IS GLAD SPRING TRAINING IS FINALLY HERE
Stacy Andrews, still rehabbing that right ACL, showed up with the rookies at Lehigh Sunday afternoon.
Andrews, a free-agent acquisition from Cincinnati, didn't get much work with his new linemates in minicamps, as he recovered. Andrews said he isn't sure he'll be going full-tilt right away in training camp, either, though he said he is optimistic about his progress.
"I'm not sure. I'm about to go in and holler at (head athletic trainer) Rick Burkholder and see where we go from there," Andrews said as he checked into his dorm.
As the clock ticked inside an hour to go before Eagles coach Andy Reid's 5 p.m. welcoming address on a steamy, stormy Bethlehem afternoon, there was no word on progress in negotiations with the agents for first-round wideout Jeremy Maclin. Rookies and select vets are supposed to be here by 6:30.
For some reason, only three first-rounders have signed most teams have a reporting date later than the Birds. Agents Jim Steiner and Ben Dogra, who are not known for holding out their rookies, represent at least five of those unsigned first-rounders, including Maclin.
A source close to Maclin told the Daily News over the weekend that getting a deal done by Sunday evening was starting to look unlikely. But realistically, if Maclin is in the fold and on the field by Friday, he probably won't have missed anything crucial.
In the meantime, if the Eagles need a wideout, Todd Pinkston is in camp. Yes, that's right, but don't get your hopes up, fans. The second-round pick from the 2000 draft is here as a coaching intern, at the invitation of wide receivers coach Dave Culley, who knows Pinkston is trying to break into coaching back home in Mississippi.
"Once you've been playing sports and football all your life, it's something you want to hand down to the kids coming up, that look up to you," Pinkston said.
As it turned out, Pinkston's last NFL game was Super Bowl XXXIX, in which he caught four first-half passes, then sat out the rest of the evening with cramps. He tore an Achilles' tendon the next training camp and was never the same.
"It took a while (to adjust to not playing), but it sunk in," Pinkston said. "You don't play long."
Also interning is former Eagles defensive end Brandon Whiting, who has settled in the Philadelphia area, after finishing his career in San Francisco. Whiting became a 49er in a trade for some guy named Owens, a while back.
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.
Download our iPhone/Android app for even more Birds coverage, including app-exclusive videos and analysis. Get it here for iPhone or here for Android.
 | Join on Facebook |
