THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
It looked like fun, at least to Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie. Lurie saw the Eagles' quarterbacks pouncing on balls during a fumble-recovery drill before practice Sunday, and Lurie decided to join in. So, no, the accompanying photo does not show Lurie being bowled over by any Brian Westbrook or Lito Sheppard salary demands.
Lurie said he mishandled his first attempt, then got the knack.
"The second one, I really rolled into it and protected it," said the chairman, who turns 57 next month. "I'd actually never seen them doing that before. I thought ahhh -- something an old guy can do, too, without getting injured. It was kinda fun. You know, to catch passes would be more fun, but to catch Donovan's ball -- I think the golf game would be destroyed." Lurie looked down at his hand: "Or the tennis game would be destroyed."
With the fields at Lehigh back to normal after Saturday morning's water main break, the Eagles went to work on a coolish, clear morning. Brian Westbrook, battling a viral illness, started the practice but left before it was over. Lito Sheppard left with a groin pull, the Eagles said, Sheppard joining Asante Samuel (hamstring) on the shelf. Matt Schobel came up limping after Chris Gocong landed on his legs in the end zone; Schobel suffered a foot injury, the team said. Sean Considine sat out with an oblique muscle strain, Kimo von Oelhoffen with a knee injury.
Crunch Time
*Brian Westbrook's early departure gave more reps to Lorenzo Booker and Correll Buckhalter. Booker danced inside and then outside, dodging tacklers, for a 27-yard gain. Buckhalter broke loose for a huge gain on a screen, but fumbled inside the 5.
*Kevin Kolb seemed to have DeSean Jackson open for a TD, despite being hurried by blitzing Quintin Mikell, but Sheldon Brown broke up the pass.
*Holder Sav Rocca pitched to Brent Celek for a nice gain on a fake field goal. Those plays always seem to work in training camp.
*Crowd-pleaser David Akers nailed a 60-yard field goal, again.
*King Dunlap, the 6-9 project of an offensive tackle the Eagles drafted in the seventh round this year, held his own against Trent Cole in 1-on-1 drills. Cole, a Pro Bowl defensive end last season, always goes hard, to the point where he sometimes ticks off teammates on the other side of the line. So those encouraging words Andy Reid had for Dunlap in Saturday's news conference gained credibility. Reid said of Dunlap: "He's a good athlete. He's got a little bit of a sore ankle, but he's played through that and he's done very well with it. It hurts him a little bit, when he's being bull-rushed, because he can't put his foot in the ground like he wants to. He's moving around very well. He's got very long arms and knows how to use them. He's not afraid to play the game out in front of him. I've been impressed by the way he's handled himself."
*You don't see a lot of arm-flapping celebrations on the field at Lehigh, but Omar Gaither launched into one after the defense "sacked" Kevin Kolb.
*Kevin Curtis made a great leaping TD catch of a Donovan McNabb heave, Curtis defended by Nick Graham.
*Stewart Bradley laid a strong lick on Lorenzo Booker, running inside.
*When a pass bounced off Greg Lewis' hands, Joselio Hanson caught it and ran it back
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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.
