Booing Vick is our right

 

PROOF IN THE E-MAIL
Four out of every five e-mails last week were supportive of my anti-Vick column.

But, the ones offended by it were among the angriest and most vicious I have ever received.

Leaving out the profanities, the general theme is that I am always negative about the Eagles, so why should my hatchet job of Vick matter?

My answer to that charge is simple. How could a fan of the Eagles not harbor negative thoughts about the team right now? Just take a moment to consider the evidence since the Birds blew a gift trip to the playoffs last season and lost to an inferior Arizona team.

First, they refused to reward Brian Dawkins and 13 years of loyal service with a new contract.

Instead, they rewarded Donovan McNabb for three months of childish sulking over his benching.

They rebuilt the offensive line with a malcontent (Jason Peters), a babysitter (Stacy Andrews) and an enigma still battling clinical depression and back problems (Shawn Andrews.)

President Joe Banner then declared the Eagles had the NFL’s best roster, an embarrassing falsehood. Andy Reid bullied the media at training camp when word leaked out that Stewart Bradley was out for the season. And finally — in a perfect final flourish to an incredibly imperfect offseason — they signed the most despised player in sports.

Negative? I plead guilty. Anyone who doesn’t feel negative right now should plead insanity.

NEW LEADING MEN
The script will definitely be different this year if the Phillies repeat as champions.

One of the reasons the Phils are a great team is that they have plenty of new heroes to play the key roles.

Last season, it was Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge who got the big outs and brought this city its first major sports championship in a quarter-century. This year, it would be a shock if either of those names were among the leaders in another magical run.

Lidge is a relief pitcher, so his stunning decline was almost expected; his history is to alternate good seasons with bad ones. Hamels is a far greater mystery. How could a 25-year-old pitcher who was so dominant one year become so hittable the next? How could someone with that lethal changeup win only seven games in five months?

Not to worry, Phillies fans. Cliff Lee has already replaced Hamels as the ace of the staff, and an offense fueled by the usual suspects and enhanced by an amazing Jayson Werth should cover the misdeeds of a shaky bullpen.

The two best pitchers on the Phillies staff are just ordinary this year, but the team is still special.

Dare I say the Phils have the best roster in the National League?

 

Bad news, social activists. The Second Chance campaign that began when the Eagles signed Michael Vick has already gone the way of the “cash for clunkers” program. In fact, it ended the moment Vick’s signature had dried on his two-year, $6 million contract.

Despite the bluster of owner Jeff Lurie and coach Andy Reid, the Eagles didn’t add a convicted dog killer because they saw him as an agent for social change. They signed him because he can run fast and throw far.

And soon our football franchise will find out how Philadelphia reacts when somebody tries to con them. The boos that will rain down on Vick as he makes his Eagles debut — probably Thursday night — will make national headlines, to be surpassed only when he trots onto the field in his first regular-season game. He will deserve every hoot of disapproval, and so will the Eagles.

Based on a record response, my column here last week was either a masterpiece worthy of Hemingway or a liner for a birdcage. Yes, I am aware of the many fans — my guess is close to 50 percent — who have accepted the decision and moved on. I am not. I will not be happy until all of the layers of this ugly charade are exposed.

In a week of strange twists, the most nauseating was the way the Eagles instantly distanced themselves from the bold, socially-conscious rhetoric of that first news conference, when Lurie and Reid used sweeping generalizations about second chances to justify signing the poster boy for bad behavior.

As expected, these pronouncements led to questions about the firing last winter of a disabled security officer named Dan Leone, who lost his job because he expressed disappointment over the departure of Brian Dawkins. Others wondered if ex-cons would get the same second chance Vick got by receiving jobs at the stadium or maybe in the business offices.

Fat chance. Here is the statement issued by Eagles spokeswoman Pamela Browner Crawley when these issues arose last week: “When we made the announcement about Michael Vick, we were not really making a social statement about re-entry. This was a specific opportunity for a person with certain talent. It’s a business decision.”

So there you have it. The Eagles signed Vick not to save the world. They signed him because he might still be able to play football and because he sells a lot of shirts.

Unfortunately, the Eagles are not the last word on the business of professional football in this city. The fans who buy the tickets and jerseys are the final judges.

And when Vick makes his debut at the Linc, those people will render a verdict about our football team that will be so loud, the fan-deaf management of the Eagles might even hear it.