CAN HEAR CLEARWATER CALLING
The immediate thought following the report by Dallas' WFAA-TV blog about the Eagles hiring former Cowboys defensive coordinator Brian Stewart as a defensive assistant is that this is more bad news about Jim Johnson's situation. A source close to the situation has confirmed the Dallas blog report, and said that the hiring will be announced next week.
Presumably, Stewart is going to take over the secondary, which Sean McDermott has been trying to run while also filling Johnson's role as defensive coordinator. Johnson has taken an indefinite leave of absence to fight metastasized melanoma.
If the Eagles felt Johnson was close to returning, they wouldn't feel the need to add to the staff; McDermott's helper in the secondary, longtime NFL corner Otis Smith, ran the d-backs last week in rookie camp. The additional hiring, assuming it is true, seems to confirm what has been feared -- that Johnson might not be able to resume his duties this season, if at all.
ESPN.com blogger Matt Mosley points out that Stewart, who lost his job in the fallout from the Cowboys' season-ending 44-6 loss to the host Eagles, has a longstanding connection to Eagles coach Andy Reid.
Mosley writes that Reid and Stewart "have remained close since they were at Northern Arizona together in the mid-1980s. Reid coached the offensive line and Stewart played cornerback. Both men grew up in Los Angeles and spent time at junior colleges in the area."
Les
Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News
since 2002.
Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les
only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no
penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite
what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News
from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much
lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their
two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with the paper covering the
Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a
selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre
and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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