Teammates eager to welcome Shawn Andrews back

"You have to understand that people go through things like this, and if it was you, how would you want to be received?" quarterback Donovan McNabb said after the team's morning practice yesterday. "Shawn is going through some things right now, and the only thing you can do right now is support him."

It is natural for the guard's teammates to want to defend him as he battles depression, but in a league in which macho trash talk can sometimes bubble to the surface, it is fair to wonder if Andrews might have to face some nasty, insensitive comments from opposing defensive linemen and linebackers.

The opinion among Andrews' teammates is that it will not happen.

"The last guy to do that kind of thing was John Randle," offensive tackle Jon Runyan said, referring to the former star defensive tackle. "I haven't seen anybody do that since he left the league. You have to remember what you say can come back to bite you."

Tra Thomas, the Eagles' other starting offensive tackle, said he remembered Randle's on-field rants, but that just confirmed that he and Runyan are old. Randle, who is sixth all-time in career sacks with 1371/2, last played in the NFL with Seattle in 2003, when Andrews was a sophomore at Arkansas.

Randle, a defensive tackle and potential Hall of Famer who played 14 seasons with Minnesota and Seattle, was known for some classic rants. The most memorable episode came during a 1996 game in which New York Giants players reported that Randle, an African American, was using racial slurs against both black and white players.

"That man has some serious problems," former Giants fullback Charles Way told the New York Times.

The Eagles don't think any players now in the league would stoop so low to harass Andrews about his depression.

"It never gets personal," linebacker Omar Gaither said.

"There's never trash talk that gets to your personal life or into your family. Players have problems off and on the field all the time, but nobody comments on those things. That's a real fight if you start doing that. I wouldn't like it if somebody did it, but I don't think it will happen."

Guard Todd Herremans agreed.

"That would be messed up," he said.

Center Jamaal Jackson, who plays next to Andrews on the line, said he would be offended and angered if someone said something to his teammate.

"That's not how you're supposed to carry yourself," Jackson said. "It's a business on the field. We play this game and it's a sport, but when it comes to personal matters, you leave that stuff inside and we don't get into it. I would hate to see what would happen if somebody did that because you could really push a guy over the edge."

And it probably is not a wise idea to provoke a man as large and strong as Shawn Andrews.