IS TALKIN' SOUL WITH DONOVAN MORGAN
Tons of things happening in the wake of the Eagles' trade of Donovan McNabb last night.
*A source close to the situation confirms that DT Albert Haynesworth was part of the Redskins trade discussions, as first reported by Adam Caplan of Scout.com last night. The source said Haynesworth, who has clashed with the Redskins over workout regimen and other things, and has known controversy off the field, "wasn't a good fit" for the Eagles.
* ESPN's Sage Steele said during SportsCenter this morning that the Eagles would face the Redskins in an Oct. 26 Monday night game. Turned out the worldwide leader was looking at LAST YEAR'S NFL SKED. Birds won that game; McNabb wore green. A league spokesman told the Daily News in an email that the league has no information on any team's schedule right now because it has not been completed. "There are no games officially scheduled at this point."
The league is not expected to release the schedule until April 13. The league usually releases some of the marquee games during the owners meetings and that announcement was delayed.
* Kevin Kolb will meet the media for the first time as the official starting quarterback at 12:30 today at the NovaCare Complex.
* Coach Andy Reid has done some interiews since last night's press conference, including one with Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio this morning. Here are some highlights:
On his conversation with McNabb after the trade: "I had a nice talk with him after the deal was made. We are friends. We will remain friends. We had 11 great years together. Unfortunately this game moves fast. In this day and age thins happen like this. It’s a terrible thing to deal with for the player and the coach. There is a certain bond that develops on that football field, tight and emotional and everything else. It’s a neat thing. It doesn’t last forever. That’s the problem. We all face it. We all know it’s coming, some time, some place. The players are conditioned to it the best they can be, the coaches are … The game moves on."
On offers for Kevin Kolb: "I can’t deny there wasn’t a choice to be made. I was offered things for Kevin. I thought this was the best deal here with Donovan. I did not go into it saying that Donovan was the guy. I kept it open for all three of them. This happened to be what I considered the best deal for everyone."
On any dissent in the organization about the deal: "I have final say on the whole thing there ... You know how this business goes, there is a business side and there is a personal side. I knew I was going to be in this situation. I didn’t know it was going to be Donovan that would be traded, but I knew something was going to be offered and something was going to happen."
On trading McNabb within the division: "I didn’t concentrate as much on Washington as I did on the Philadelpia Eagles. I’ve got to do what I think is the best for our football team. When you get into negotiations that is the way you think.You take into consideration that it’s Washington a little bit. No .1, you’re thinking about your football team and what you need to do to become a better football team. This is part of the game. We’re trying to make ourselves better. We felt this was the best way to do it.
On why he thinks Kolb is ready to start: "Obviously, we have confidence in Kevin to do what we have done here. We have confidence in Michael Vick. We still have a tremendous situation at that position. The things we have seen in Kevin -- leadership, he’s a smart kid. He’s a coach’s kid, not that that matter. He grew up around the sport … He’s got good enough arm strength and good enough athlete to make this thing work and then he was able to be tutored under Donovan. … That has helped his maturation process."
On how much younger the Eagles have gotten this offseason: "I kinda feel like the movie Cocoon. Everyone is getting younger and I'm getting older. I hope some of this rubs off on me. I think we’ll be fine. We have some work ahead of us. The majority of the football team is up here and grinding and doing the offseason program. We have some moves we have to make in the draft. With 11 picks we have some flexibility. We’ll try to bring in some more good players to this football team. We should have a chance to compete."
Hmm. Ya think Andy looks a little like Wilford Brimley in Cocoon?
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.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with 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 started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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