Daily News - Rich Hofmann

Rich Hofmann: Eagles need McNabb to focus on L.J. Smith

REGGIE BROWN did not practice yesterday, a miserably hot day. Brown continues to nurse a hamstring that has been balky for weeks. That the Eagles' wide receiver was able to do a little bit on Wednesday but nothing yesterday afternoon is reasonably disconcerting, as trends go. It is fair now to wonder about the opener on Sunday against St. Louis.

Rich Hofmann: Let's play three?

PHILADELPHIA LOVED the three-headed monster. It loved the first Terrell Owens year more, true enough, but Eagles fans couldn't get enough of the three-headed monster, of Duce Staley, Correll Buckhalter and a kid named Brian Westbrook.

Rich Hofmann: Utley gives Phillies a crash course in leadership

WASHINGTON - Who will lead them? The question has been asked about the Phillies for 5 months now, and remains unanswered as we enter the sixth.

Rich Hofmann: Demps adds zip to Eagles' special teams

CLOSE YOUR eyes for a minute. (It isn't hard given the alternative, which is the legalized larceny that the NFL perpetrates on this week of every summer. Then again, the stadium was half-full last night for the Eagles and the Jets and the people who did show up were still home in time to see Obama. Or the Phillies. Or Dr. Phil.)

Rich Hofmann: For Phillies, it's all work and no play against Mets

PHILLIES, METS; Mets, Phillies. The division lead changed hands and then changed hands again in the last two nights at Citizens Bank Park, like a few miserable, trench-scarred acres along the Marne. The Mets now lead the National League East by half a game. It is hard to see the finish. It is what we have known all along.

Rich Hofmann: Electricity feels familiar at the Bank

IT FELT LIKE last year. That was it, mostly. It took a while to sink in, largely because everything took a while on a night when innings lasted eons and extra innings lasted extra eons. But that was it. This was 2007, again.

Rich Hofmann: Eagles need another receiver with Curtis on shelf

THE WORDS still ring less than 3 weeks later. They seem to mean more, somehow, under darkening skies. They were spoken by Eagles owner

Rich Hofmann: Only some boos kick in

FOR THOSE keeping score at home, it began with an interview by Jimmy Rollins on cable television, which spawned an Internet fan movement, which was being written about in a dead-tree newspaper - all of which left us a short-wave radio short of hitting for the cycle, me and Carson Book and his wife Mandy, who swore she wasn't a hostage as she helped her husband hand out the flyers that said, "Campaign: Cheer!"

Rich Hofmann: Jackson catching Eagles' attention, but it's still early

THERE IS A buzz in the land about DeSean Jackson, the Eagles' rookie wide receiver. That they were fake games does not matter. Jackson's catches and his athleticism were real. People think he might be something, and quickly. People are talking.

Rich Hofmann: Hey fans, you can boo so let Rollins speak

THE SKINS IN THIS TOWN are so thin as to be translucent. I mean, is it possible that we really are so offended about Jimmy Rollins describing the fans of Philadelphia as "front-runners?" Are people here really that insecure?