Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Lurie Gives his "State of the Team" Address

Lurie began this year's "State of the Team" press conference by talking about what a great year last year was and how the Eagles did a masterful job without their starting QB and star DE.

Why did we let Garcia go? Simple: Garcia deserved a starting QB salary and the Eagles weren't going to pay it for a back-up. He got the salary offer and left. End of story.

What about McNabb? Lurie believe McNabb is right in his prime. QBs are hard to find and nabbing a great one is most important decision a ballclub can make (this being used to try and explain the reasoning behind the drafting of Kevin Kolb).

About McNabb's blog? Straight from the horse's mouth: I don't care, I'd rather have the public get to know more about Donovan, and it doesn't need to come from the Eagles to let it happen.

Why are the Birds relatively scandal free during a turbulent off-season? Drafting the "right" way, signing character guys, and being a little lucky.

Lurie also scoffed at the notion that the Eagles don't "go that extra step" to try and win it all. Lurie also said he has the same level of urgency to win the SuperBowl as Donovan McNabb, who recently expressed that the "time is now" for the Eagles to win.

He also reasoned out why the Eagles chose their blue and gold color scheme for their 75th anniversary uniforms. Evidently the colors are the "colors" of Philadelphia, and as Lurie stated: the Eagles are a Philadelphia team, they practice there, they live there, they PLAY there. The Eagles are NOT a suburban stadium team, with only a loose affiliation with their namesake city. So honoring the city, and the city's commitment to the Eagles was part of the decision. You know what? Thank for explaining that. The decision makes a LOT more sense now.

My take after tuning on Eagles.com: We've got an owner who is not only a real Eagles fan but also one who understands this game. He wasn't too rah-rah (yet he, like most of us fans) is bubbling with enthusiasm about the upcoming season. Like most of us, he realizes that injuries and fair share of luck are going to go a long, long to determining if the Birds are right there at the end January with a chance to compete in the SuperBowl. He looks like I would if I owned the team...(with the possible exception that I'd be out in the stands leading E-A-G-L-E-S chants as an owner)...after those dollar-first years with Braman, I think its high time we realize that we've got owners a pretty damn good owner here in our town...

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