Call from the Bullpen by David Maull
The Bullpen | Major Leagues | Sports Front Page
Clueless Eagles on Road to Nowhere
From the Oct. 1, 1998 TV Times
The Philadelphia Eagles could serve as the prototype for how not to run a professional football franchise.
The abysmal product currently polluting playing fields, the one that began the season 0-3 while averaging a whopping five points per game, is the result of incompetence that stretches from the owner¹s box to the coaching staff and all points in between.
More than a decade of poor drafts, misguided free agent signings and puzzling coaching decisions have conspired to create a team that is an unadulterated embarrassment.
That owner Jeffrey Lurie allowed a team that won 87 games from 1988 through 1996 to deteriorate so rapidly calls into question his commitment to winning.
Here¹s a sampling of personnel decisions that have helped make the Eagles the worst team in the NFL:
- Since 1985, the Eagles have selected an offensive lineman with their first draft pick six times and once traded that pick for another team¹s lineman. What good has it done? In the first three games of this season, quarterbacks Bobby Hoying and Rodney Peete were sacked 16 times.
- The Eagles chose to let running back Ricky Watters leave via free agency, which is understandable considering he was a source of locker room dissension. But whose brilliant idea was it to allow Charlie Garner, a player who has never been able to carry the ball more than four times without being carted off on a stretcher, to step in as the replacement? Sure enough, Garner has been hampered by a sprained ankle and hardly played. Meanwhile, former Buccaneers running back Errict Rhett signed with the Ravens and former Nebraska standout Ahman Green, a player the Eagles could have drafted, rushed for 100 yards against them in Week One as a member of the Seattle Seahawks.
- With running back and wide receiver two positions in need of an upgrade, the Eagles instead took another offensive lineman, Tra Thomas, with their first pick in the 1998 draft. Receiver Randy Moss, a player they passed up on, is now catching touchdown passes for the Minnesota Vikings while the Eagles try in vain to get by with Irving Fryar and a bunch of scrubs.
- The Eagles hired former Stanford coach Dana Bible as their offensive coordinator and already his system has been stripped down to basics because the offense can¹t execute the schemes. My question is this, if Bible is such a great offensive mind, why did Stanford finish eighth in the Pac-10 in total offense last season?
There are plenty of other reasons the Eagles are bad but it would likely take a novel to recount them all.
What is most troubling about this train wreck of a 1998 season is that someone, namely Lurie, actually allowed it to happen.
The Eagles had a disappointing 6-9-1 record in 1997 and did almost nothing to improve themselves in the offseason. The average football fan could have told you the 1998 team was going to be wretched, so didn¹t the Eagles¹ front office know?
The fact that it trotted out such an inferior product is a slap in the face to the fans who pack Veterans Stadium every Sunday. And don¹t think Lurie will hesitate for a minute to raise ticket prices next next season if he feels the need for a few extra bucks.
It seems strange for a man who desperately wants a new stadium to put such a lousy team on the field and annoy the very fans who will likely pay for his new palace through increased taxes.
And then there's head coach Ray Rhodes, a man who just three years ago was one of the most beloved figures in Philadelphia.
Rhodes now can¹t seem to get rid of that baffled look on his face. He blew into town in 1995 with a tough guy persona that never rubbed off on his team. If anything, his players are getting softer by the minute.
While the team¹s struggles are not all his fault, he deserves a share of the blame for some ridiculous draft picks that have blown up in his face. Defensive end Jon Harris, whom Rhodes took with his first-round pick in 1997, was projected no higher than the third round and came within a whisker of being cut at the end of training camp.
Rhodes will most certainly be out of a job at season¹s end, a sad but necessary reality for a man who has lost control of his troops.
About the only thing the Eagles have done right the past two years is hire Tom Modrak as their player personnel director. Modrak was instrumental in building some of the recent Pittsburgh Steeler powerhouses and hopefully will turn things around in Philly.
But the effects of his work will not be seen for years, leaving Eagles fans to beat their heads against the wall after each humiliating loss.
Here¹s hoping they wear helmets.
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