THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Unlike the big to-do made of Donovan McNabb’s contract restructuring last week, Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski doesn’t think it’s such a big deal.
“I think it’s irrelevant, to tell you the truth,” Jaworski said while sitting in his office at NFL Films last week in Mount Laurel.
Jaworski was participating as an instructor in last week’s 3rd annual NFL Broadcast Boot Camp for present and former players looking to break into television and radio.
“Donovan had two years left on his contract. I felt all along that he would fulfill the two years. The Eagles probably did the right thing, they had money under the cap and they gave it to a guy who is a big key to season.
“If you’re going to be a championship team, your team has to play well. There have been times, occasionally, that an average quarterback wins a Super Bowl. But it’s all about what’s your best chance to win a Super Bowl … Their best chance is with Donovan McNabb,” Jaworski said.
As a former Eagles Pro Bowl quarterback, Jaworski can understand why it was important for McNabb’s mental state to re-work his contract.
“I would think that they believe in me,” Jaworski said. “They believe I’m the guy. They laid 5 million on my lap. They could have easily said to play the next two years how the contract is.”
With a healthy – and happy – quarterback, Jaworski thinks that the Eagles offense will operate a little more smoothly this year. Aside from McNabb, the upgrades on the offensive line and at receiver can’t hurt. But a lot depends on how the team’s collective personality jells.
Jaworski knows that each new player brings a new dimension to the locker room.
“Although I think there have been upgrades in the talent and youth, chemistry is always the unknown,” he noted. “You look at the offensive line and they are huge – but can those 5 work as one?”
In the end, Jaworski thinks that the Eagles will be standing at the top of the NFC East standings at the end of the upcoming season – despite changes abound to opponents’ rosters.
“Although I think the Eagles are a better football team … [the division is] my biggest concern. The Giants are a heck of a football team. You’re going to have to contend with Albert Haynesworth in Washington. Dallas is still a very talented football team. I think the NFC East is a hell of a division.
“I still like the Eagles.”
To read today's Daily News story on the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp, click here.
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From the ex-Eagles file, Sean Considine has been penciled in as the starting strong safety for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“I wanted the opportunity to start when I first went in and talked to them," Considine told the Rockford Register Star in his hometown in Illinois. "They told me I would be given that chance, and the rest is up to me. Their defense is quite a bit different from what I’m used to, though. There are a lot of adjustments I still need to make.”
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To read our post about Ellis Hobbs' view of the Eagles' chances, click here.
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.
