THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Two of the more intriguing additions to the Eagles -- to say the least -- have been Michael Vick and Jeremiah Trotter.
Here is what we know about each and their role, at this point:
MICHAEL VICK
Maybe we’ve been looking at the Michael Vick thing all wrong.
He got just one snap before kneel-down time Sunday, but it was a 4-yard run for a first down on third-and-1 from the Giants’ 15 near the end of the first quarter.
Regarding the continuing question, “Why have him around?’’ Well, you need three quarterbacks. Vick essentially is A.J. Feeley. If the Birds still had Feeley, would he have converted any third downs Sunday? No, he would have worn a baseball cap and congratulated guys as they jogged off the field. And now the Eagles have Jeremiah Trotter to do that, anyway. (We kid, Trot, we kid.)
JEREMIAH TROTTER
Speaking of Trot, though, it’s pretty clear his role now, as Will Witherspoon gets situated, is mostly ceremonial.
Trotter hinted at that late last week when he talked about how happy he is just to be in the locker room again, etc.
Maybe Trot can scrape off enough rust to provide a little more on-field help at some point, but in the meantime, as long as he does what he’s supposed to do on special teams and provides a voice of experience for younger teammates, where’s the harm? You’d rather have some guy from another team’s practice squad doing that?
Of course, if something happens to Witherspoon and Trot really has to play, this might look a little different.
IN BIG D
And if there is any doubt as to how the Cowboys figure to be looking at this game and what it means, read this column from the Dallas Morning News' Jean Jacques Taylor. Pretty interesting stat that the Eagles under Andy Reid have beaten the Cowboys eight times by at least 20 points. That includes the 44-6 drubbing in the regular season finale last year.
DONOVAN NOMINATED
Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb is a finalist for the FedEx Air NFL Player of the Week. McNabb threw three touchdowns in the win over the New York Giants. The other finalists are Brett Favre and Tony Romo.
Fans can vote at NFL.com/FedEx until noon Friday. The winners will be announced Friday evening on NFL.com.
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.
