Eagles' Kolb is just the latest in the city's toughest sports job

Bill Lyon is the author of Deadlines and Overtimes: Collected Writings on Sports and Life

The hottest seat in this town has nothing to do with heat and humidity. It has everything to do with expectations and yearnings.

Just after 4 this afternoon, in the steamiest part of the day, the hottest seat in town will be occupied by a tough Texan who thinks he knows the enormity of what's coming his way, but in fact, hasn't the slightest. Kevin Kolb, who has dutifully, patiently, served a three-year apprenticeship, has been given the keys to Philadelphia's beloved, revered sporting possession - its professional football team.

Or, if you prefer, those E-A-G . . .

For almost half a century now, when each new Iggles quarterback has hunkered down behind center, Philadelphia has wondered, wistfully, beseechingly: Is this, at last, the one?

Many have tried to pull the sword from the stone, and all have failed. The last quarterback to deliver a championship to the long-suffering faithful, way back there in the misty long ago of 1960, was Norm Van Brocklin. The Dutchman was all grit and guts and gristle, a willful, profane whip-cracker whose voice was the only one permitted in the huddle while he tongue-lashed the sinners.

"One play, I came back from missing a pass," Hall of Fame receiver Tommy McDonald recalled, "and I told him: 'Dutch, I think I broke my collarbone.' And he just growled: 'Shut the bleep up and catch the bleeping ball.' "

Since the days of The Dutchman, the Iggles have had, in no particular order, one Bubby (Brister), two Detmers (Ty and Koy), two Jeffs (Garcia) and (Kemp), a Jaws (Ron Jaworski), a Sonny (Jurgensen), a Norm (Snead), a Jack (Concannon), and a Joe (Pisarcik). Plus a Matt (Cavanaugh), a Mark (Rypien), and an A.J. (Feeley).

Also, a Pete (Liske) and a Peete (Rodney), a Bobby (Hoying), a Mike (Boryla), and a Michael (Vick), a Doug (Pederson) and a John (Reaves) and a Jim (McMahon). Not to mention a King (Hill), an Ultimate Weapon (Randall Cunningham), The Fire High Gang (Roman Gabriel) and, most recently, Donovan (Where's The Love?) McNabb.

Comes now Kevin Kolb. Like his enigmatic predecessor, he was booed - though not quite as lustily - when the Eagles drafted him. He shrugged and took the pragmatist's view:

"I was a little bit shocked, so why shouldn't they [the fans] be? When the time comes, I'll be ready to jump in."

The jump could be a daunting one, coming as it does against an opponent - the Green Bay Packers - regarded as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The jump is in Philadelphia and before a raucous home crowd that will itch to have something to cheer about . . . and a crowd that is notorious for its quick trigger finger and rush to judgment.

Now is the time, the new quarterback said, to grow a thick skin. Yes, something on the order of armadillo armor would serve nicely.

Frankly, it is difficult to get a handle on these Eagles. They are remaking on the run, having gotten younger and speedier. There is pyrotechnic potential on offense. The new QB needn't launch ICBMs; this attack requires a dart thrower who can hit the (Beep-Beep) Road Runners - DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin - in stride.

"We have the playmakers," Kolb said, "it's up to me to get them the ball."

What is unsettling is that he failed to do that during preseason games. There was nothing encouraging in his scattershot performances. The Birds took a familiar fall-back position, namely that those games didn't count. True enough, but it still is difficult not to have twinges of concern.

He is The New Guy, and it is inevitable that, initially at least, he is going to be compared with The Old Guy, who is now doing his quarterbacking down I-95 South, and who will be performing here Oct. 4. McNabb logged more than a decade here and leaves with his name scrawled across just about every page in the record books. Only one thing missing in that portfolio, as he has been reminded once or twice.

He drags that with him, and there is no discernible reason to think he can lead Washington to the Supe. Certainly not this year.

And what of The Old Guy's Old Team? Eight-and-eight feels about right. Maybe a win or a loss either way - 9-7 with a wild-card berth by the Birds would be worthy of applause, anything to suggest that the remaking-on-the-run is headed in the right direction.

When he was drafted, Kolb said: "I'm a student of the game. If I don't know it, I'm going to sit here until I do."

The time for sitting and studying officially ends here and now, in the dying days of summer. Doing Time is here.

A legendary Texas football man named Art Briles coached Kevin Kolb in high school and college, and on the day his protégé was drafted Briles tried to reassure those disgruntled b-o-o-o-ers up North, saying: "They [the Eagles] studied him a long time and did their homework on him. They [the Iggles zealots] are going to fall in love with him."

Well, they want to.

They really, really do.