Posted: Monday, January 5, 2009, 2:17 PM | 32 comments |
 

Freddie Mitchell is still talking
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I started this blog back in July, and this will be my third post about Freddie Mitchell.

Kind of embarrassing. I know.

That being said, when I saw FredEx granting yet another interview -- this time on Comcast SportsNet -- I had to grab my laptop.

Mitchell talked about the usual topics -- the Super Bowl, Donovan McNabb and 4th-and-26. He also took a little shot (by my interpretation) at his boy T.O. for being "hurt every two weeks." If someone could please get Ed Werder on the phone to get reaction from Owens, I'd appreciate it.

But before we get to the quotes, rest assured that this week will be all about Eagles-Giants and the divisional round of the playoffs. Here are my 10 observations from the win over the Vikings in case you missed them.

And now excerpts from Mitchell's interview:

On 4th and 26: "The media and the Eagles try to downplay that play. They don’t really want to put it in as one of their greatest plays that ever happened. The play really pissed me off though. The play really got me mad because if you look at the whole game, that was the first time they ever threw me the ball. For it to be 20 degrees, and working as hard as I worked the whole game, that was the first time I even got thrown to the whole game, so it really got me mad. And I just want to thank Donovan McNabb for giving me the opportunity on 4th-and-26 to catch a ball that game."

On [OK, I have no idea what the question was here]: "Sometimes the Eagles have a lot of control over the media, especially Comcast. And they understand what to say and what to talk about. You can go ahead and belittle Freddie Mitchell all you want because we control the situation and we control the success so I think that has a lot to do with it."

On his performance in the Super Bowl: "If you go and look at the film, I did a lot of work to free T.O. I did a lot of work to free him up. You can go and look, go and see, I remember vividly, I was picking players so he could get wide open and run 40-yard first downs."

"I had all that tension with me and all that hype brought up and it really was bitter because I didn’t feel like I was being utilized my whole time in Philly the way I should have been so I couldn’t really shut the Patriots up like I wanted to."

On the Eagles' fourth-quarter drive against the Patriots: "That last drive, when I had to call out the plays, as Jon Runyan and Hank Fraley discussed earlier, and really let the cat out the bag that I called a couple plays for the whole team, so it was interesting."

On his time in Philadelphia: "It was annoying because I’d go through the same practices and everything else. Four years with the Eagles with no injury, playing every game. Little things like that don’t get noticed. You can go and have the big No. 1 receiver and everything else but he’s hurt every two weeks. So it’s good though. I enjoyed my time with the Eagles. I loved everything about Philadelphia and I definitely wouldn’t take nothing back if I had to do it all over again."
Posted by Sheil Kapadia @ 2:17 PM  Permalink | 32 comments
32
Comments   
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:55 PM, 01/05/2009
    Dierte, I know. That's what I meant. I'm an embarrassment. I guess it's some kind of blogging disease. I'll work on it.
    — skapadia
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:24 PM, 01/05/2009
    lol
    — MPatt24
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:26 PM, 01/05/2009
    Ah the peoples champ. I can't believe a receiver of his talent wasn't playing in the Arena League after NO NFL team wanted him.
    — cusoraider
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:27 PM, 01/05/2009
    It's really funny that anyone even wants to interview him. How long has Freddy been out of football now?
    — rwright611
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:09 PM, 01/05/2009
    can you believe the players that the Eagles could have drafted instead of Freddie Mitchell...here's a partial list: Reggie Wayne, Todd Heap, Drew Brees, Chris Chambers, Steve Smith, TJ Houshmandzadeh, oh my, what could have been...
    — sedale
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:12 PM, 01/05/2009
    Thanks for the grab on 4th & 26, now shut up and go away.
    — jonnyb0916
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:30 PM, 01/05/2009
    The term 'ONE CATCH WONDER' comes to mind.
    — Rob
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:37 PM, 01/05/2009
    Honest to heaven, I love the guy! I honestly don't think there is a mean bone in his whole head....just a lot of little things scurrying for the light of day. You can say what you want about his mouth, but that guy DID possess a great set of hands. That 4th&26 was a masterpiece (by Donavan too!) and should be on all the highlight reels.....but it seems like most people just shrug it off these days. They don't make that play, Green Bay goes on to the Conference Championship game, and they don't fire their coach! Really, the only thing missing from Fred X's game is a small piece of duct tape. I wish him the very best and wish that I could have seen him playing for someone else....like Dallas today maybe....How about it Mr. Johnson, any room left at the zoo?
    — TBear
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:37 PM, 01/05/2009
    Let's play devil's advocate for a second. Let's pretend that Freddie Mitchell was an extremely talented, hard-working, NFL-caliber wide receiver that was simply underutilized by Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid. With all of this talent, he couldn't get a job somewhere else to prove himself? Heck, even Arena Football and the Canadian Football League didn't take a chance on him? Or "hard-working" Freddie didn't make the effort to prove himself elsewhere? OK, even if he was "black-listed" (or something like that) by the Philadelphia Eagles, wouldn't he have caught on somewhere else? Talent and hard work has a way of shining through (even if people talk bad about you, or you act like a jerk). Let's just face it already, Freddie: you weren't that good.
    — knighn
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:00 PM, 01/05/2009
    OK... let me take this further before someone responds. Did he have some NFL-level talent? Yes. Was it enough? Well, let's just put it this way. James Thrash is still in the NFL and Freddie Mitchell isn't.
    — knighn
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:00 PM, 01/05/2009
    OK... let me take this further before someone responds. Did he have some NFL-level talent? Yes. Was it enough? Well, let's just put it this way. James Thrash is still in the NFL and Freddie Mitchell isn't.
    — knighn


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About Sheil Kapadia
Sheil Kapadia is in his fourth season writing about the Eagles and the NFL for philly.com. His earliest memories as a sports fan include several trips to Veterans Stadium with his Dad. He's not a beat writer or an Insider, but is here to discuss the NFL 365 days a year. E-mail him at skapadia@philly.com or by clicking here

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