{"id":78505,"date":"2016-08-11T13:45:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T13:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=78505"},"modified":"2023-04-13T20:44:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:44:21","slug":"sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/","title":{"rendered":"The SportsTalk Shop:  Evolution of the Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the many \u201cguarantees\u201d in my life is that my co-hosting partner of the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk\/\">RCN SportsTalk<\/a>\u201d show, Joseph Lynnwood Craig, is constantly harassing me about things he wants\u2026more airtime, bigger coffee mugs, softer cushions for his chair, etc.\u00a0 One of his regular complaints each summer is that he doesn\u2019t get many opportunities to write an entry on the \u201cSportsTalk Shop\u201d blog, especially, when I go on vacation.<\/p>\n<p>Each year, I give him an opportunity to do this, with the following specifications:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Please type it<\/li>\n<li>Please keep it to 8-12 paragraphs<\/li>\n<li>Please have it ready to go a few days before I leave for my vacation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each year, he fails to follow all three requests.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, he recently handed me a rolled-up stack of penmanship paper, with his long, hand-written and ink-stained rants about a broad and an incredibly vague topic.\u00a0 His commentary, he insists, will flood my mailbox with positive support for his point of view.\u00a0 Then, he promises, the public will demand he scribes even more entries during the year.<\/p>\n<p>Well, now\u2019s your chance to prove him right!<\/p>\n<p>This week, we bring you a taste of Joe\u2019s sports psyche and his thoughts on the recent transactions of his beloved <a href=\"http:\/\/www.philadelphiaeagles.com\/\">Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>.\u00a0 We hope you enjoy the opportunity to hear Mr. Craig\u2019s observations and opinions.\u00a0 And now, from the \u201cScrolls of Craig\u201d (and I do literally mean scrolls), here are Joe\u2019s thoughts (with a literary assist from former sports writer Jack Logic) on the recent actions, missteps and future predictions of the Philadelphia Eagles (abridged version).<br \/>\n*********************************<br \/>\nThe four major professional sports teams in Philadelphia have each taken many different routes in different season.\u00a0 While the Eagles have had some success in recent years, there have been more disappointments than happy moments surrounding this team over the last few seasons.<\/p>\n<p>After sticking with Head Coach Andy Reid from 1999-2012, (some would argue that was too long a tenure), Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie went in a completely different direction.\u00a0 Reid was a life-long NFL-er, while studying under the coaching tenure and \u201cOld School\u201d mentality of Mike Holmgren.\u00a0 Reid was very conservative in many ways and would try not to rock the boat very often.\u00a0 He was like his successor, Chip Kelly, in that he was quite stubborn, but he would rarely try to make a giant splash.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, usually made \u201csafer\u201d player personnel changes to his lineup.\u00a0 Terrell Owens was, of course, a major exception to this theory, and his time in Philly was cut short.<\/p>\n<p>With Kelly, Lurie went in completely opposite direction.\u00a0 Kelly had no experience in the NFL as a coach or a player.\u00a0 He had a radically different approach to many things and was a very polarizing person in the city of Philadelphia.\u00a0 We would find out later that he seemed to relish developing an \u201cus-versus-them\u201d community and, as time when on, more people found themselves as an outsider in the \u201cKelly World.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Eagles thought they were on the right track when Kelly was hired in 2013.\u00a0 His Eagles had a 10-6 record and went to the playoffs in Kelly\u2019s first year.\u00a0 Not many coaches in NFL history had the kind of success Chip had in his first experience as an NFL head coach.<\/p>\n<p>In his second season, Kelly\u2019s team repeated that level of success by once again winning ten games but failed to make the playoffs in an all-out power struggle in the NFC East.<\/p>\n<p>That offseason was a time for change.<\/p>\n<p>Between Kelly, team General Manager Howie Roseman and Owner Jeffrey Lurie, there was a front office shake-up.\u00a0 Lurie handed the keys to his organization over to Kelly and put long-time front office man Roseman was put on the back burner.<\/p>\n<p>As the Eagles new \u201cGM,\u201d Kelly made a number of controversial moves.\u00a0 His first and only year as the man in charge of player personnel for the Eagles ended up being one of the worst front office men in Philadelphia pro sports history.\u00a0 Kelly traded popular and proven players\u2014and some that he clearly did not see eye-to-eye with along with the controversial decision to unload this year\u2019s second round draft pick and, in return, received injured players or players who were not successful for a long period of time.<\/p>\n<p>The two moves that angered Eagles fans (and probably the owner) the most, was the trading of Shady McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonzo.\u00a0 They also let the popular wide receiver Jeremy Maclin leave to go join former Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid and received nothing in return for him.<\/p>\n<p>These off-season moves prompted Lurie to fire Chip Kelly before the 2015 season had ended.\u00a0 Kelly was let go after a 6-9 record and had his office cleared out before the Birds played their final game of that year.<\/p>\n<p>Going forward, the Eagles brought back the former GM Roseman to retake the position he previously had, in charge of the player personnel decisions.\u00a0 Roseman, by all accounts, has had a good offseason, in my opinion.\u00a0 Through free agency, trades and the draft, Roseman has plugged many of the holes that Kelly had left behind.<\/p>\n<p>In 2016, the Eagles should challenge for the NFC East division title.\u00a0 With a veteran cast and the hiring of new Head Coach Doug Peterson (who was mentored by Reid), the team will return to the playoffs.\u00a0 They also have two new coordinators.\u00a0 Jim Schwartz will head-up the defense and Frank Reich will oversee the offense.<\/p>\n<p>As for 2017, the Eagles will have started the Carson Wentz Era as he was selected with the second overall pick in this past summer\u2019s draft.\u00a0 The team will once again return to glory.<br \/>\n********************************<br \/>\nDon\u2019t forget, Joe would love to get some responses for this week\u2019s blog entry, so please send us your thoughts via email (<a href=\"mailto:RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com\">RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com<\/a>) and let us know if you\u2019d like Mr. Craig\u2019s to participate more often on our weekly blogs.\u00a0 Also, be sure to hear Joe\u2019s opinions each week on the live edition of \u201cSportsTalk\u201d every Thursday at 7 pm and on our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rcn.com\/atvn\/sports-talk\/\">podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the many \u201cguarantees\u201d in my life is that my co-hosting partner of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show, Joseph Lynnwood Craig, is constantly harassing me about things he wants\u2026more airtime, bigger coffee mugs, softer cushions for his chair, etc.\u00a0 One of his regular complaints each summer is that he doesn\u2019t get many opportunities to write&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the many \u201cguarantees\u201d in my life is that my co-hosting partner of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show, Joseph Lynnwood Craig, is constantly harassing me about things he wants\u2026more airtime, bigger coffee mugs, softer cushions for his chair, etc.\u00a0 One of his regular complaints each summer is that he doesn\u2019t get many opportunities to write...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-11T13:45:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-13T20:44:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"headline\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-11T13:45:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-13T20:44:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1026,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Sports\",\"The SportsTalk Shop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/\",\"name\":\"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-11T13:45:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-13T20:44:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\",\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Michael\"},\"description\":\"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\\\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/author\\\/rcntvchris\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles - ATVN","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles - ATVN","og_description":"One of the many \u201cguarantees\u201d in my life is that my co-hosting partner of the \u201cRCN SportsTalk\u201d show, Joseph Lynnwood Craig, is constantly harassing me about things he wants\u2026more airtime, bigger coffee mugs, softer cushions for his chair, etc.\u00a0 One of his regular complaints each summer is that he doesn\u2019t get many opportunities to write...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/","og_site_name":"ATVN","article_published_time":"2016-08-11T13:45:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-13T20:44:21+00:00","author":"Chris Michael","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris Michael","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/"},"author":{"name":"Chris Michael","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a"},"headline":"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles","datePublished":"2016-08-11T13:45:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-13T20:44:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/"},"wordCount":1026,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Featured","Sports","The SportsTalk Shop"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/","name":"The SportsTalk Shop: Evolution of the Eagles - ATVN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-11T13:45:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-13T20:44:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/sportstalk-shop-evolution-eagles\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/","name":"ATVN","description":"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/#\/schema\/person\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a","name":"Chris Michael","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","url":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","contentUrl":"\/atvn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg","caption":"Chris Michael"},"description":"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. Among Chris\u2019s other responsibilities include reporting on local news &amp; sports stories, conducting \u201cTake 5\u201d interviews with community and political leaders, producing commercials, voiceovers and promos; and generating blog entries and videos on the internet. Click here to listen to the weekly Sports Talk podcast.","url":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/author\/rcntvchris\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78506,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78505\/revisions\/78506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}