THIS WAS the day's second question-and-answer session for Jack Ikegwuonu. The rookie cornerback was now being quizzed about which Eagle might be slotted for which spot in the nickel and dime packages, with the Birds preparing for Sunday's visit to San Diego.
Ikegwuonu acknowledged he wasn't sure.
"I came in today thinking I'd be on the practice squad," he reminded his questioners.
Yesterday was a strange, disruptive day for the secondary, which in a matter of hours, without even putting on pads, went from being the team's deepest unit to one of its biggest question marks. On the same morning Eagles coach Andy Reid announced that corner Ellis Hobbs would have surgery and was done for the season with a neck injury, the team learned Joselio Hanson, the other top reserve at that position, was being suspended without pay for 4 weeks for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances.
Hobbs, also the Eagles' top kick returner, was injured in Sunday's loss to the Cowboys. Hanson, according to a statement released by sports attorney David Cornwell, took a pill "that turned out to be a diuretic," after feeling bloated from eating Chinese food before last season's NFC Championship Game, and tested positive for that substance. Diuretics can mask the presence of steroids in a urine sample, although Cornwell contended that is seldom the case.
"Joselio did not use steroids or any other substance that would enhance his performance," Cornwell said.
At any rate, the Eagles added corner Ramzee Robinson, cut by the Lions in the preseason, and signed Ikegwuonu from their practice squad. After starters Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown, the corner with the most experience in their defensive scheme Sunday will be Dimitri Patterson, who returned to practice yesterday after missing a month with quadriceps and hand injuries. Patterson has played three games as an Eagle, all this season, mostly on special teams.
"I'm as healthy as I can be, given the situation," Patterson said. "I feel pretty good . . . I stayed in tune with what was going on while I was out. It's not the same as playing, but you try to run the plays through your mind, put yourself in those situations while you're watching, and hope that transfers to the field."
Hanson apparently lost an appeal Oct. 27; according to Cornwell's statement, the matter was complicated by the StarCaps case involving Saints and Vikings players, who said they inadvertently took a diuretic that was not listed among the contents of a weight-loss supplement. Those players' suspensions were tabled after the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Vikings players could sue the league for violating Minnesota drug-testing laws.
Hanson didn't have the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to wield against the NFL's disciplinary machinery, and the league declined to go along with Cornwell's view that the staying of the StarCaps suspensions should allow Hanson to continue playing, as well.
That might be why, when contacted by the Wilmington, Del., News-Journal, Hanson yesterday texted: "I'm just going to say that the NFL don't treat players the same."
That was Brown's view. He said "it seems like they're trying to make an example" of the 5-9, 185-pound corner, who hasn't sprouted any suspicious-looking muscles lately.
"Look at Jose, man," Brown said. "I don't get it. This is a guy, to me, who does everything the right way. He's sick [about the suspension]. I'm sick for him, too . . . This is one of the good guys on our team."
Cornwell declined a Daily News e-mail request to identify the substance Hanson ingested and to detail how he obtained it.
"Beyond our statement, we have nothing more to add," Cornwell said.
The Eagles said they were not allowed to comment, because the suspension was a league matter. The NFL issued a statement confirming the suspension.
In his statement, Cornwell alleged that research downplaying the link between diuretics and steroids has been part of the talks toward a new collective bargaining agreement, with the treatment of diuretics under the NFL policy likely to change.
"Joselio accepts his responsibilities as an NFL player. Nonetheless, we suspect that he is a casualty of the looming labor war in the NFL," Cornwell wrote. "Here's hoping that he is the last."
Asked to respond to Cornwell's allegations, league spokesman Greg Aiello e-mailed: "As Mr. Cornwell knows, the details of the appeals process are confidential. Nevertheless, his statement contains multiple inaccuracies and misleading assertions. Our program of testing and discipline for violations remains in place, as the players were reminded in a joint memo from the NFL and the NFLPA on Sept. 21."
Hanson, 28, has played in every Eagles game since he arrived via free agency before the 2006 season - 56 games in a row, a streak that will end this week. He can practice again with the Eagles on Monday, Dec. 7, and play the following weekend, when the Birds visit the Giants.
Until then, fans should keep their fingers crossed that Samuel and Brown stay healthy. Right now, Patterson is the nickel corner this week and safety Sean Jones will play the dime, other players said yesterday.
Ikegwuonu, a fourth-round 2008 draftee who ended up on the practice squad this year after not seeming fully recovered from a serious predraft knee injury, presumably will play special teams and play if any of those players gets hurt.
"I feel very comfortable with the defense," said Ikegwuonu, who said he has strengthened the quad muscles above his knee considerably since the preseason.
Hobbs, 26, joined the Eagles in an offseason trade with the Patriots. He is in the final year of his contract. He suffered what the team initially called a "stinger" in Sunday's loss to Dallas. On Monday, Eagles coach Andy Reid announced that Hobbs had seen a spine surgeon.
"They think they can go in and fix it where he'd have an opportunity to continue his career," Reid said yesterday. "He's done a nice job for us. It's too bad for, No. 1, Ellis, who wanted to continue to do well, and he was rotating in. We'll move on and the other guys will have an opportunity to step up and play."
Robinson, "Mr. Irrelevant" when he was the last player drafted in 2007, by the Lions, appeared in 19 games for them over the next two seasons. Asked yesterday how long it would take for him to be ready to play, he allowed that was a good question.
"I'm just going to treat every day like it was my last," he said. "I'm not sure how long it's going to take to get into that groove." *
For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.
