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Don't let the liars at Novacare fool you. Clearly, Joe Banner's departure from the Eagles was the result of his titanic power struggle with Andy Reid.
I have it on good authority, in fact, that Reid's goal was to lose in the NFC championship game, while Banner was content to save a few dollars and merely lose in the first round. With this divide unbridgeable, Banner simply had to go.
Yes, Andy has consolidated power. But by no means are the power struggles over. Now, the battle lines are clear: It's Reid and Juan Castillo on one side, and Howie Roseman, Jim Washburn and Howard Mudd on the other. You didn't hear about this in the local press? That's just the Eagles and their media enablers, lying to you again.
Don't get me wrong, I think everyone on both sides should be fired - since all they have in common is a lack of commitment to winning a Super Bowl- but that's just me. What really galls me is that the Eagles aren't being honest about the divides within their organization. Why not call a press conference and come clean?
The diabolical and duplicitous nature of this organization cannot be underestimated. After all, would any other team time the departure of its chief executive for the same day that his chief critic was scheduled for surgery?
Finally, I've been calling for Banner's firing for years. But now that he's gone, I've got a sense the organization will find themselves leaderless and rudderless. Basically, they're doomed.
Other Philly sports takes:
- The insults from the Eagles just never end- they wouldn't guarantee Brian Dawkins a second year, but give four to Fletcher Cox, who's never played an NFL snap? Sickening.
- I don't care that he won a championship- LeBron James is still a fraud, and always will be.
- Now that Oklahoma City has lost the finals, the Sixers really need to make a run at Kevin Durant. What- you don't think he'd be a perfect fit in Philly? A package of Iggy, Brand and Turner should get it done.
- The Shane Victorino fashion show Monday night was the organization's worst dereliction of baseball duty since Jimmy Rollins put playing goo-goo with a little baby ahead of his team. Fashion shows are for WINNERS.
- Congratulations to Freddy Galvis- in his three-month major-league career, he's already failed more drug tests than Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Lance Armstrong combined. That's some select company.
- Welcome back to NBC 10's Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz, who returned to work this week just seven weeks after open-heart surgery. Are you paying attention, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley?
- The worst fan of the year? The woman who's suing the Phillie Phanatic. Talk about a lack of loyalty to one's team. We should set up a legal defense fund for the Phanatic. (And another, of course, for El Wingador.)
- Did you hear the morning show last week, the day Eskin sat in with Rhea and Al? I haven't experienced such palpable chippiness since the Flyers-Penguins series.
- Sometimes, when I think of how all the local teams have blown it lately and let us down, I wonder whether I'll be able to get out of bed in the morning. But then I remember that Donovan McNabb is out of football, and it gets me through my day with flying colors.