If the Eagles were smart, they'd start talking

When the Eagles announced Wednesday that they had fired Tom Gamble, their vice president of player personnel, they did so in a 57-word press release that included a perfunctory quote from general manager Howie Roseman. Still, that announcement was positively expansive compared to when they cut wide receiver DeSean Jackson in March. Then, they needed just 25 words to publicize their decision. No quote, either.

The lengths of the two press releases weren't unusual, of course. When an organization - any organization - has unpleasant news to reveal, it generally does so as quickly and quietly as possible. It's no accident, for instance, that the Eagles notified the media about Gamble's firing on New Year's Eve. The strategy is similar to the "Friday news dump" in politics: Get the stuff out while many reporters are already two drinks into Happy Hour or their New Year's party, and you can lessen the bad news's blow.

What is surprising about the Jackson and Gamble announcements, though, is that in neither situation did the Eagles make anyone from their front office or coaching staff available to explain the decision. No Jeffrey Lurie. No Roseman. No Chip Kelly. It's an odd and largely ineffective strategy to say nothing after big news breaks, because the silence does nothing to diffuse the importance of the story at all. If anything, it leads to more reporting, more speculation, more public discussion of a topic that the organization would like to bury. Nature abhors a Dyson, etc.

The Eagles are hardly the first NFL team to make this mistake, but it's surprising that they, of all teams, have made it - and done so twice in the last 10 months. On a day-to-day basis, they do a very good job of assisting their players in dealing with reporters. Part of that success lies in their reminding the players that, in Philadelphia, a pro athlete is better off facing the music right away after bad things happen. He'll earn respect from the fan base and the media if he does. (Case in point: Mitch Williams in the aftermath of Game 6 of the 1993 World Series.)

Truth be told, that's Public Relations 101 stuff. And yet here the Eagles are, three days after dropping a bombshell, still silent while everyone else is talking. It doesn't look good. They don't look good. And they should know better.