched the ball on this day if they needed to.

But Mike Smith has a heart so he wouldn’t allow such a thing.

Andy Reid lost the fans on Sunday. They won’t be back until he is fired or the Eagles win a Super Bowl, whatever comes first.  But darned if he’s lost his locker room. He hasn’t even come close.

Because losing your locker room is a true sign of getting this ship turned around!

For that, he remains the luckiest man on the face of the earth … the earth … the earth … now that Lou Gehrig is no longer among them.

Sooooooo, Reid remains the luckiest man on earth because his struggling 3-4 team still respects him and wants to play for him? Doesn’t this fly in the face of Fierro’s whole argument? Well, no matter, LOU GEHRIG!

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And then we get this from Fierro yesterday which affirmatively states that “good teams don’t have these [player's only meetings].”

Except the Giants had one in 2007 when they won the Super Bowl.

The Miami Heat held one last year before going on the win the NBA Championship.

I’m sure I could find more instances, but I’m too lazy.  BUT NOT AS LAZY AS FIERRO!

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Degenerate gambling has come to to the sports complex.  Hell yes.

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A lot has already been said about Jason Babin’s loyalty comments on Twitter.  Here’s my interpretation.  Like it or not, when you boil it down, all athletes are just paid entertainers. They enjoy the luxury of “loyalty” because of their affiliation with particular cities they call home to their careers.  Criticism occurs BECAUSE of fan loyalty. If there was no loyalty, you would have gone to the Eagles game last Sunday, said to yourself, “well that sucked,” and never returned again.  You wouldn’t take the time to get to know the players names or numbers.  You wouldn’t care to read about them in the paper.  So, Mr. Babin, please shut the fuck up and return tweeting about Barack Obama’s birth certificate.  It there was no loyalty, your paycheck (as Nick Fierro would say) would be infinitely smaller.

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On the other side of the coin, Jimmy Kempski gives us a stellar breakdown of the New Orleans Saints.

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And I’ll leave you with this – Brian Rolle’s tweet of the day:

Two nuggets from Profootballweekly.com’s “Audibles” feature – they don’t exactly inspire confidence in the Eagles’ decision-makers:

The front-office situation in Philadelphia is not a good one. Scouts are not allowed to talk to coaches during training camp. You’re talking about some scouts who have known the coaches for years. Coaches coach, scouts scout and that’s the way it is. It’s not a happy environment. It’s a divisive, paranoid place, and it’s hard to grow and jell as a team in that type of setting. That’s the result of hiring a very insecure GM who does not know football.

and this…

The front-office situation in Philadelphia is not a good one. Scouts are not allowed to talk to coaches during training camp. You’re talking about some scouts who have known the coaches for years. Coaches coach, scouts scout and that’s the way it is. It’s not a happy environment. It’s a divisive, paranoid place, and it’s hard to grow and jell as a team in that type of setting. That’s the result of hiring a very insecure GM who does not know football.