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Those tiny insects couldn't begin to match the irritation the Eagles must have felt after one of the team's two-time Pro Bowlers, guard Shawn Andrews, didn't show up and another, Brian Westbrook, arrived only to reiterate his disappointment with his contract.
Andrews was surprisingly and mysteriously absent. One Web site speculated that he was protesting his contract, which has eight years remaining. His agent and the Eagles said that was not the case.
"It's for personal reasons," agent Rich Moran said. "He's been in contact with the Eagles, and we're working on getting him there. This has absolutely nothing to do with his contract. He talked to Andy Reid, and we're working through it."
The Eagles, however, would not say whether they planned to fine Andrews. Moran declined to discuss whether that was a possibility.
Andrews also missed the final week of the Eagles' spring camp at the NovaCare Complex for what the Eagles described as personal reasons.
"I can say this is a little bit related to that," Moran said. "It's not 100 percent related, but there's a little tie-in."
While there was no public explanation for Andrews' absence, Westbrook remained quite clear about his feelings after arriving at 5:45 p.m. in his shiny black BMW.
The running back's search for an agent officially ended yesterday when Todd France filed paperwork with the NFL Players Association.
Westbrook said he had considered ditching camp but decided it was best to let France try to restart contract talks with Eagles president Joe Banner and Howie Roseman, vice president of player personnel. Westbrook said France already had talked to Roseman a couple of times.
France did not return phone calls yesterday.
"I've come to play football," Westbrook said. "When I get out on the football field, I come to do my job. I hired an agent, so I'm going to let him address off-the-field issues. I feel very comfortable with him. I think he's a competent agent who can get the deal done, and I'm sure that he will."
That might have been a veiled shot at Fletcher Smith, whom Westbrook fired as his agent last week, but there was nothing hidden about the Eagle's message to some of the other agents he interviewed before hiring France.
"I've heard so many things throughout this process," Westbrook said. "I've interviewed a few agents, and I think the agents that I did not hire have put out a lot of vicious rumors and have tried to ruin my credibility. All those things that I have read definitely are not all true."
It's definitely true that Westbrook believes he deserves significantly more money, but it's not known exactly how much. He said the $30 million figure he had used during an interview with The Inquirer was just a number he threw out when comparing the guaranteed money that San Diego star running back LaDainian Tomlinson received in 2004.
"I was giving an example of every year how contracts continue to go up," Westbrook said. "I didn't mention that as a number I was looking for. I used it as an example. If LaDainian gets 25, then the next year a guy should get 30. It was a strange example, but that's how contracts work. I haven't said anything about the numbers. I haven't put any numbers out there to be exact."
The Eagles maintain that they initiated contract talks with Westbrook during last season, but he said that was not the case.
"It was one of those situations where I expressed my feelings to my old agent, and I don't know if it got expressed to the team exactly the way I expressed it to him," Westbrook said. "There are a lot of issues at hand, and hopefully we can get something done."
An Eagles source has said this is a complicated negotiation, so there's no guarantee a deal will get done. How would that affect Westbrook's state of mind?
"I'm here now, and hopefully it's for good," he said. "That remains to be seen. I can't see the future, but hopefully things go well and we get a deal done. Whether I'm here reluctantly, I'm still here. I'm coming here to be with my teammates and to compete for a job and do everything I can to help this team win."
Bob Brookover blogs from training camp all day at http://go.philly.com/birdseye
See video from camp at http://go.philly.com/eagles
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