The fishbowl is too confined and the water too thick with chatter for any athlete to ignore what's being bandied around about him.

I think the more realistic scenario is the one that Eagles receiver Reggie Brown implements - hear but don't listen.

Brown knows about the seemingly never-ending debate about the Eagles' need to upgrade the receiving corps. He knows that of all the receivers, he's being pointed to as the one who most needs to produce more.

He says it doesn't faze him.

"Not really," Brown said. "I don't come into this season with any pressure, no chip on my shoulder. I'm totally relaxed and ready to have fun with the game.

"I don't see why you should have pressure on yourself. If you love the game, you go out there and play it for the love of the game, not for what other people think.

"I didn't start playing this game when I was 8 years old for the glory or for what other people were going to think of me. I played because I loved it, and I'm still doing it."

If Brown is concerned about what people think, he would know that a great number of Eagles fans have come to the conclusion that he is not quite good enough.

As the Birds begin training camp for the 2008 season, there are doubts about whether Brown, selected 35th overall in the 2005 draft, will ever be more than a complementary receiver.

Despite catching 61 passes for 780 yards and four touchdowns in 2007, Brown, from the University of Georgia, has been plastered as the figurehead for a receiving corps deemed as not being "Super Bowl-caliber."

That's a 180-degree change from Brown's rookie season, when the Eagles still had perennial Pro Bowl receiver Terrell Owens.

But the Birds receivers have been under scrutiny since Owens' tenure flamed out after seven games in 2005.

"I think that, year in and year out, we go out and make plays," Brown said of the Eagles receivers, who this season include Kevin Curtis, Hank Baskett, Jason Avant and rookie DeSean Jackson. "Some years, we don't have good years.

"We didn't make the playoffs, so last season wasn't a good year. The receivers, we always take the blame since T.O. left. That's just what it is. We've got a group of guys who can play. We don't blink. We don't listen to that stuff."

Maybe it was because Brown came in as the heir apparent to Owens. Maybe it was because he averaged 17.7 yards per catch and had eight touchdowns his second season. But the expectation was that Brown would emerge as a top-flight No. 1 receiver last year.

"Of course, things are going to be harder on Reggie," Baskett said. "He's the guy who has been the starter here for the longest. [Fans] put it on him to be the leader of the receivers.

"But I'll tell you this, personally from working out with Reggie this year compared to last offseason, he's taken it upon himself. Nothing was his fault, but Reggie has taken it on himself to make himself better. He's doubled his workouts. He doesn't want to settle for less than the best this season."

Baskett said that one thing people overlook when analyzing the Eagles receivers is that this year, they will have a full offseason routine of work with quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Because McNabb was recovering from a knee injury from the 2006 season, he missed all of the minicamps and was not up to full speed during training camp last year.

With Curtis coming in as a free agent, and Baskett and Avant in only their second seasons, the receivers and quarterback never had a chance to establish timing and cohesion before the games counted.

Even Brown had limited workout time with McNabb, because injuries limited the quarterback to 19 of 34 games during Brown's first two seasons.

When Brown got off to a horrible start in 2007, talk began to stir about friction between him and McNabb.

"When you don't have anything to report, you usually try to make up stuff," Brown said, when asked about his alleged issues with McNabb. "That's usually what happens - erroneous statements, make-believe, unicorns flying around causing havoc here and there.

"[McNabb] and I have a great relationship. We both have a job to do and, hopefully, I'll get off to a better start this year and carry it through the whole season. We'll see."

We will talk, and Reggie Brown will hear, but that doesn't mean he will listen. *

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