IS BUYING CROSS-COUNTRY SKIS
Linebacker Akeem Jordan (knee) and safety Quintin Demps (ankle) will not play Sunday against Chicago, coach Andy Reid said.
Reid was not saying who the starting middle linebacker will be, although indications are that it will be Joe Mays, with Chris Gocong moving back to the strong side and Will Witherspoon remaining at the weak side. “We’ll see. It depends on the personnel groups that they put out there,” Reid said. “[Mays] has worked in there. He worked in there last week a little bit too. We have different combinations that we can use there.”
With Demps out, Jeremy Maclin is expected to return kicks.
Cornerback Sheldon Brown was limited in practice today and is listed as questionable.
“We’ll see how he does,” Reid said. “He moved around pretty good today when he was in the team period. He took all the scout team reps yesterday. He felt pretty good coming out of them.”
As for Brian Westbrook, who will not play this week or next, Reid said Westbrook is doing “nothing this week.”
“We’re backing him off and letting him rest,” Reid said. “That was on the doctor’s plan that they had for him. Next week he can start going back to meetings and doing some things. We’ll see how he feels as he goes.
"I think the doctors want to see how he does after two weeks. What kind of symptoms he has and then they’ll just go back through and evaluate him after that, two to three weeks. We’ll just see how he feels after that.”
Kevin Curtis also is out for the game. Reid said Curtis is "still a little bit away," but indicated he did not play to put him on injured reserve, which would end his season.
Listed as probable for the Eagles are: DE Victor Abiamiri (knee), G Nick Cole (knee), DT Antonio Dixon (foot), LB Chris Gocong (hamstring), S Macho Harris (eye), WR Jeremy Maclin (foot), DT Mike Patterson (wrist, toe), T Jason Peters (ankle), RB Leonard Weaver (ankle).
On the Chicago side, tight end Desmond Clark (neck) and safety Kevin Payne (back) are listed as doubtful and are unlikely to play.
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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.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at 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 came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
