Deactivation in NFC title game is a slap to Eagles receiver Reggie Brown

POSTED: January 19, 2009

options

Star Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald set an NFC Championship Game record with three touchdown catches in the first half. (Eric Memcher/Staff Photographer)

1 of 95

View images

Chargers 31, Eagles 23

Cowboys 20, Eagles 16

Eagles 40, Giants 17

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Reggie Brown, inactive. It has happened before to the Eagles' receiver, but it is still stunning when the announcement is made before a conference championship game, the clearest of messages from the organization toward a second-round draft choice who once was going to be a star. Once.

At this point, they prefer Greg Lewis to him.

"It hurts," Brown said, in the losing locker room after the Eagles were beaten by the Arizona Cardinals, 32-25. "I'm a competitor . . .

"To sit on the sidelines in the championship game, a place that you dreamed of as a kid, it's hard. And for your team to lose, to get this close to the Super Bowl and not be able to do anything to help, it hurts.

"All I can do is swallow it right now," he said. *

- Rich Hofmann

Smallwood: Time to dial down Reid's duties
Familiar ending
McNabb's heroics in NFC Championship Game come a little too early
Deactivation in NFC title game is a slap to Eagles receiver Reggie Brown
'Double pass' catches Demps by surprise
Playoff wins no longer foreign for NFC champion Cardinals
Cardinals trick Eagles defense with gadget play to Fitzgerald
Making Our Grades
Talking Points
UP NEXT
What We Saw
Steelers clock in, punch Ravens out to advance to Super Bowl
The Idle Rich: The end arrives
Eagletarian: Reid: 'It's a shame'
Eagletarian: Eagles-Cardinals report card
Moving the Chains: New contract? McNabb doesn't know
Moving the Chains: Last call for Tra Thomas, Buck?
Moving the Chains: 10 observations from the game
Attytood: Attytood: Remember this, Philly!
Poll: Who takes the blame for the loss?
Poll: Most disappointing NFC title game loss?