Brown played the last two games of 2005 with a strained right knee. The team was 6-8. The games meant nothing.

So with the team 5-4, very much in the playoff hunt and wafer-thin at defensive back, Brown, who has never missed a game at any level, fully expects to play tomorrow night in Chicago.

For that matter, if the game were yesterday, he would have been in there.

"More than likely, I'd be rolling," Brown said. "Sometimes I think it's mind over matter. You've got to psyche yourself up and believe you can do some things in life."

To that end, Brown participated in much of yesterday's practice. He will be listed as "questionable," and Dmitri Patterson has taken most of the practice snaps this week. Still, Brown, who missed the second half of Sunday's loss in San Diego, worked some every day, and was very involved in the week's preparation.

His theory: Use it or lose it.

"The best way to rehab and do things is to actually work," Brown said.

That's why, 4 years ago, Brown didn't sit. It is why, even if the Eagles were 8-1 and had more wiggle room for a loss, he would still risk aggravating the injury and missing more than a week or 2.

"It would be the same," he said of his decision, and recalled 2005. "Everybody was hurt. We had no chance at making the playoffs. And I played through some things. And it was fine."

Brown said he expects to shoulder his normal, every-down workload, not as a third or fourth cornerback, a role that would limit his playing time. He figures that if he's in, he should be in all the way.

That said, if he doesn't feel right tomorrow night, he will accept that his streak of playing in 133 consecutive NFL games will end.

However, "If I go out and I warm up and I'm good, it's a go"

The winner is . . .

 

Undetermined.

However, Joe Mays admitted to getting significant more playing time at middle linebacker this week than he did last week, including during yesterday's practice. Which means Jeremiah Trotter must have gotten less.

The Eagles are again looking for a middle linebacker after last week's fruitless configuration of Chris Gocong in the middle, Will Witherspoon on the weak side and Moise Fokou on the strong side. Gocong is back at strong, Witherspoon remains on the weakside, and Fokou is out of the running.

Reid yesterday declined to name Mays the starter, and Mays insisted that he had not been told he would start. However, he seemed downright giddy at the prospect of returning to his hometown and starting for the first time.

"It would mean a lot to play football in front of friends and family, and prove the doubters out there wrong," Mays said.

So, why hasn't he been told? "I guess they're waiting to see which one can do the team some justice," he said.

Out of sight

 

After suffering a second concussion in three games Sunday, Brian Westbrook not only did not work out this week, he wasn't even allowed to attend team meetings.

"This is on the doctor's orders: Back off, let him rest, that's the plan the doctor had for him," coach Andy Reid said. "Next week he can start going to meetings and some things. We'll see how he feels as he goes."

Westbrook, who was examined by a pair of specialists Wednesday, did come to the team's facility, Reid said. However, Westbrook's exclusion could drag on.

He won't even be tested again until after next week's game, and his progress will determine when, or if, he returns this season, or any other.

Birdseed

 

As expected, linebacker Akeem Jordan's knee will cost him at least one more game. There was a chance that safety Quintin Demps' ankle might be ready to go, especially since the Eagles also need help returning kicks. But Demps and Jordan both are out of the game, Reid said . . . Reid admitted he was concerned that rookie running back LeSean McCoy might be hitting the Rookie Wall and be targeted by Bears defenders, who put a premium on stripping the ball.