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The Eagles are again about to blot out the sun

    by Mike Kern
    Published 
Pretty soon, the rest of the sports world as we know it will pretty much cease to exist. At least for the next six months or so.
It’s been relatively quiet on the Eagles front, ever since they signed Fletcher Cox to a contract extension that made the defensive lineman one of the highest-paid players in the NFL. But that’s about to change, once training camp opens on the 25th.
Despite the way they’ve been playing, the Phillies will become an afterthought. Ben Simmons won’t be grabbing very many more back-page headlines until probably the NBA all-star break is approaching. Ditto the Flyers, despite the way they closed out last season. That’s just the way it is. The NFL rules the universe, which means the Birds own Philly. And it basically has been that way since Buddy Ryan and talk radio arrived on the scene at about the same time in the mid 1980s.
The other teams have had their moments. And in the Phils' case, that moment lasted the better part of six years. Yet at our core, the fan base bleeds green, 24/7 and 365. Too much is never enough.
It was some offseason, even more tumultuous than last year. And that’s a bold statement. Now the Eagles have a new coach and a quarterback of the future, which they had to make two trades to get high enough in the draft to take. The new coach hasn’t been a head coach before. The new QB played for a championship FCS program, where he really wasn’t on anyone’s big-time radar until his relatively brief career as a starter was over. And the old QB, who came here in a controversial deal last year, wanted to be moved because he wasn’t happy that the team wouldn’t make him its QB going past this season. You couldn’t make all this up. And it’s just what this town needs to get everybody’s whatever stoked one way or the other.
Last year, most everyone thought the Birds were going to be really good, especially after Sam Bradford looked like Joe Montana in an exhibition game at Green Bay, where the Packers didn’t seem to be trying very hard. Then the Birds went 7-9. And Chip Kelly and the grand experiment with the offensive college guru who thought outside the box and somehow managed to get all the power was history. Enter Doug Pederson, whose last claim to fame as Andy Reid’s offensive coordinator at Kansas City was taking seven minutes to put together a touchdown in a playoff loss to the Patriots when the Chiefs needed to score in more like half that time. So where did we see that before? And by the way, welcome back. Now if only Carson Wentz can turn into the next Donovan McNabb, even if No. 5 never quite won a Super Bowl. Just saying.
I can’t wait for the first tweet about the first pass Wentz throws to a third-string receiver. Sure hope it spirals the right way. Or the first time Bradford does something, well, wrong. Will Eagles Nation remember that Wentz isn’t supposed to do much this year? Kind of like a redshirt. My money’s on no. Patience has rarely been a strength when it comes to the passion. All they want to do is win. And is that asking too much, from a team that hasn’t lifted a trophy since six years before the first Super? But chances are it won’t be happening this February, either. Which should only make the coming ride that much more enthralling.
And then we can get caught back up with everything else that’s going on around here. Just hope we don’t miss out on anything too relevant.
    MK
    Mike Kern
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