will we ever win?

Eagles picked to be champs

As we continue to ignore the mediocre Phillies and their endless, tedious season we might as well start thinking about the Super Bowl right? USA Today did a short article that summarizes the various NFL magazine's prognostications for the upcoming season. Athlon and Street & Smith's both correctly picked the Patriots over the Eagles for last year, both have the Eagles returning, but only Street & Smith's has them winning it in Detroit. Other magazines also have the Eagles winning.

I think this ignores history. Teams that are runners-up often don't even make the playoffs let alone return to the Superbowl. And Owens of course will have a lot to do with how the Eagles fare. Andy Reid is just as wrong now when he says "the receivers are good enough" as he was before they got Owens. The receivers are good enough with Owens, they are not without him. Of course when and if he returns his subsequent behavior will also be a determining factor.

And as an aside, one stupid thing people say about Owens is that he's selfish as if that's important on the field. Is he selfish in the way that Randy Moss is selfish where he takes plays off and gives up on winning and leaves the field early? People like Eskin try and denigrate his amazing effort to get healthy enough to play in the Super Bowl as merely a selfish effort to bring attention and glory to himself. If anyone remembers, he had the best game of anyone on the field and contributed tremendously to the Eagles chances of winning that game. If only the rest of the Eagles were that "selfish". I'm not saying Owens isn't selfish and self absorbed, but who cares what his motivation is as long as it leads to the Eagles winning games.