Back from the bye

With the Phillies "distraction" out of the way, there are a lot of people congregated here at the NovaCare Complex for the resumption of the Eagles season. The only scheduled availability for today is in the locker rom -- i.e., no Reid and no McNabb -- but the sharks are circling in the wake of some unsubstantiated bye week rumors.

Personally, I don't think there's much chance at all of Reid stepping back for the rest of the season, as has been "reported." As far as I've seen, there have been no hard facts involved, no sources revealed, and nobody who knows Andy very well has really come forward to lend cred. I've never believed he would step back, nor should he. After all, if he quits his job, what the heck is he going to do? His sons are adults. His heavy lifting on the parenting side is done, for better or for worse. His kids are unextraordinary sufferers of Rich Kid Syndrome who have the mildly unfortunate lot of also being borderline public figures.

There are plenty of other issues to address today, most of which would have a much better chance at illumination if Reid were going to the podium today. I'm particularly thinking of the injury situation, since the players are forbidden from discussing such things. Herremans will have had nearly two weeks of rest after his surgery by the Jets game, Westbrook and Thomas will both have had three weeks of rest, Smith and Dawkins four weeks and Sheppard five. it's reasonable to expect that the Birds will get some of those guys back.