TRUSTS CHOOCH IN A PINCH
Eagles coach Andy Reid said the concussion tests on running back Brian Westbrook are "better, but not all the way there."
Asked if he were planning to play without Westbrook on Sunday against San Francisco, Reid said, "I am today ... It's a day-to-day thing."
Westbrook practiced with scout team again, Reid said. The team listed him as a limited participant.
Reid said the team is "just getting him back into football shape."
Later, at the end of the morning media locker room session, equipment manager John Hatfield handed DeSean Jackson one of those ominous FedEx envelopes, the ones that indicate league fines. Jackson quickly took out the letter, scanned it, and said to Hatfield: "I didn't strike nobody in the head."
It would be nice to tell you exactly what this was about, and the amount of the fine, but an Eagles spokesman shooed the few remaining reporters out of the locker room before Jackson could answer any questions.
Updating: after practice: Jackson asked reporters "What fine?" when he was questioned. Adding to the confusion was that some of the questioners seemed to think Jackson had been fined for a celebration, which given what he said to Hatfield, would not seem to have been the case. So several times he denied being fined for celebrating. Then he denied being fined at all.
There were a lot of feisty moments in Sunday night's Giants game. It's hard to recall Jackson initiating any contact; he did flop to the turf after jawing with corner/safety Aaron Ross, and getting bumped in the facemask as Ross leaned into him. Would this somehow translate into a fine for Jackson? We'll check with the league, which often doesn't get into confirming fines until the end of the week.
Hatfield had another envelope under his arm, for defensive end Trent Cole, who twice punched Giants offensive lineman Shaun O'Hara in a closing-moments scrum.
"I embarrassed myself and my team," said Cole, who would not disclose the amount of the fine.
Reid said tight end Brent Celek went through the team's walkthrough this morning and will be ready to play Sunday. Celek is dealing with a sore back that Reid described as "tender" on Monday.
Celek is unlikely to practice today, however. He was walking stiffly in the locker room.
There was speculation that the team signed Martin Rucker from the practice squad on Tuesday because of Celek's injury. "That's not why we brought Rucker up," Reid said.
A team source told the Daily News yesterday that the Eagles brought up Rucker because other teams had interest in signing him away from the Birds.
Jeremy Maclin is "doing a little bit better," with his plantar fascia injury," Reid said. He and Celek did not practice today. The coach initially dscribed the problem as a one or two-week injury.
The Eagles have re-signed running back PJ Hill to the practice squad. Hill was released yesterday from the 53-man roster to make room for Rucker.
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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.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with 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 started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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