I had a big laugh yesterday while on the way to Wachovia Center to do Comcast Sportsnet's Daily News Live Show. I was driving and my son Garry was riding in the passenger seat and we had the radio on listening to Howard Eskin on 610-WIP.
Howard was on and he got word of my report on GCobb.com that Andy Reid had been on the phone with Randy Moss and his agent for over a hour and a half on Monday afternoon before Moss decided to sign a 3-year $27 million dollar deal with the Patriots.
Upon learning of my report about the Reid/Moss phone conversation, Eskin said he thought that the conversation had probably been nothing but a formality, as the Eagles would never offer a wide receiver that type of money. He went on and on about how you can't justify giving that type of money to a wide receiver.
He gave numerous reasons why the Eagles should never give out that type of money to a receiver. Of course I didn't agree but I listened.
It was about 4:45pm in the afternoon and we arrived at the Wachovia Center. Garry and I left Howard and the radio and went inside and I did the television show. I broke the story about Reid and Moss being on the phone that afternoon for over an hour. When asked about what took place in the conversation, I told Michael Barkann, Les Bowen and Paul Domowitch, that I didn't know but didn't feel the Eagles had made a better offer than the Patriots.
When Garry and I got back in the car, we were shocked with what we were hearing from Howard. He was talking about how the Eagles had made a better offer to Moss than the Patriots. Eskin, who had been going off about how there was no way you can justify giving that type of money to a wide receiver, was now applauding the Eagles for doing just that.
All we could do was laugh and laugh and laugh. I nearly drove off the rode laughing.
Howard Eskin, one of the hardest-working and best sourced sports media persons, who has ever worked in Philadelphia had twisted himself into a pretzel on his own show. You can't argue that Howard isn't a staple in the Philadelphia sports community, but at the same time, you can't argue against his being a voice for the Eagles.
In the same show, he had given a million reasond why it was justifiable that the Birds should refuse to give big money to a wide receiver. In the same show, he had to tell us that the Eagles had done exactly what he told us that they shouldn't do.
You gotta love Howard, he's something else.
