Didn't get to the Spectrum for the final Sixers game there on Friday night because I was in New York watching Villanova lose to Louisville in the Big East tournament. I don't feel cheated, however. I covered the 76ers for seven seasons for the Inquirer and that, combined with many hockey games, college basketball games, tennis tournaments and whatever else came through, meant I probably worked 500 events in the place.

I loved the place. It has a great mid-level press box, easy access to the locker rooms downstairs and an intimacy that made you feel as if you knew everyone in the building -- and pretty much you did.

I hope you got a chance to read the piece by Marcus Hayes in the Friday Daily News on Charles Abel, the former press box steward, now 75 years old. Marc did a very good job with the story. He not only captured Charlie but, in microcosm, the feel of working the Spectrum. I sent him some recollections upon request and he used a snippet of them, so I'm posting them here. Hey, it's the weekend. You're tired of reading about potential Eagles free agent signings.

Charles was technically the Spectaguard security guy assigned to the press box, but he was much more than that. It was really his private box and we were guests there. He made sure everyone was where they were supposed to be and kept general order, which isn't the easiest thing to do with that group. He handled everything.

I have two specific memories of times he helped me. One of my first assignments with the Inquirer was a Flyers Alumni game against a celebrity team. It was a terrible assignment, but I was trying to impress the bosses and do a good job and it wasn’t going well. Deadline was fast approaching, the game was dragging on and I was melting down in the little workroom just off the press box itself. Charlie asked if I needed anything and I asked if the celebrity coach of the celebrity team – a big television comedy star with some off-camera issues – was hanging around downstairs. I could use a quote.

Five minutes later, Charles had the guy standing next to me while I’m banging away at the computer. “I need a funny quote,” I told the actor, which took a while for him to process because he was absolutely wasted. He turned and looked at Charles, and Charles just nodded seriously at him. And the guy hitches himself up and said something that was printed in the paper the next day. It might even have been funny.

The other specific memory I have is that I got a call after a Flyers’ game one night that my wife was going into labor. I was in that same workroom and I must have looked crazed as I typed. Charles asked me if I was all right and I told him the situation. “Is this your first child?” he said.

“No, the second.”

“You better write quickly,” he said, solid advice, and went off to get me a copy of the final box score as soon as it came out.

Mostly, I was there for Sixers games. I covered the team for eight seasons, and Charles Abel was a constant. In those days, I would watch the first half from the floor and the second half from the press box, so I was near the phone upstairs to file the story. So we spent a lot of time together. It’s a small, intimate press box.
Charles didn’t just know the local reporters. He knew all the out-of-towners, too, the regulars on the beat. He liked it when we did our Charles Barkley imitations and our Jimmy Lynam imitations. When David Aldridge was the Bullets beat writer for the Washington Post, he and I had a routine in which he was David Stern and I was Barkley being called into the league office. It seems like we laughed a lot back then, and Charles had this great laugh where he would tilt back his head and really let go sometimes. He was mostly a very reserved, dignified guy, so that was a goal, getting Charles to really laugh.

I didn’t know Charles’ athletic background, but he knew the sports well, particularly basketball. I’d ask him what he thought of this or that occasionally – this player or that combination of players – and he was a good sounding board. He believed in defense first, which made that particular era of Sixers basketball sometimes difficult for him. It was difficult for all of us, but Charles Abel, unlike the Sixers, was something upon which you could rely.

One more Spectrum story. When the Sixers played the Lakers in the 1981-1982 Finals, Harvey Pollack was still the head public relations guy for the team. In those days, you could sit down with a pencil and write down the names of everyone who would be covering the series. There would be Bob Ryan from Boston and Sam Goldaper from the New York Times and David DuPree from Washington, and so on. It was a very small club.

The day before the first game in Philly, the teams are practicing in the Spectrum and a reporter from the Italian newspaper Gazzetta Dello Sport named Mario walked into the building. He had started coming to All-Star Games and covering the league, the first real European reporter to pay attention to the NBA. He walks in and Harvey screams, "Mario, what the f--- are you doing here? I don't have a seat for you."

And Ryan says, "Harvey, this man is a guest in our country. He has come 5,000 miles to be here. You should say to him, 'Mario, welcome to our shores. I hope your travel was pleasant. What the f--- are you doing here?'"

I don't know if free agent fullback Leonard Weaver is going to sign with the Eagles or accept a new contract with the Seattle Seahawks and, as of this morning neither does anyone else.

It would depend on what Weaver wants financially and what he wants professionally. Here's the big question if you are Leonard Weaver? Do you want to go to a football team that uses the fullback as often as folks use those 1960s air-raid shelters in their basements? If fullbacks were cans of condensed milk, they reach their expiration date in Philadelphia long before being taken off the shelf.

Here's some numbers Weaver might be considering. (Of course, none of the numbers matter as much as the numbers on the contract, but nevertheless). In his two real seasons as a regular since missing the 2006 season, Weaver carried the ball a total of 63 times in 30 games, or just about twice a game.

That's hardly overwhelming (he caught 59 passes in that span, however) and it's really not overwhelming when you consider that in the last three seasons, Eagles fullbacks have carried the ball 53 times in 48 games, or just a touch over one carry per game.

So, you're a 26-year-old, looking to go somewhere you'll get noticed, looking to get a decent payday that might lead to the next contract in which -- after getting noticed -- you have a chance to make better money.

So, that's the question for a fullback: Go to the Eagles, a good, solid football team, and disappear. Or go somewhere else and perhaps make a name for yourself. What would you do? It might be the same answer Weaver arrives at.

Maybe several of them, but none more important than the rim-rattling reverse lay-up from Dwayne Anderson that decided to drop through the hoop just after the horn sounded in Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

By that margin, the Wildcats beat Marquette, 76-75, and advanced to the semifinal round against Louisville on Friday night. Villanova has now won its first game in the Big East tournament for six straight years, which is even harder than it sounds.

On the possession previous to the game-winning shot, the Wildcats might have caught another break, judging by the Ron Cortes photo of Dante Cunningham's block on Jerel McNeal. Photos can be deceiving, but it looks as if Cunningham might have gotten just a little bit of McNeal along with the ball. Just a little bit.

The refs can't see everything, although they certainly tried in this game, sending the two teams to the foul line for a total of 66 free-throw attempts. That made it a game without much flow and without a clear resolution until the very end. Marquette stayed in the game, and scored 75 points, despite making just 16 field goals. The Eagles scored 33 points at the line, so maybe they got enough chances there and didn't need another.

Louisville was scarily impressive in its quarterfinal win over Providence. Can Villanova deal with the Cardinals' threesome of Terrence Williams, Earl Clark and Samrado Samuels? They did so during the regular season in the Wachovia Center, a one-point Louisville win that could easily have gone the other way. Holding them down again is a big order.

It might be that a credible game against Louisville will solidify Villanova's spot as a No. 3 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament and, better yet, get the Wildcats a home weekend to begin the tourney. Earning first and second round games at the Wachovia Center would be a huge bonus, and that might be what is on the line Friday against Louisville. Villanova doesn't necessarily have to win, but the Wildcats might have to be in the game all the way through.

John Facenda Jr. has agreed to a settlement with NFL Films over the apparently unauthorized use of his late father's voice in 2006 television show designed to pump sales of the John Madden video football game, which is licensed by the league.

Neither side would comment on the amount of the settlement, but the NFL did not care to pursue the matter through the appeals process. The league had argued that the show was an "artistic" rather an commercial endeavor, an opinion not shared by the federal court system.

John Facenda Sr., the former Philly television anchorman whose "Voice of God" delivery helped make the work of NFL Films distinctive, died in 1984. The NFL owns his recorded work, but is not allowed to use those recordings for any product endorsement.

Facenda Jr. has been vigilant in safeguarding the integrity of his late father's work. He previous brought suit against Campbell's Soup for using a Facenda sound-alike in commercials. That suit also ended in a settlement.

"He does not want to wake up one day hearing his father's voice advertising condoms," lawyer Paul Lauricella told the Associated Press earlier in the proceedings against the NFL.

More people than you might think are able to pry their cold fingers from their snow shovels in Buffalo and type out harsh e-mails to sportswriters in other cities who dare suggest their 40-watt city is an odd place for the halogen spotlight that is Terrell Owens to play football.

And it pains me to report that some of them -- this is almost too much to bear -- say disparaging things about Philadelphia in the process. Sad, but true. After I wrote a column this week wondering how the pairing of Buffalo and Owens could possibly last, many Buffaloans...Buffalonians?...Buffalites? Well, many residents of Buffalo took exception. They feel that stories mentioning snowfall in Buffalo, for instance, are a cliche -- even though they have been shoveling that cliche off their sidewalks for the last four months.

Fair enough. Maybe they enjoyed it more when Jim Reeves of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote a column of his own that looked at the situation from the other side. I had wondered how Owens would adjust to Buffalo, where everyone goes down to the hotel on Friday to see who rented the room. Reeves wondered how Buffalo -- solid, hard-working, wing-eating, beer-drinking Buffalo -- would possibly adjust to Owens, who isn't their kind of bird, whether with hot sauce or not.

You can decide for yourself which is the better approach. As for Buffalo, we can just let them enjoy that brief, exciting period of time when Terrell comes to town -- before he decides to burn it down. The Buffalo News ran a story today that could have carried the headline, "Hey, Ma. We're on SportsCenter." They're very excited up there. Yes, we remember that feeling well.

So, this is what we know about the Eagles offensive line for the coming 2009 season: Every available member of the Andrews family has been signed and very few incumbent tackles are on board.

The Eagles are in a position to wait and see about right tackle John Runyan, a free agent recovering from knee surgery, but they lost the services of left tackle Tra Thomas, who signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

What does it mean? Well, if Stacy Andrews is indeed going to be the right tackle, it means that either Shawn Andrews will be shifted to left tackle from right guard (unlikely), or that Todd Herremans will move from left guard to left tackle (not quite as unlikely, but not that great), Winston Justice will make a huge leap in ability (yeah, I've got a picture of that happening), or the Eagles will have to find a new left tackle.

I think moving Shawn Andrews to left tackle is unlikely because he is coming off a serious injury and because his mental attitude is unknown. Just getting him back as a serviceable guard would be a positive for the Eagles. Expecting him to come back and change positions seems like more than they would ask.

There are a limited number of excellent offensive tackles available in the draft, but the Eagles, who hold the 21st and 28th picks would have to move into the top 10 to be assured of getting one of them.

That has to be what is going on here. If that isn't their plan, then letting Thomas go makes no sense. Allowing Brian Dawkins to walk away is meaningless compared to the tightrope they are walking with their offensive line right now.

Among all the Division I schools in the Philadelphia area, only Villanova is a lock to make the NCAA basketball tournament at the moment. Wildcats fans would like nothing better to go with that invitation than a home date at the Wachovia Center when the city hosts first- and second-rounds games on March 19 and 21.

Our good friend Joe Lunardi over at ESPN. com -- a man who has made a living out of predicting the unpredictable -- doesn't think that's going to happen. At the moment, he has Villanova as a 3rd-seed in the tournament, but placed in the Midwest regional with opening games in Miami (which is pretty standard NCAA geography).

Things could change, starting with Monday's game at Notre Dame, which can probably only hurt the Wildcats. They finish the regular season at home Thursday against Providence and the Big East tournament is next week in New York. A long run there -- or an unfortunately short one -- will affect the seeding, too. Villanova's conference tournament hopes would be helped by finishing among the top four in league standings, thus earning a bye to the Thursday quarterfinal round.

For that to happen, the Wildcats must win a tiebreaker with Marquette, if the two finish with identical records. The most logical path for that to happen is Villanova winning its final two conference games and Marquette splitting its final two, specifically with a loss Wednesday at Pittsburgh.

As for getting to the Wachovia Center in the first round, if Lunardi's seeding holds up, Nova would have to bump ahead of Wake Forest or perhaps Duke in the tournament committee's eyes. That might take a run to the Big East final and a good showing there. For now, it's all guesswork, but a home game doesn't seem that likely for Villanova.

In the current bracketology, the ACC and Big East lead the conferences with eight selections each, and 30 of the 34 at-large spots in the tournament will be going to schools from the "big six" conferences -- ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and SEC. One of the exceptions is an at-large bid for an Atlantic 10 school, although at the moment it goes to Dayton, as a No. 9 seed.

Temple could have a good conference tournament run and jump into the mix. The Owls would probably have to make the championship to get a bid, however. As for St. Joe's and LaSalle, either would have to win the conference tournament and get the automatic bid to be in the NCAA this season. As least, that's the way it looks now.

From early indications, EagleWorld is a fractured, unhappy place after the confirmation on Saturday that one of the most beloved members of the team will be moving on.

Never knew you felt quite that strongly about Lito.

The Eagles made a very good deal for disgruntled cornerback Lito Sheppard, getting a 5th-round pick and a conditional pick the following season from the Jets that could be as high as a second-round pick. The market for unhappy cornerbacks isn't what it used to be.

As for the other outgoing transaction news, that Brian Dawkins had signed a deal with the Denver Broncos that nearly assures he won't be finishing his career in an Eagles uniform, that one is the one that stung fans.

According to a source within the negotiations, the Eagles offered Dawkins a two-year deal for pretty decent money, but the Broncos blew that one away with a five-year, $19 million offer.

The deal should really be viewed as a two-year deal, for a total of approximately $9.5 million, with $7.5 million guaranteed, according to the same source. That $7.5 million is guaranteed even if Dawkins plays just one season.

For Denver, which is trying to rebuild things, bringing in Dawkins as a conscience of the defense, a veteran who will be an example in the locker room, there are benefits to offering this very generous contract that extend off the field. The Broncos are overpaying, but they are counting on receiving more than just a football player.

It won't go down well among most fans, but this is probably more about what the Broncos did -- and what Dawkins decided for himself -- than what the Eagles did not do. I try to make that point, and a few random others, in a column in Sunday's Inquirer. I'm hardly a company man for the Eagles, but you can't kill them for this one.

Well, you can, because all is fair in EagleWorld, but this time it would be wrong.