MAYBE BRIAN Westbrook is going to be doing this in-and-out-of-the-lineup dance all season; maybe that's who he is now, at 30, with the much-repaired knee and the tricky ankle.
But neither Westbrook nor Eagles coach Andy Reid thinks the concussion Westbrook suffered Oct. 26 against the Redskins has anything to do with that discussion. It took the franchise back off the field for three-quarters of that game and for last Sunday's victory over the Giants, but there is no reason to think Westbrook is going to have concussion-related problems going forward, they said. Reid and Westbrook talked of how Westbrook began that game fully recovered from his most recent ankle tweak, looking sharp and playing a major role in the Eagles' game plan.
"I just look at it as a fluke thing," said Westbrook, who returned to practice yesterday and has been cleared to play this Sunday night against the Cowboys, Reid said, unless he suffers further complications. "It was weird, because going into that game, I felt pretty good . . . It's frustrating, but at the same time, I guess the bright side of it, if anything is, it wasn't my knee, wasn't my ankle. I'm concerned about the long-term effects of it, but when you go out there and play football, you have to . . . play worry-free football. You have to go out there and try to play with reckless abandon."
Westbrook spoke yesterday for the first time since his head collided with Washington linebacker London Fletcher's knee, leaving Westbrook briefly unconscious on FedEx Field's 45-yard line. Reid joked that Westbrook's head normally hits opponents' shins, but "the two shortest guys on the field ran into each other."
Reid was very concerned at the time, however, standing over doctors and trainers attending to Westbrook, alongside Westbrook's brother, Redskins cornerback Byron. Minutes after Brian Westbrook walked off the field, a trainer supporting each arm, his brother suffered a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery during Washington's bye week. Byron is not expected to play this week against Atlanta.
"That was a bad day for the Westbrooks in general," Brian said yesterday. "I got hurt, my brother got hurt, he ended up having surgery, and I missed the next week. It was tough, but this is football. That's what happens in football games. It's disappointing, because you expect so much. You want to go out there and you want to perform. I really did feel good, like I mentioned before, and you know these things happen for a reason. I wish I knew what the reason was sometimes. It was definitely frustrating for me and my family.
"The one thing with that concussion, just laying down on the field, the guys on the team, your friends, your family and coaches, they showed so much concern and so much - it scared me but it scared those guys as well. Just talking to them, they were saying things like, 'Never do that again, never let that happen to you again.' Those types of things - 'We were really worried.' They think about their careers the same way I thought about mine when I got up. It was an unfortunate thing. It's tough to go through, really."
Westbrook said rookie running back LeSean McCoy's 66-yard touchdown dash against the Giants didn't make the veteran feel pressured to return.
"I put pressure on myself. I want to go out there and play," Westbrook said. "My team is enjoying this time, because they're playing so well, and I want to enjoy it with them. We've come a long way from where we started at, and I want to be able to enjoy the good times of this season with my team."
Reid extolled Westbrook's mentoring of McCoy.
"Veteran players want to keep their jobs, especially when they get a little older, and some of them can be very sensitive about that," Reid said. "Brian has enough confidence in himself and knows that LeSean is willing to work and willing to listen and be coachable, so Brian shares with him some of his experiences and helps him out. That, from a coaching standpoint, that's invaluable."
Westbrook has talked in the past about how much Duce Staley helped him in the early going, even though Staley had to know he was training his replacement. Yesterday, Westbrook was asked again about veteran resentment of rookies.
"I'm not that type of guy. Somebody took me under their wing when I was young, too. If they don't learn from the older guys, then they're going to make a lot of mistakes," he said. "Hopefully I'll have a good impact on LeSean . . . He's going to be a very good player, but I don't worry about my job much. I honestly feel that when I'm healthy . . . I'm one of the better running backs in the league, but I have to be able to go out there and do that. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to" enough this season.
"That doesn't really affect me telling LeSean what to do, and me trying to help him out when I can. In the NFL now, a lot of teams have two backs, and if the second back is no good, and he doesn't know what he's doing, he'll never play. I think in this time and age, you probably need two running backs. He's done a great job stepping in . . . Hopefully the help that I've been giving him has brought him along a little faster."
McCoy said having Westbrook as a resource was like having a coach who was actually experiencing the same things McCoy was experiencing.
"Whenever I'm not too sure, I can always go to him and ask," McCoy said.
Westbrook, who hadn't shown his trademark big-play ability early this season, was the Eagles' best player in their shocking loss at Oakland Oct. 18 (six carries, 50 yards, nine catches for 91 yards), then went down after three carries for 13 yards against the Redskins.
"Even the carries that he had at Washington, I thought you were seeing the speed, the burst, the timing, his vision looked like it was sharp," Reid said. "His blocking, when asked to do [that], was good."
Westbrook's skill in blitz pickup might be big this week against linebacker DeMarcus Ware (five sacks) and a revamped Dallas defense.
"It's important, not only for me to be on the field but for everybody to understand the protection," Westbrook said. "[The Cowboys] have some guys that can come off the edge, DeMarcus Ware in particular, that do a great job coming off of the edge, attacking the quarterback . . . [linebacker] Keith Brooking has done a great job of rushing up the middle, too. For us, we have to understand the protection, understand that they want to pressure the quarterback, and allow those [receivers] outside to play man-to-man."
For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.
