IS GETTING ITS DRAFT BOARD READY
The Eagles ranked 20th in the NFL in actual dollars spent on salaries from 2004 to '08, according to numbers obtained by Jason La Canfora, the former Washington Post Redskins writer who recently joined the NFL Network. The numbers are gross totals spent on player salaries and bonuses.
The Eagles spent $495.75 million, and La Canfora says the Birds are among the teams that "stand out, stringing together a good run without grossly overspending." He makes the same case for the Giants (No. 19, $497.63 million) and Bears (21st, $495.57 million). Of course, all three teams reached a Super Bowl during that span, with the Giants winning the title. New England is 10th at $513.31 million.
Conversely, the team at the top of the list in spending -- to no one's surprise -- is the Dallas Cowboys at $566.89 million and still searching for an elusive playoff victory. The Redskins -- backed by Daniel Snyder's cash -- are third at $547.37 million. Seattle is a surprising second at $552.42 million.
Pretty interesting list when you consider how the relationship between spending and success works in baseball, with the teams near the top of the list generally making the postseason with the usual exception or two every year.
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Eagles linebacker Charleston Hughes has picked up his championship ring from last season with the Calgary Stampeeders in the CFL. Now, Hughes is hoping to be able to join the exclusive company of the four players to win both a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl. He signed a 3-year deal with the Eagles in the offseason.
"The goal is to have one of each," Hughes said. "That would be special."
Hughes is featured today in his hometown paper, the Saginaw News in Michigan.
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
