Please accept my heartfelt apologies for the lengthy delay between entries.

There has been so much said about the Terrell Owens fiasco that, quite frankly, I've been hesitant to write about it. The reporting has been extremely one sided and its difficult to discuss a different type of angle on it because inevitably, it could make a writer sound like a TO apologist. And Michael Irvin has that market cornered ( along with a couple of others, according to the Dallas police). With that said, I'm going to pursue my angle and give it a shot.
Andy Reid has done an outstanding job of building a program in Philadelphia. He has sustained consistent year over year success, which is an extremely difficult to do in the modern NFL. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a football coach and evaluator of personnel. And if he is one day fortunate enough to be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, there will be no mention of the 2005 season on his bust.
From the very beginning of the season, Reid knew that Donovan McNabb's health was fragile at best. He essentially started the season with a sports hernia and quickly banged up his knee. Without McNabb, it would be virtually impossible for the Eagles to get back to the Super Bowl. Yet in 4 of the Eagles first 6 games, McNabb attempted 45 or more passes. In two of those games, he attempted over 50 passes. Is this how you protect a fragile quarterback? Last time I checked, the Eagles had a guy named Brian Westbrook who is a more than capable running back. In the four preceding years when Reid advanced to the NFC Championship game (and 1 year the Super Bowl), he always exhibited a much more healthy balance of running and passing. And most of those times his franchise quarterback was actually healthy. When you consider that Westbrook didn't have a contract for next year when this year started, would it be a stretch to believe that the one sided offense was designed to further management's negotiating leverage?
While we're on the subject of his franchise quarterback, in retrospect, was it the best idea to unconditionally support McNabb? Many people will tell you yes, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Now don't get me wrong, TO's act is deplorable. However, some of the things that have trickled out of the Eagles locker room during this entire fiasco would have you think that McNabb is a lot more popular with the people he works for than with the people he works with. It is Andy Reid's job to know this. His answer was to banish the better player and severely damage the season. Even though TO was not in their future, that entire locker room knows he's the best player on the field every week. McNabb's unwillingness to work things out and Reid's support of that will permanently effect McNabb's image among his teammates. In my opinion, the McNabb/Reid Eagle regime is permanently damaged.
One of my daily rituals during the NBA season is the combing of box scores while I'm on the can in the morning. (my only doody reference in this entry. ) Through this process, (the box scores, not the doody...oops) I've noticed a disturbing , short sighted trend among NBA coaches. It is amazing how many minutes many coaches are playing their starters. And keep in mind, most of the offenders are coaches who are planning on coaching right through the end of May.
Flip Saunders always have very good regular season records when he coached the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yet, come playoff time, they mostly fell flat on their face. And after watching Flip coach the Pistons through their first 15 games this season, I can see why. Flip is killing his starters. Last night, in their 16th game of the season, the smallest minute log for his starters was 37 minutes. Hey Flip, if your reserves aren't good enough to play in December, how much are they going to help you in may when you've burnt out Billups and the Wallaces.
Saunders isn't the only one doing it. Mike D'antoni's doing the same thing in Phoenix. But he's got an ace in the hole with Amare Stoudemire returning in February from an injury. Phil Jackson is doing it in L.A. He would probably tell you that he has no other option because Kwame Brown stinks, but competent professionals like Luke Walton and Devean George are not playing all that much. If the Lakers get to May, the only shot they have to make any noise in the watered down Western conference is to have Kobe and Lamar Odom as fresh as possible.
Then we have the other side of the ledger in coaches who are seeing the bigger picture. Look at the Van Gundy brothers. Jeff got off to an awful start this year in Houston, already losing Tracy McGrady twice to injury, yet he still kept his eye on the ball and is playing nine guys double digit minutes both nights. Stan has a very deep bench, but has spent most of this young season without Shaq. But he's still giving plenty of minutes to Alonzo Mourning and Jason Kapono, and even though he's playing Dwayne Wade a ton, he's keeping everyone else fresh. Same goes for Mike Fratello in Memphis who has a deep bench and uses it, night in and night out. And then there's Greg Popovich who does have the luxury of the deepest bench in the NBA. But he does a masterful job of using it. He knows that his bread is buttered with Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker. So he plays Mohammed, Barry, and Udrih more this time of year, because he doesn't want to have to use them a lot in May and June. And that more than anything else will be the reason the Spurs will raise the O'Brein trophy once again come the middle of June.