Lots of Balls

At the moment, I'm watching 'Nova play Arizona for a spot in the sweet 16. March madness is without a doubt the only basketball I enjoy watching (the NBA just isn't fun to watch anymore), and I'm sure that everyone is following their brackets closely. There have also been some other things happening in the wide world of sports though, with a few topics I wanted to touch on.

First is the Eagles. It's been about a week since free agency started, and I have to say that I'm very encouraged by the moves our team has been making. Lot's of people, including myself, were disappointed to see that LeCharles Bentley, the pro-Bowl center from NO, went to Cleveland, but it's hard to blame the Eagles when the city that he grew up and went to school in makes him the highest paid center in NFL history. The Eagles have been very active though, despite the complaints you might hear from some idiot fans. We picked up possibly the best DE on the market, adding needed depth and ability to our front four. We picked up a highly talented TE who was under-utilized in Cincinnati, which opens the possibility for the Eagles to run many more two TE sets with Schobel and LJ Smith (in my opinion, this signing might turn out to have the biggest impact on the team). We got a receiver who isn't top of the line, but will most likely be an improvement to the slot position currently held by Greg Lewis. We can finally move Dhani back to weak side LB (where he fucking belongs) after acquiring Shawn Barber. Plus, we signed Jeff Garcia, an incredible upgrade in the backup QB position.

Lot's of people are mad that we didn't go out and pay high money for a top-of-the-line receiver, but the market was flooded by too many #2 receivers who want to be paid like #1's. If you look around the league, you can see teams overpaying players on the market more than probably any other year. The cap was increased, and so far many teams have been acting like when a kid goes out and blows the extra cash he got for Christmas. The Eagles have never been a team that spends money just because they have it, and that's something that all the good teams do. It's still early though, and some high end receivers and players have yet to hit the market. Considering we still have the NFL draft in our sights, I'd say the Eagles have supplemented themselves very well so far.

While I'm encouraged by the Eagles, another Philadelphia team is starting to worry me. The Flyers started the year incredibly strong, but then entered the Olympic break losing too many games, and since coming back from Italy they've looked pretty bad. In Philly sports tradition, injuries are killing us, but sometimes you can only take that excuse so far. If you had asked me two months ago how I felt about the Flyers chances on getting to the Cup, I woulda said they were REALLY good. Right now, I just don't know. There is plenty of time to get back to winning games and go into the playoffs looking the way we did at the beginning of the season, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was getting worried. I guess all that I can do is cross my fingers and say "we'll see."

I was going to talk about Barry Bonds and the "new" allegations, but fuck it. The guy broke the law. Regardless of what rules were or weren't in place at the time, anyone with half a brain knows that people who took steroids were cheating. At this point, baseball has turned an eye for too long to suddenly ask them to do something about one player, especially when you consider that steroids was an epidemic with many players in the league. The point is that I don't want this guy to get any more praise or break any more records. Hank Aaron and Babe ruth need to stay #1 and #2 on the all-time Home Run list, enough said.

Yes, I can't help it, I have to close out with TO. If you didn't hear already, he signed with the Dallas Cowturds, probably our most hated enemy. I'm pretty pumped about it actually. The best offer he and his agent could muster was 3 years, $25 million. I applaud them, cuz boy, they really showed us. You go from receiving passes from the best QB in the NFC with a long term contract, throw a hissy fit, and now go to a team with an aged and fragile Drew Bledsoe for less money and less years then you had before. The only thing that would make this dream complete, other than us beating Dallas both times in the upcoming regular season, will be when I see my boy Brian Dawkins lay out TO as he tries to go across the middle.

That's a dream that has a great chance of coming true.

P.S. Villanova won