MUST BE DREAMING: TEMPLE IS 9-2?
(UPDATED with this contract observation: Reports are that the Denver deal is for five years but, stripped away, it is two years and $9 million if the Broncos want it that way, or $4.5 million per year. By contrast, Dawkins' cap number last year with the Eagles was reportedly a little bit north of $3.3 million.)
I'm supposed to be on vacation and I will be on vacation, after this.
Brian Dawkins, 1996-2009.
I'm sitting here, thinking about Dawkins in a Denver Broncos uniform. I'm seeing a new coach and a new personnel group working to set a new tone, on the field and off, and understanding why they would be so attracted to Dawkins and his singular personality. I'm seeing Dawkins, prideful, so prideful, working himself into a state that it will be hard to fathom. He talked recently about how Donovan McNabb always played better with a chip on his shoulder and, well, it will be hard to imagine Dawkins' upcoming fury.
How the Eagles allowed this to happen is beyond me. Because, you know, I understand the football part of it completely but it does not trump the rest of it. I understand that they were finding ways to hide Dawkins at times last year, scheming around him. I get that, and get that it was only going to get harder. But Dawkins remained a tangible force around the line of scrimmage. Even if his selection to the Pro Bowl in 2008 smacked of a kind of lifetime-achievement award, even if he was heading toward part-time status within the next year or so, there had to be a way to get this done. They are so far under the NFL's salary cap, tens and tens and tens of millions to the good, that there had to be some way to make a deal.
It was the old Eagles coach from the '60s, Joe Kuharich, who famously said that if you start letting the fans make the decisions for you, soon you'll be sitting with them. It was true then and it is true now. You do not re-sign Dawkins just because he is beloved and because his departure would make people furious -- and it has and it will.
At the same time, there has to be a recognition of the fact that, while Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb are the faces of the franchise, Dawkins has been the heart. It has to be a tiebreaker, if nothing else. No one knows what the Eagles offered but you have to assume they did make an offer -- based upon Reid's stated optimism at re-signing Dawkins, if nothing else. And if they did make an offer, it means they did want him. The fact that Dawkins went to Denver means that the Eagles wanted him, but only on their terms. That just isn't good enough, not for a franchise with so much money it cannot possibly spend it.
Even if Dawkins' only function was to buy you a little more time and seasoning for Quintin Demps, it would have been worth the cash.
Right before the start of the playoffs in January, I wrote this about Eagles fans and their relationship with this special player:
"...When they look at Brian Dawkins, what they see is themselves.
"Thirteen years. It is a long time to be carrying a municipal legacy onto the field every week. It is forever, in many ways - and Dawkins will be a forever kind of player for this franchise, cherished, remembered, all of that, long after the No. 20 is put away.
"Part of it is because he has been so good, a seven-time Pro Bowler, the best safety in the history of the franchise. Part of it is because of how hard he hits people, how he just pulverizes them, even now. Long after the details are forgotten, the visceral remains. You wince when Dawkins really launches himself at somebody. That is what people will always remember - the wince, and then the wow.
"But it is more than that - and, no, not that ridiculous, indescribable routine he goes through when he emerges from the tunnel and goes onto the field. It is simpler than that. It is visible passion, visible to all.
"No Eagles fan can possibly doubt that Dawkins cares more than they do. That's it. That is the connection between a man and a city. That is the bond."
And while I understand that it's a business, a cold business, there always was the hope that it would be different with this team and this guy.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that they are going to be a lot worse on the field without Brian Dawkins. But the Eagles are going to be lesser.
If Stacy Andrews is a player, the Eagles are in the process of getting themselves a double-bonus -- something they are never likely to admit, not wanting to insult Shawn Andrews, he of the mental-health issues. But when you bring in the brother of Shawn Andrews to play next to him on the offensive line, it is a two-fer -- provided, that is, that Stacy arrives for his physical with a functioning knee, a month or so after surgery.
The Bengals franchised Stacy last year. They're letting him go this year. You always wonder when an NFL team lets go of an offensive tackle because the good ones don't exactly grown on trees. (I mean, imagine how thick the limbs would need to be.)
But there obviously were issues with the Bengals involving the long-term value of a contract for Stacy -- that's usually why you franchise a guy, because the team and the player are in different worlds regarding the player's long-term value. Not being privy to all of the inner working of the Bengals' thinking puts an outsider at a disadvantage. But he was a starting NFL right tackle, and has been for a couple of years. He has the requisite size. The Eagles' biggest flaw in the past has been pro personnel moves in the off-season, but they have reshuffled that part of the department in the last year and this is the first big test.
If Stacy Andrews is a player, they will be better -- and this is meant with no disrespect to Jon Runyan, who played through more physical crap than just about anybody in his business, and did it forever. And then, on top of that, he has to add some stability to his brother's situation.
If he can play...
It kind of makes you wonder what Terrell Owens thinks.
Well, the Rangers gassed Tom Renney on Tuesday; so reports the New York Daily News. All of which means that Flyers coach John Stevens moves up another rung.
Stevens is in his second full season as the Flyers' coach.
He now has the third-longest tenure in the NHL's Eastern Conference.
It seems impossible. But if there has ever been a sign of the impatience of our current world, in the NHL and NBA especially, it is that simple fact. In the NHL overall, Stevens is 11th in tenure at his current team. But in the East, so balanced, so competitive, so perpetually insecure, he is third. He got the job on October 22, 2006, and he is damn near a lifer by Eastern Conference standards.
The short list:
Lindy Ruff, Buffalo, 884 games.
Guy Carbonneau, Montreal, 224 games.
John Stevens, Philadelphia, 213 games.
We all know why owners in all sports have ADD anymore, but especially in the NBA and NHL: because playoff gates can make the difference between profit and loss, or between getting by and being comfortable. Follow the money and then follow the coaches to the unemployment line.
I have been to 25 Super Bowls and six Olympic Games. I have been to the NBA Finals and seen Michael Jordan and I have been to hockey church, the Stanley Cup Finals in the Montreal Forum. I saw Bird and Magic at the Final Four as a kid (along with those Cinderella Penn Quakers), and I saw Magic a generation later run out onto the court from the stands to celebrate with a new set of kids from Michigan State and a new national championship.
I have been to the Masters often enough to know the closing times of local restaurants. I have walked on the Old Course at St. Andrews. I have seen cricket played in Manchester, England, and I have seen the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. I have been to jai alai in Tijuana and been in Saskatchewan to watch a guy skate across Canada for a cause. I saw where they hit golf balls near the DMZ between North and South Korea and watched the Eagles play football games in London and Tokyo.
I have worked at a great place, for great people, during a great era. I have been luckier, much luckier, than most, and I know it.
But I have never been to the NFL scouting combine.
I feel cheated.
