Recapping the holiday

Another Draftsgiving has come and gone, and the festivities have left the fort in a wonderful state of disarray. Special thanks to Team KidSmartyPants and Team ChrisG for their attendance: we've upgraded the alert level to Kelly Green as a result, with the appropriate security reactions on the way.

But before that, here's a quick look back at what happened:

-- The scariest moment of the day? When I accurately picked the Iggles first pick, then saw the second guy I mentioned get grabbed by the Birds too. Go back here and see for yourself.

-- Most fun pickup for the Iggles? WR Jeremy Bloom, better known for being an Olympic moguls competitor. If they ever move to use downhill skiing to decide overtime, we've got the games all sewn up.

-- Biggest surprise? There was significantly less Mortal Kombat II than expected, both at the fort and in the draft. And I still can't believe our EA Sports NHL 06 game to simulate the Sabres/Flyers game wasn't accurate (The game was 3-0 Sabres; We had the Flyers winning 21-1).

-- Best call? On the grill, steaks as thick as now-former-Eagle Hollis Thomas. Mmmmmmm.... grilled Hollis Thomas.

-- Best name? Ohio State CB Ashton Youboty. I don't know why I didn't do a whole "where's your booty gonna go in the draft" preview on this guy. He's a Bill now.

-- Most bizarre moment? The Dawkins pass which set up the McNabb slapshot goal in an eventual 16-0 win by the Eagles over the New Jersey Devils ESPN NHL 2K5. You would have expected McNabb to be the one passing. And, for the record, it is not a sign of mental issues if you decide to transfer the entire Eagles roster into a hockey game.

So many memories... If only there was some sort of Draftsgiving holiday to look forward to in the fall ...

The pregame show

Twas the night before Draftsgiving, and all through Fort Awesome, not a creature is stirring, because mixed drinks are for whimps.


The TVs are nestled, all snug in their spots, so we can watch the draft, lots and lots and lots.


With me in my "Football" shirt, and plenty of beer, we're waiting for the Iggles pick, filled with agonizing fear.


So happy Draftsgiving to all, and to all -- let's not pick a O-lineman, OK?

This weekend's TV sked

To help with your Draftsgiving Day viewing, here is the tentative television schedule for Fort Awesome this weekend:

12pm
TV1 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV2 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV3 – ESPN, NFL Draft

1202pm
TV1 – PS2 (Hockey, three player)
TV2 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV3 – ESPN, NFL Draft

100pm
TV1 – PS2 (Mortal Kombat II)
TV2 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV3 – SCI-FI, Chupacabra (Movie – SciFi)

300pm
TV1 – PS2 (Hockey, five player)
TV2 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV3 – OLN, Hockey playoffs: Ranger at Devils, Game 4

500pm
TV1 – PS2 (Something where we shoot things)
TV2 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV3 – CSN, World Championship Darts

600pm
TV1 – PS2 (back to Mortal Kombat II)
TV2 – ESPN, NFL Draft
TV3 – TNT, Basketball playoffs: Dallas at Memphis

800pm
TV1 – PS2 (Dance dance revolution)
TV2 – ESPN, NFL draft (switch from C11)
TV3 – WNVC, Australian Rules Football

1000pm
TV1 – PS2 (Whatever wasn’t broken during the dancing)
TV2 – ESPN, Basketball playoffs: L.A. Clippers at Denver
TV3 – WZDC, Die Hard 2 (Spanish)

1200am
TV1 – AMC, Tremors 3
TV2 – AMC, Tremors 3
TV3 – AMC, Tremors 3

Remember, you can celebrate Draftsgiving Day with just one TV, but you're really not into the spirit of what the holiday is all about.

Greatest video ever

Before I cover more Draftsgiving Day stuff, the folks over at Philadelphia Will Do performed a tremendous service recently by dredging up some long-hidden video from one of the greatest Eagles games ever:

The Groundhog Day game

It doesn't have Merrill's legendary "They stopped him again! They stopped him again!" but Madden's commentary is spot-on.

If you have to ask what you're watching, I'll need you to return all of your Eagles paraphernalia immediately.

Draftsgiving Day Defined

Before we talk about what Draftsgiving is and how to properly celebrate, I want you to take a step back for a moment.

What's the best holiday of the year? That's right, it's Thanksgiving. As my darling wife always points out, on turkey day no one has to worry about buying gifts (like Christmas) or going to Mass (Easter) or dealing with fire (Fourth of July) or defending one's home and possessions (Arbor Day). And, to top it off, there's football on TV for all to enjoy.

Sure, dinner takes some work, but for a change it's not overshadowed by presents or other distractions. All you have on Thanksgiving is food, football and everyone eventually falling asleep in the family room.

Couldn't we use another holiday like that in the year? Don't we all deserve another relaxing day to commune with our loved ones and stuff our faces?

But where would we put it? Ideally, it'd be in April or May, on the other side of the calendar from Thanksgiving itself. But while there are food and friends readily available all spring, there isn't any football to be had...

... except for the NFL draft, held in late April every year.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Draftsgiving Day.

It's perfect -- everyone is craving the NFL so badly that the draft has become an actual factual footballish event. It's a Saturday, so you don't have to take work off. It's too early to go down the shore, but after all the major spring yardwork is finished. The only downfall is that no one really wants to watch the whole first day of the draft (10 hours on ESPN, I kid you not).

So we devised a plan to make this holiday perfect, nay, sublime. What if we added another element to the food and friends and football? What if the football was on, but it wasn't the main attraction?

What if we set up two (count 'em, two) television sets, one for the draft and one for video games?

Now we've got football and a captive audience willing to spend 12-16 hours together just enjoying each others' company (and playing Mortal Kombat II). Throw in a few thick steaks on the grill and a few (dozen) beers, and you have a brand new holiday.

We've got a small crew of football nuts headed down to Fort Awesome to observe the second annual Draftsgiving Day celebration, and I'll give you our TV set-up and viewing guide later in the week. But I encourage you to tell your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, even that creepy guy on the Metro who smells like he hasn't showered even though he's wet for some reason, about this wonderful new opportunity for a party.

After all, don't you deserve it?

Draft factoids post #12

I'm ending the "15 years of draft stats" a few days early because:

1) Believe it or not, I'm running out of stats.
2) There are a handful of other things I need to get off my chest before the weekend (like the stupid Phillies).
3) I'm gonna need to mow the lawn soon, so I might need to take a day off between now and Saturday.

Tomorrow I'll outline the origins of Draftsgiving Day and the proper way to celebrate it, but before we get there promised that all of this stats breakdown was leading somewhere. So here it is:

What have we learned from our stats crunching?

-- The Eagles are more likely to pick an O or D lineman in the draft than any other positions (22 percent of all draft picks) and especially in the first round (12 of the last 15 first-rounders).
-- The Eagles are more likely to pick someone from a big name school like Florida State or Notre Dame than someplace like Boise State.
-- The Eagles are more likely to pick someone whose last name begins with the letter B, M or W than any other letter.
-- The Eagles are more likely to pick against the experts predictions than with them, often -- but not always -- with disastrous results.

So, with that in mind, here are the most likely candidates to be the newest member of the nest on Saturday:

-- Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida State. Everyone has this guy going earlier than the 14th pick, but he fits every criteria above.
Odds of me being right: 90 percent
-- Winston Justice, OT, USC. Again, most people have him going earlier, and his last name starts with J. But O-lineman have a way of slipping down a few spots, and his first name starts with a W and sounds like a last name.
Odds of me being right: 70 percent
-- Kamerion Wimbley, DE, Florida State. This wouldn't make any sense, unless they trade down and decide they need a sixth defensive end. No sense whatsoever. So ...
Odds of me being right: 80 percent
-- Nick Mangold, C, Ohio State. Remember, they almost dumped Hank Fraley this offseason.
Odds of me being right: 50 percent
-- LenDale White, RB, USC. He'd be a perfect complement to Westbrook, he comes from a big program, everyone is predicting he'll end up being great at the pro level. No shot.
Odds of me being right: negative-30 percent

If it's White I'll be the happiest I've been about the Iggles since Chad Lewis broke his foot catching that touchdown pass to seal the NFC championship game. If it's Justice (or a WR), I'll weep openly like ... well .. like the last birds game I watched.

If it's Bunkley, we'll have a vote to see how I feel.

FYI, here's who some other folks are predicting for the Eagles, as of Monday night:
** Yahoo sports: Santonio Holmes, WR, Ohio State
** Sports Illustrated: Chad Greenway, OLB, Iowa
** About.com: Chad Jackson, WR, Florida
** Football's future: Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida St.
** Our Lads: Winston Justice, OT, USC

Draft factoids post #11

Since this time next week we’ll be critiquing every move made in the NFL draft, let’s look back at the Eagles picks over the last 15 years and play a little game called “Could they have done better?”

Year	Eagles first pick	Best pick soon thereafter	How upsetting?
1990	CB Ben Smith, pick #22	SS LeRoy Butler, pick 48 (GB)	Mildly unsettling
1991	OT Antone Davis, pick #8	RB Ricky Waters, pick #45 (SF)	Soul-crushing
1992	RB Siran Stacy, pick #48	FB Kevin Turner, pick #71 (NE)	Disappointing
1993	OG Lester Holmes, pick #18	RB Robert Smith, pick #21 (MN)	Ugh.
1994	OT Bernard Williams, pick #14	WR Issac Bruce, pick #33 (LA Rams)	Re-crushing my soul
1995	DE Mike Mamula, pick #7	DT Warren Sapp, pick #12 (TB)	Franchise-crippling
1996	OG Jermane Mayberry, pick #25	SS Lawyer Milloy, pick #36 (NE)	Fairly upsetting
1997	DE Jon Harris, pick #25	RB Tiki Barber, pick #36 (NYG)	Please stop the pain
1998	OT Tra Thomas, pick #11	WR Randy Moss, pick #21 (MN)	Meh. In comparison, not so bad
1999	QB Donovan McNabb, pick #2	QB Daunte Culpepper, pick #11 (MN)	Holy crap, they took the best player
2000	DT Corey Simon, pick #6	LB Brian Urlacher, pick #9 (CHI)	Ewww.
2001	WR Freddie Mitchell, pick #25	WR Reggie Wayne, pick #30 (IND)	So cold. So very cold.
2002	CB Lito Sheppard, pick #26	RB Clinton Portis, pick #51 (DEN)	Kinda sorta bad
2003	DE Jerome McDougle, pick #15	RB Larry Johnson, pick #27	Icky
2004	OT Shawn Andrews, pick #16	RB Steven Jackson, pick #25 (STL)	Still too early
2005	DT Mike Patterson, pick #31	LB Lofa Tatupu, pick #45 (SEA)	Doesn’t look good so far

Draft factoids post #10

Here's information you really need: A breakdown by last name of every Eagles pick over the last 15 years.


There are alot more B's than I expected. And no E's? That's an upset.

This is building to something, I assure you.

Draft factoids post #9: A very special post

Sometimes, in the quest for numbers and stats and logic, it's the people who get lost in the shuffle. With that in mind, I present to you a little look back at everyone's favorite 11th round draft pick...

What ever happened to Pumpy Tudors?

A quick search through the entrails of the Internet shows that Clinton Tudors (nicknamed "pumpkin" and later "pumpy" by his jerk older brother because of his freakishly large head as a babe) was the greatest punter in the history of University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and still holds the SEC record for career punting average at 44.4 yards per attempt.

Yet that impressive pedigree wasn't enough for the Eagles to keep Pumpy on their roster coming out of training camp 1992, when they opted to stick with a then-72-year-old punter named Jeff Feagles. Our little pumpkin tried again in 1993 to join the New England Patriots, but his Sequatchie Valley pedigree wasn't enough to impress the big city Foxboro scouts.

Dejected and burned out, he could have dropped out of public sight forever. But thanks to Stephen Hargis of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, we know the story has a happy ending.

He played football at every level from pee-wee to the pros. Despite all his athletic accomplishments, the uniform Pumpy Tudors dreamed of wearing more than any other had nothing to do with the NFL. It's the one he has worn the last 10 years as a Tennessee state trooper.

I know it doesn't make sense, but apparently Pumpy used his college degree after leaving college and became a productive member of society. If you're involved in a fatal accident on the freeways of Tennessee, you too could run into Pumpy (unless your on the losing end of that crash).

So, there's a lesson to be learned in all this: Some state troopers really could drop kick your ass across the country. That, and if you're a punter from a small school, you should really have a backup plan.

Draft factoids post #8

We all know the only way to truly know what's inside a football player is to look past their names and positions and see the hidden messages inside their names ... nay, inside their souls. With that, I bring you a sampling of draft anagrams from the Eagles last 15 years:

Mike Mamula, end (1994 Round 1 pick)
** Dilemma, unmake!

Tackle Terry Strouf (1990 Round 7 pick)
** A rusty freckle tort

William Boatwright (1992 Round 7 pick)
** Who? A gambit, ill writ.

Freddie Barnett, WR (1990 Round 3 pick)
** Dear find, bert-wert
Editors note: Not sure what a bert-wert is, but just roll with it

Safety Damon Moore (1999 Round 4 pick)
** A-fear my doom, tenser foe

Quinton Caver (2001 Round 2 pick)
** Quiet, corn van!

Na Brown (1999 Round 4 pick)
**Brawn? No!

The new saddest franchise in sports

An actual advertisement run in the Washington Post sports section today:


You know it’s been a bad, bad year when the practice facility CONSTRUCTION makes the top five moments of the season.

Draft factoids post #7

Since Da Birds have the #14 pick in the first round of the draft this year, here's a peek at what they've done with round one picks in the teens over the last 1.5 decades:

1993 Round 1, pick #19 -- Lester Holmes, OG
** Calling him an average lineman is a generous statement. Played uninspiring ball for five years.

1994 Round 1, pick #14 -- Bernard Williams, OT
** Even worse than the year before: Williams started fewer than 15 games for the team before being booted from the squad.

1998 Round 1, pick #11 -- Tra Thomas, OT
** Even with the back problems of late, Thomas and his Pro-Bowl resume make him easily the Eagles best line pick over the last 20 years.

2003 Round 1, pick #15 -- Jerome McDougle, DE
** He's been OK, but not worth a pick this high. He made more news for getting shot in the stomach last year than for his play the two years before.

2004 Round 1, pick #16 -- Shawn Andrews, OT
** He'll probably turn out to be a good pickup, but I'll never forget that he broke his leg in his very first game when it collapsed trying to hold up his 400-pound frame.

Uh-oh ... I'm sensing an O-line theme ... More on that in the days to come.

Draft factoids post #6

In case you're just tuning in for the first time, here's what's going on with the daily draft posts.

So today, let's look at how many players the Iggles have drafted over the last 15 years and how many have appeared in at least a few games:


What does this tell us? Well, when you look at the overall arc of the picks numbers over the last decade compared to the seven years between Buddy Ryan and Andy Reid versus the ... I have no clue what this means. But it's gotta mean something, right? I mean look at it! It's a chart! With two lines! And they go up and down!

It must be worth something. Somebody reverse justify this on the comments board for me.

Draft factoids post #5

Have you ever wondered why some newly drafted Eagles seem to be in a different world when they join the team (I’m looking at you Freddie Mitchell). Perhaps it’s because they went to school in a place far, far away, where morals and values and skills are all relative terms (Freddie went to UCLA. Stupid UCLA that didn’t win the stupid tourney and lost me a stupid $200.)

So, in order to better understand how our young eaglets are coping with the cultural change from places that suck to Philly, here’s a look at where we’ve pulled the most players since 1990:

Teams with five Eagles draftees
Alabama: RB Siran Stacy, DB Mark McMillian, LB Derrick Oden, TE Tony Johnson, WR Freddie Milons
California: DB Eric Zomalt, QB Dave Barr, DE Brandon Whiting, OT John Welbourn, C John Romero
Colorado: DT Leonard Renfro, P Mitch Berger, QB Koy Detmer, OG Melvin Thomas, SS Michael Lewis
Florida State: QB Casey Weldon, WR Phillip Riley, DB Byron Capers, OT Tra Thomas, DT Corey Simon
Notre Dame: LB Scott Kowalkowski, RB Tony Brooks, CB Bobby Taylor, CB Allen Rossum, LB Tyreo Harrison

Teams with four Eagles draftees
Auburn
Georgia
UCLA

Teams with three Eagles draftees
Arkansas
Miami
Michigan State
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oregon
Tennessee
Texas A&M
Wisconsin

Draft factoids post #4

Yesterday we had the best offensive draft picks by the Eagles over the last 15 years, so today we'll look at the good sheet: Defense.

CB -- Bobby Taylor, 1995 Round 2
** Nine years with the Eagles, 119 games played, 19 interceptions and several great moments of shutting down Michael Irvin.

DE -- Ndukwe Kalu, 1997 Round 5
** When he’s healthy, he’s real fast: 18.5 sacks in the four years he’s been healthy.

DT -- Andy Harmon, 1991 Round 6
** In seven years he snagged 39.5 sacks, and delighted us all the year he broke his hand and used his cast as a club to beat QBs. No, I’m not making that up.

LB -- Willie Thomas, 1991 Round 4
** With all due respect to Jeramiah Trotter, Willie T. was nasty from the outside for nine years for the Eagles. His Philly resume: 33 sacks, 18 interceptions, and three TDs.

P -- Mitch Berger, 1994 Round 6
** A pro-bowl punter … for the Vikings. He only kicked in six games for the Eagles. But, he manages to squeak out top billing over the only other punter drafted, Pumpy Tudors.

DB -- Brian Dawkins, 1996 Round 2
** Do we need to cover this? Something you might not know about this future Hall of Famer: He’s the only player ever to have a sack, an interception, a fumble recovery and a TD reception in the same game. Oh yeah. Read that again.

Draft factoids post #3

I know what you’re saying – “Sure, yesterday he told us how many of each position da Birds have drafted over the last 15 years, but who have been the best draft picks at each spot since 1990?”

Why I’m glad you asked. We'll do the offense first:

(Please note: Some of these positions are embarrassingly thin. I don’t even know who Scott Peters is.)

C -- Scott Peters, 2002 Round 4
** Didn’t make one start for the Eagles, but he wins by default among three drafted centers who never played a down.

FB -- Cecil Martin, 1999 Round 6
** He was a reliable blocker for four years. That’s as good as it gets in this category.

K – None. Zero. No one.
** They haven’t drafted one in the last 15 years. Really. Fine, go look it up yourself.

OG -- Jermaine Mayberry, 1996 Round 1
OT -- Tra Thomas, 1998 Round 1
** Nobody wants to hear about O-lineman except their moms, so moving right along …

QB -- Donovan McNabb, 1999 Round 1
** Who’d you expect, Bobby Hoying?

RB -- Duce Staley, 1997 Round 3
** He was the only offense on some bad, bad Birds teams: 4,807 rushing yards, 2,498 receiving yards and 32 TDs in his seven years in town.

TE -- LJ Smith, 2003 Round 2
** Little John is a big player, and after two years he’s already much better than the likes of Jason Dunn and Luther Broughton.

WR -- Fred Barnett, 1990 Round 3
** In his 5 healthy seasons with the Eagles, averaged 58 catches, 890 yards and better than 5 TDs a year. Then we traded him for Troy Vincent.

Draft factoids post #2

In order to predict who the Eagles will draft in two weeks, first we must understand who they've drafted in the past. So, here's a position-by-position breakdown of who they've drafted over the last 15 years, with a little graphical help:

Now I know what you’re thinking – Why did he draw a nickel defense on what's clearly a running down? It’s quite simple: Just because it’s third and short and the Eagles came out in an I formation, that’s no indication they’re actually running on this down. This is the West Coast offense after all. They're passing.

Ah, even in the draft the West Coast offense stinks...

Draft factoids post #1

Only 15 days left until the eve of Draftsgiving Day, the most wonderful holiday in all of late April. As it gets closer we'll talk move about the proper way to celebrate the NFL Draft and what the plans are at the Fort, but to get you in the right frame of mind I've got 15 posts over the next 15 days recapping the last 15 years of Iggles drafts.

So, without further ado....

Top 10 names from Eagles past 15 drafts

10 -- Ephesians Bartley, LB, 1992 Round 9
** As far as I can tell, he’s the only LB ever drafted who was named after a New Testament book. As for the Old Testament, we all remember LB Deuteronomy Jones of the 1938 team…

9 -- Howard Smothers, OT, 1995 Round 7
** A tackle named Smothers? How did this guy fail?

8 -- Scott Kowalkowski, LB, 1991 Round 8
7 -- Doug Brzezinski, OG, 1999 Round 3
** Gotta get a few of the Poles in here. What's worse, a pair of Ws and three Ks or two Zs?

6 -- Ndukwe Kalu, DE, 1997 Round 5
** Better known as N-D, because none of us have bothered to find out how his name is really pronounced.

5 -- Joey Mickey, TE, 1993 Round 7
** Gave up football in 1995 to rejoin the mafia.

4 -- A.J. Feeley, QB, 2001 Round 5
** He's a headcase too, which makes him Touchy Feeley. Ba da bum.

3 -- Siran Stacy, RB, 1992 Round 2
** One of the worst names and worst players ever picked up by the Birds. That’s an enviable record pair.

2 -- Pumpy Tudors, P, 1992 Round 11
** I’m so depressed this guy never played a down for the Eagles. Can’t you hear the “punt it, Pumpy” chant going up among the faithful?

And the number one name in Eagles draft history….
1 -- Brian Dawkins, FS, 1996 Round 2
** Why? Because it’s Brian freakin’ Dawkins. That’s why.

We get lots and lots of letters

This isn't the first piece of fan mail, but so far it's the best:
(Please note -- names have been changed to protect the innocent and horribly guilty)

My Dearest Capt. Awesome:

I have to tell you something funny. Every week my Mom tries to talk football with me and every week I feel like a let down, because frankly I just don't give a damn yet. I mean, hello?! It's not even summer!

Anyway, I gave her your blogspot address because she used to get a kick out of your weekly recaps back during fantasy season ... Anyway, she replied to the spot where G's head is on the hulk because Anthony replied there and she wanted to back him up for some reason even though she had no idea what he was talking about (because really, who ever does?).

Anyway, she calls me last night and the first thing she asks me is "What's a dingus?" - ha!!!! Last thing I expected to hear from her!

Anyway, I didn't really have a good explanation for her, so I just said, "Anthony is a dingus" - was that an acceptable answer?

Love,
The Lovely Mrs. Anthony

Well, dear, I looked it up on Google and here's what I found:

So, I guess that's a good answer.

Phillies Phever (and Phlu)

With 4 percent (seven games) of the major league season complete, let's see how the Phillies are doing so far compared to new White Sox DH Jim Thome all on his own:

Categories	Jim Thome	Phils starting 8
Batting Avg	.318	.292
Home Runs	4	5
RBI	7	21
Strikeouts	2	26
Team Wins	3	1
Approx. Fans	200,000	8 (their moms)

The worst part? We all know that the Phillies made the right move trading him, because they needed to go with rookie of the year Ryan Howard. And it still makes the team look dumb right now. Of course, they wouldn't look quite as bad if they could win more than one lousy game...

For the record, the Phils were the last team in baseball to get a win. Both Philly and Pittsburgh, the last two winless wonders, grabbed that elusive first victory on Sunday, but the Pirates' game ended exactly at 4:00 pm. The fightless Phils' game ended at 4:06 p.m.

Phillies Phever: If you catch it, please consult a doctor immediately. It could be the ebola virus.

Lets play a little game....

... called pick which one is the dumbest, inspired by a recent trip to the bookstore:

Chapter one: Italy is the one that looks like a boot. You'll need a plane to get there. It'll cost more than re-reading that novel, you know.





or...




How can you identify great literature at a glance? Usually, it's based completely on events that happened within the last few weeks.


or...







A box of hammers. As in, that's as dumb as...




or...











Michael Irvin.







OK, that's too easy. Which one is the second dumbest?

For the record

I'll start posting about the Phillies as soon as they start playing.

And I don't consider starting 0-4 "playing."

Christmas is ruined for everyone

But thank gawd that the Iggles-Dallas Christmas night match-up is in Dallas, not in Philly. Can you imagine booing TO and Santa Claus on the same day? There’d be a rip in the fabric of the universe.

So, now that the Eagles schedule is out, here’s how it will play out so you don’t have to wait for it:

Sep 10 @Houston 1:00pm
-- Andy Reid stinks in openers (2-5 so far) but you’ve gotta think they have this one covered. WIN

Sep 17 N.Y. Giants 1:00pm
-- No way they start 3-0, so with SF coming up the Iggles lose this. LOSS

Sep 24 @San Francisco 4:15pm
-- Quick, name a QB, an RB or a WR on this team. Their coach can’t either. WIN

Oct 2 Green Bay 8:30pm
-- For the 4th straight year, the Pack comes to Philly. For the fifth straight time, they go home crying. WIN

Oct 8 Dallas 4:15pm
-- The tickets will go for $400 a pop for this game, but the birds will only go for 10 points. LOSS

Oct 15 @New Orleans 1:00pm
-- If I called these games right so far, the Iggles will be undefeated on the road through mid-October. WIN

Oct 22 @Tampa Bay 1:00pm
-- And suddenly, that streak will stop. LOSS

Oct 29 Jacksonville 1:00pm
-- Both Byron Leftwich and Fred Taylor blow out their hammies on the same play in the third. WIN

Week 9 BYE
-- All those years we did great, we earned a third week bye. Last year, we stunk, so we get the nicest bye available.

Nov 12 Washington 1:00pm
-- Reid is usually money after the bye, and I may be the Racial Slurs’ starting QB. WIN

Nov 19 Tennessee 1:00pm
-- Prediction: Matt Leinart starts his first game this week, throws 2 TDs, three picks, and loses. WIN

Nov 26 @Indianapolis 1:00pm
-- No shot. Their backup RB ran for over 100 the last time we played. And they were so-so that year. LOSS

Dec 4 Carolina 8:30pm
-- If it was any day but my birthday, I’d pick a win here. But since I’m paranoid... LOSS

Dec 10 @Washington 1:00pm
-- Coming off the short week, the Eagles run defense gives up 134 yards to Clinton Portis. LOSS

Dec 17 @N.Y. Giants 1:00pm
-- Coming off a long week, the Eagles run defense gives up 177 yards to Tiki Barber. LOSS

Dec 25 @Dallas 5:00pm
-- You know, stranger things have happened…. WIN! NO, LOSS! NO, WIN!! WIIIIN!!!!

Dec 31 Atlanta 1:00pm
-- With a chance at the postseason on the line, the Eagles squeeze out a tight victory. WIN

So that’s how I see it: 9-7, probably just out of the playoffs, with a lot of conference losses. But I predict 11-5 in 2007. It’s still a little too early for me to predict 2008.

Today on mitchellandness.com

Yeah, you might want to keep marking that one down -- anything "inspired" by the 2005 Iggles should cost less than $10.

Stupid Florida

And stupid UCLA for waiting until the stupid end of the stupid tournament to stupid lose and making me think I might win some stupid money and taking so stupid long to end the stupid game last night that I had to wake up to the stupid news this stupid morning.

And the Phillies lost too. There's a shocker....

Breaking news: Nobody likes baseball

Tonight was opening night for the MLB season, and they kicked it off with a bang: One game that's in the process of getting rained out.

Can you feel the excitement?

For crying out loud, you've got 30 teams, you've got 162 games for each, and you're telling me you couldn't start the season with a full slate of games on a Sunday night, when people can actually watch a few innings? Most of the games will start tomorrow afternoon, when the few people who still care about your juiced-up version of golf are slaving away at their office.

Or, if you will, the next generation of potential fans is at school, wondering what basketball game will be on tonight when they get home.

Even ESPN gave up on the start of the season: They had the White Sox and Indians opener on ESPN2, and had women's college basketball on ESPN. That's right, women's college basketball, the ratings juggernaut of the sporting world.

Only 158 days until the football season kicks off. I'm just saying....