Reid might be the man as Eagles look to rebuild ,

BRIAN O'CONNELL

Now that the football season has started, so many people are so quick to badmouth the Eagles and the season. Yes, they went 3-13 last year. That was horrible. But that was when Ray Rhodes was head coach of the team. Since then.the organization has focused on re-building itself to hopefully compete somday for a Super Bowl championship. Everyone was expecting that when Ray Rhodes was hired. It never happened.

Since then, the Eagles hired Andy Reid as head coach. It seems to me that he is trying to instill a tremendous confidence in his players. The defense has been the story thus far this season. Look at the pre-season game against the Minnesota Vikings. They lost by four which was to me was very impressive and held a highscoring football team to seventen points. Reid,so far seems to be the man. I know it is way too early to tell where the future of this team is going. Someday, they will wake up and start pointing the team in the direction of a Super Bowl. They hawe yet to do that since Jeff Lurie bought the team. Fans are really down on the team this year. The first game of the season was not even televised due to the number of fans needed to broadcast the game on television. However, the Eagles suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Cardinals. The fans were even more upset when the team selected Donovan McNabb in the NFL draft. There are the negatives and positives for this team. The negatives are the front office and their decisions. The positives do not amount to much at all with the mess they are digging themselves out of now.

With all of this going on, it is time for the fans to sit back and be patient. But, that is not Philadelphia to anyone. The fans are very hard on their teams. They always want to see their teams win. When they are not winning, which has been the case for the last several years, it really irritates the fans. The Eagles have a good nucleus to work around and it all start with the quarterback running the offense. Sit back and watch this team. I really do believe Andy Reid is the man for this team. He has them going through tougher practices than Rhodes' did and has the defense and special teams improving. The offense is really the hole they have to develop to reach the level of the defense and special tams right now.

It will no doubt take time for this team to develop, but the front office does have to wake up and start making smarter decisions. I think they made one when they hired Andy

Reid as head coach. He seems much more determined than Ray Rhodes. Ray Rhodes just babbled about making plays and they would look at this and that to improve the team. He never came close to accomplishing what he wanted to and that was win a Super Bowl. Now the Eagles have gambled selecting Reid as the head coach. This guy really seems like he wants to get this team motivated and focused on what they have to do to win as many games as possible and play their best. The team may only win four or five games at the most, but I think the development is something worth seeing.

The defense has improved already over last year and the special teams is not the joke it once was. Do not get me wrong, this team has a long ways to go before they threaten to do anything. But, they have shown that want to play their best. A good example would be the game against the Cardinals. They had the lead, but due to inexperience the team lost the game at the end and could not stop the Arizona drive which gave them the winning field goal.

Are the Eagles really as bad as people say they are? Sports Illustrated has them ranked last in the NFL which may be pushing it a little bit. I do believe this team will develop and will someday have more wins than losses. Only time will tell. So, sit back and be patient. I think it is bound to happen soon enough.

Cabrini intramural schedule for Fall1999

Fall Schedule

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