THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Wideout Reggie Brown probably will be listed as "questionable," Eagles coach Andy Reid said, but Brown (hamstring) is practicing, as the Birds begin preparation for Monday night's game at Dallas. Brown also practiced last Wednesday, but felt a pull in his injured hammy and hadn't taken the field since.
(PM Update -- Brown said he was "very limited" in practice. The team listed him as a limited participant. That doesn't sound too promising for Monday.)
Reid was asked Thursday when he first grasped what a big deal the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry was. Reid said in his first year,
1999, early in Dallas week, he went to a McDonald's near the Vet (hard to believe!) for "a little breakfast burrito" (just the one, surely).
"There was this 80-year-old lady in there, or somewhere thereabouts," Reid recalled. "She saw me come in, and she got after me. She said, 'Hey -- you better kick their ...' you know. She looked like your normal grandmother. I went, 'OK, this is the real deal.' "
Reid also was asked to reflect on Texas Stadium, which will close after this season. In addition to all his trips with the Eagles, Reid took part in some historic '90s battles there as a Mike Holmgren assistant with the Packers.
"We played there somewhere between 7 and 9 times straight, when I was at Green Bay," Reid said. "It got to the point where I knew the guy who fixed the chili dogs up in the box." (Again, gasps of disbelief filled the NovaCare 
auditorium air.) "And he knew exactly what I liked on the chili dogs. So it was like home away from home ... a lot of great memories there. I've had a lot of bad memories there, but I've had some good memories. It has such a great history. It's like when the Vet went down -- I'm sure they look at it, that it's old and decrepit and so on and it's time for a new stadium. However, once that thing goes down, you reflect ... You hate to see those things go, but on the other hand, they're building a 100,000-seat stadium down there, and that's pretty exciting for them too, I'm sure."
Later, in his weekly news conference, Donovan McNabb said he has adjusted his philosophy, now that he's 31 and playing on a rebuilt ACL -- he said he is more willing to let fly and depend on a receiver to make a play on the ball, as he did early in the Rams game on the big DeSean Jackson catch, rather than trying to hold the ball and wait for more separation. More about that in Friday's Daily News.
Oh, and some T.O. guy did a conference call with the Philadelphia-area media. John Smallwood is writing about that.
One more thing: Again yesterday, McNabb referenced "that Hard-Knock Life show," in speaking of the chronicling of the Cowboys on HBO's "Hard Knocks." When McNabb called it "Hard-Knock Life" in his postgame news conference Sunday, we figured it was probably a slip of the tongue. Now we're thinking DMac is taking a sly poke.
Here is the note from Monday's Daily News about this topic:
Somebody asked Donovan McNabb what sort of atmosphere he expects next Monday at Dallas. McNabb replied that he had been watching that “Hard Knock Life” show. We’re going to assume he meant HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which has provided a behind-the-scenes look at the Cowboys’ preseason. “Hard Knock Life,” of course, is a song from “Annie.” 
But maybe Donovan is on to something here. Can’t you see Wade Phillips as Miss Hannigan? We’ll cast T.O. as Annie, because of his sunny disposition. Tank Johnson and Adam (formerly Pac Man) Jones as other orphans. Jerry Jones as Daddy Warbucks.
Everybody, now: “It's the hard-knock life for us, it's the hard-knock life for us. No one cares for you a smidge when you’re in an orphanage …”
By the way, commenter RVB2321, below, makes a very good point RE "Hard Knock Life." But my idea is funnier.
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
