Two things struck me concerning our beloved Philadelphia Eagles yesterday. Neither of them happened on the field, where the Eagles lost their seventh straight game in falling to Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers before a national TV audience on Monday Night Football.
The first happened yesterday afternoon, when what clearly is some kind of purge in the Eagles’ front office claimed its latest victim. Tim McDermott, the team’s senior vice president of marketing, was canned. OK, the Eagles are having a miserable season. Changes are going to be made. Some people are going to lose their jobs.
But the McDermott firing tells you a lot about the way Jeff Lurie and this team go about their business these days.
You see, Tim McDermott is the brother of Sean McDermott, the former Eagles defensive coordinator who had the misfortune of trying to succeed the legendary Jim Johnson and was shown the door after just one season.
Sean McDermott now happens to be the defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. Yes, the same Carolina Panthers who were in town last night.
The Eagles had to announce the firing of Tim McDermott on the afternoon his brother was in town for a Monday Night Football clash? What was the rush? Why couldn’t that announcement have come today, or tomorrow. The Eagles may have very valid reasons for making the move yesterday and insuring Tim McDermott was not in the stadium when his brother and the Panthers arrived. But if that's the case they're not talking about. The release they put out confirming the team had parted ways with another McDermott ended with a terse 'the team will have no further comment on this matter.'
A real class act, these Eagles are.
The second thing happened a few hours later. Or perhaps I should state that as something that did not happen.
A whole lot of Eagles fans decided to let their empty seats send a statement to the team. At the start of the game, it looked like maybe a third of the seats in the Linc were empty.
The loss dropped the Eagles to 3-8.
Before the season Lurie made clear another 8-8 season would not be acceptable. Right now that is the best the Birds can do, and to even reach that level of mediocrity they would have to run off five straight wins.
Anyone think this team is capable of doing that?
More likely they will continue to shed people in the front office.
Last night the team honored longtime ticket guru Leo Carlin for his six decades of work with the team, adding Carlin and Troy Vincent to the team’s Hall of Fame.
Carlin and Vincent reek of class, something that’s becoming a very rare commodity around the NovaCare center.
Carlin and the team may soon have something even rarer on their hands.
Lots of tickets to games no one wants to watch.
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