WIP Blog By Joseph Santoliquito- Team Tangential
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Welcome to the who-cares zone, where summer afternoons are spent watching stocks bounce, sneaking a peak at work for updated sports news on websites, and prolonged lunches checking out the TV crawl over the din at the corner pub to see what the Phillies are doing.
For a good span there, this time was occupied with all-Eagles, all-of-the-time, the way Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner wanted it. The stands were filled at Lehigh with fans pretending to be talent evaluators, projecting the future of undrafted free agents; families with young children, looking for autographs, and anyone with a tape recorder, camera, or pad and pen in their hands claiming to be pundits of all things Eagles.
It’s refreshing to note other sports have invaded the domain once dominated by the football team. And it’s exactly what Eagles’ coach Andy Reid loves.
Let’s face it, the high expectations that came attached to this team aren’t shared by the fans here anymore. The 10-year marriage between Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb has not spawned Super Bowl titles and parades down Broad Street.
It appears the fervor that once followed this team has slowly evaporated into an apathetic mist.
Reid wouldn’t want it any other way. Droves of fans weren’t exactly flocking to Eagles’ training camp before Reid’s second year here, after his inaugural 5-11 season. So the Eagles were a team that was just off the grid in 2000—eight years ago.
They quickly became the area’s darlings, as they surprised the Dallas Cowboys in the season opener that year and the Eagles reached the NFC championship game the following season against the Rams in ’01. Those seasons came with tepid expectations. But when those expectations rose (see two-straight NFC championship losses at home, and one winnable Super Bowl), this team collapsed under the strain.
Look at last season. The year was shot at 5-8—and then the Eagles decide to play?
Look around now. See any pressure? Any expectations? Do you see tens of thousands pouring into hilly Bethlehem to gape at the Eagles?
No.
No expectations. The Eagles seem to like to say, “Cheer for us like maniacs, just don’t expect anything from us.”
I get the sense Reid likes low expectations from the media and the fans—it’s a motivational ploy to stir his 8-8 team up for 2008.
Hardcore Eagles’ fans will always live and die for this team. But the peripheral crowd has tapered off. They seem to have the wait-and-see approach. Or they could be waiting for something real to happen.
But I am guilty of drinking the midnight-green Kool-Aid. I still think the Eagles will go 11-5 or 10-6 and reach the NFC Championship this season. But I can understand why apathy has taken over. I can understand the what-have-you-done-for-us-lately attitude the fans have towards this team.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
I’m J-Roll And You’re Not
Kudos to Phillies beat writer Randy Miller for coming out last week with something that’s been a growing problem inside the Phillies’ clubhouse for some time. That’s the growing ego of National League MVP Jimmy Rollins.
I remember when Larry Bowa was still here, trying to take Rollins under his wing—one former shortstop to the current shortstop. Bowa would say you have Jimmy Rollins, the lovable grinding shortstop who signs autographs for little kids—and then you have J-Roll, as if J-Roll was this evil, alter-ego.
J-Roll has made a few public appearances this year.
Rollins, off the field, is as good a guy as you’ll get. I had the pleasure two years ago of watching a fight with him. He sat there and enjoyed himself, like everyone else. To those who recognized him, he was cordial, happy to meet adoring fans, not stand-offish at all.
To some degree, he’s still that way. But last year’s success, and the adulation that came with it, seems to have gone to his head. The same drive is still there, but the attitude that he’s “just one of the guys” seems to have gone. He looks as if he wants “special” attention, and that he’s “J-Roll,” allowed to do things other guys on the team aren’t.
“He thinks he’s Michael Jordan sometimes,” is the way someone close to the Phillies put it to me.
It’s something I hope the Phillies can address as the crunch time of the season approaches. If they don’t, this is a fragile team without its leader that could implode.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com. |
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