IS FILLING OUT OUR BRACKET
Reno Mahe won't be home for Thanksgiving this year. While others are eating turkey and watching football, he'll be in American Samoa, helping victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the island in late September.
The 29-year-old former Eagles running back/punt returner said he got involved when Gabe Reid, a former tight end with the Bears, asked for help in collecting clothing for the victims.
The pair have Samoan roots, are both Mormons, were teammates at Brigham Young and are in business together.
Mahe said he thought the NFL might like to get involved, in part because of the lengthy list of players with Samoan backgrounds. According to several Web sites, there are currently 28 Samoans playing in the league.
Mahe called Eagles coach Andy Reid, who called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who called Mahe. The result?
The NFL and the NFL Players Association are contributing $50,000 to the American Red Cross to help with relief efforts and sending Mahe and Gabe Reid along goodwill ambassadors.
"It [the tsunami] was getting a lot of attention early," Mahe told the Daily News yesterday. "Then it just died out in the media. But there is still a need there. We're going over there to help . . . to say thank you to the Red Cross and FEMA workers. We'll be there for 9 days."
While at BYU, Mahe said he always regretted choosing football over participating in a 2-year service mission, which, while not required, is customary among young Mormons.
Might this, in some small way, make up for that?
"Yeah, in some way. But 9 days won't replace 2 years," Mahe said. "It's going to take me the rest of my life to pay that back."
Mahe, who played for the Eagles from 2003-08 and led the league in punt returning in 2005, said he still has fond memories of Philadelphia.
Perhaps with Brian Westbrook out with a concussion, he'd like to come back and help out?
"I don't think so," he said with a laugh. "Unless they're going to give me a really sweet signing bonus."
-- Tom Mahon
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Surprising decision to dress corner Ramzee Robinson, an Eagle for five days who couldn’t possibly know the defense, ahead of Jack Ikegwuonu, who’s been practicing all season and studying the scheme for a year and a half.
This can’t say good things about Ikegwuonu’s progress, as he tries to strengthen the leg muscles around his devastating 2008 knee injury.
It’ll be interesting to see if Ikegwuonu has a role this week, should Sheldon Brown be sidelined by his hamstring injury.
I was thinking that since Quintin Demps apparently was close to being able to go at San Diego, maybe he’ll play in the dime or something at Chicago, but when Andy Reid used the term “high ankle sprain” yesterday in describing Demps’ injury, well, that didn’t sound good. Study hard, Ramzee.
-- Les Bowen
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The desperation is evident in Chicago. The Bears have lost four of their last five and had a 75-minute practice Monday after taking three days off following a loss to San Francisco on Thursday night. In a different situation, the players might have been off yesterday as well.
''When I say the wall is on our back, that's what that means,'' defensive tackle Tommie Harris said, according to the Chicago Tribune. ''We have to win out. We have no room to get any more losses. If you lose again, you're going to be hoping that another team loses for you to get in. You don't want to be in that position. We were in that position last year. It's basically in our hands right now.''
On the injury front, strong safety Al Afalava (right shoulder) practiced and so did cornerback Zack Bowman, who left the 49ers game with an abdominal injury.
Left tackle Orlando Pace practiced even though he said Thursday he believed he suffered a concussion.
''I don't know [if I had a concussion],'' Pace told the Tribune. ''I'm going to take my test right now. I felt pretty good, and we didn't have any contact, either.''
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.
