In the context of the Buzz Bissinger-versus-the-InterWeb freakout, let me send a big Yo Whaddup to the good folks over at Eagletarian, the Daily News‘ new Eagles blog. I know that we unpaid amateur journalists, ensconced as we are in our jammies in our many parents’ many basements, do tend to sully the otherwise pristine waters of PROFESSIONAL SPORTS JOURNALISM, especially in Philadelphia. So I can’t tell you how flattered we are to have you pretend to join our ranks!

In all fairness, I’ve actually enjoyed the first couple weeks of Eagletarian (and even have the positive comments to prove it!). What with the actual access that these guys have to players, coaches, scouts, other members of the MSM (in Philly as well as in other cities), giving them a forum to publish shorter stories with a bit more niche/ nerd appeal (that is, stories for the freaks for whom no level of detail is too minute) is an actual great addition to the overall portfolio of Eagles-related media.

Things I’ve liked so far:

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While Donovan McNabb has made no secret of his post-football TV blathermonkey ambitions (and we think he’d actually be pretty decent at it — he’s a sharp guy, decent sense of humor, watches a lot of sports), and while we tend to support his direct-to-consumer PR strategy on Yardbarker, we’re going to have to snicker a bit at his latest blog entry.

Is it cool that he has opinions about college hoops and the street cred (he played hoops at Syracuse his freshman year — JUST IN CASE YOU HADN’T HEARD THAT MILLION TIMES ALREADY) to back them up?  You betcha.  Does said street cred excuse the train wreck of cliches that he stuffed into that blog post?  Not even a little bit.    (Read the rest of this story.)

Mad props to Derek from Iggles Blog for his line-by-line demolition of a wildly incorrect guest piece that the Inqy had the poor judgment to publish today.

The link to said wildly incorrect guest piece is here.   

The link to Derek’s piece is here.     

My serving suggestion is to read the original that The Inquirer published, take a few moments to grind your teeth and mutter contemptuous obscenities under your breath, and then head over to Iggles Blog for the response.  You won’t be disappointed. 

As I mentioned in his comments, if The Inquirer wanted an in-depth salary cap story from an outsider, why not commission one of the very talented local bloggers (like Derek), who does his homework, has data, writes well, etc etc., instead of some lightly-informed blowhard who did well on the LSAT?  WTF?  I think it’s cute that they’ve included a nod to the bloggertariat with their “From the Bleachers” section on Philly.com, but it’s clearly just that — a nod.  They can check the box and tell their bosses that they’re relevant and hip with the young people.

And that’s why we call them blathermonkeys.  (One of the reasons, at least.  Also they blather a lot.  Like monkeys.) 

In a sense, I’m shocked it took this long for someone in the McNabb camp to commit a PR faux pas. I mean, it’d been a whole week since the season ended; the employees of WIP need to eat too! 

To recap in case you haven’t been following closely (and it’s easiest to just review the excellent summary that Derek posted on Iggles Blog): two weeks before the regular season ended, a blathermonkey asked Dunavin if he thought that the Eagles needed to add more players in the offseason. Dunavin went to great lengths to give a very PC answer: that the Eagles needed to add playmakers in all phases of the game.

In response to follow-up questions, he did NOT say that he needed a wide receiver (and even chided the blathermonkey who asked the question for trying to draw him into a trap — yes, this is actually the state of things if you’re Dunavin: you have a jokey relationship with the jackals who are trying to goad you into a headline-worthy quote). He just said that the Eagles could be better if they had a couple more playmakers. Uh huh.

This sentiment was relayed to Andy Reid in a separate press conference, and Andy Reid scolded Dunavin for indirectly insulting his teammates. This was a little silly in itself (since Dunavin didn’t really say anything too crazy), but whatever. You’d think that this wasn’t such a big deal.

You’d think. (Read the rest of this story.)

The most exciting news in the NFL this week doesn’t actually have to do with football, but rather my consumption thereof. The oft-maligned-and-full-of-crap-but-still-essential-despite-it-all Profootballtalk.com has finally upgraded their site.

And by “upgrade” I mean “added all the features that every version of freeing blogging and content management software has offered for years.” While we could complain that this is about three years late, but instead we’ll focus on why it’s acutally pretty awesome: (Read the rest of this story.)

This time I’m just skipping the caveats about how much I like ProFootballTalk and just proceeding directly to the part where I accuse Mike Florio of, in the words of our British cousins across the pond, talking absolute rubbish.

Florio posted earlier this week that the Birds’ or-gan-eye-zay-shun’s silence regarding Donovan McNabb’s future with the team — in contrast to its very vocal support for Andy Reid — is a possible indication that Dunavin’s future with the Eagles is limited. Note that the comments from Reid, Joe Banner, and Jeff Lurie all came in response to the highly publicized legal troubles of Reid’s kids and the wild speculation amongst the Philly blathertariat (radio shows, newspaper headlines, freakin’ editorials) that Reid would quit during the bye week.

To summarize, then, McNabb must be on his way out because no one has publicly defended his future with the team.

(Read the rest of this story.)

In an attempt to connect with the younger, more Internet-savvy generation that Andy Reid dissed in his press conference on Wednesday, the Birds site launched a little interactive avatar generator called “SuperFan” yesterday. That’s right, SuperFan. Big S, big F.

That’s my SuperFan right there:

I wouldn’t say I was blown away by it (the options and configurations are pretty limited, though the sound is a really nice touch), but I have to applaud the general effort. The young people like their facebooks and their myspaces, and you need to give the young people the tools to propagate your brand in an engaging and organic way that’s authentic and resonates with them in the consumption scenarios where they feel most comfortable.

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In his first Eagles press conference in nine days, Andy Reid looked the assembled local blathermonkeys in their collective (beady little) eyes and assured them that he wouldn’t be quitting (during the season). This is, of course, in addition to his national media denial to Jay Glazer over the weekend.

For the avoidance of doubt, he did not use exclamation points this time around.

He did, however, go out of his way to badmouth THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER in the course of his denial by positioning the rumors as the sort of crazy nonsense that you only find on that goofy electric internet.

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In a relatively charming turn of events, a loose confederation of Eagles bloggers sent me a mail this morning inviting me to write a preseason preview of the Washington Redskins. The general idea is that each blogger covers a major NFC rival of the Birds and we all post links to the other blogs/ previews.

Sounds like a plan.

Turns out that they managed to gather previews for a bunch of other teams (the Giants, Cowboys, Bears, Niners, and Saints) but no one had gotten around to dealing with the Redskins (or the Nerdbirds, but that’s understandable — no one cares about C@L — go east-coast media bias!). I can see why no one wanted to do the Skins; of the three other NFC East teams, I definitely hate the Redskins the least. (In case you were wondering, I hate the Giants the most, but that’s only because I’ve recently gotten over a residual Cowboys hatred that was directly tied to Emmitt Smith taking off his helmet to celebrate garbage TDs in the fourth quarter against overmatched opponents behind the best offensive line of the 90s.)

Check out the other previews:

Dallas Cowboys at Iggles Blog
New York Giants at Eagle Scout Blog
Chicago Bears at Fortress of Pillows
New Orleans Saints at Bleeding Green Nation
San Francisco 49ers at Depressed Fan

Despite my relatively modulated hatred of the Redskins, I still dislike them enough to assemble a snarky preview on short notice. Note — this column contains no predictions. I’m no good at predicting the future. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions about the Skins; here we go:

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