Birds, Baby, Birds

Here comes training camp -- and the Eagles have now signed their first round pick. Of course, we all know what the big story really is...

From the day Rosenhaus made a preannounced, public visit to the Eagles offices right up until Friday's bizarre contradictory announcements from Owens and the agent, there was one unanswered question: What is the plan here?

And now we have the answer. There wasn't one.

When Owens tells The Inquirer's Stephen A. Smith that he will report to Lehigh on time, that shouldn't come as a surprise to Rosenhaus. Not if the player and the agent are on the same planet, let alone the same page. Rosenhaus, forced to go on TV and spin, came off like a holdup man who still wants you to cooperate after you find out the "gun" in his pocket is just his index finger.

So what do we have? Let's review.

It looks from here as if Rosenhaus sold Owens on the idea that he could get him a new contract from the Eagles just one year after Owens signed a seven-year deal. Rosenhaus took his shot; the Eagles said no. In a misguided (see Page 8 of your Drew textbook) attempt to create leverage with a media campaign, the ever-volatile Owens insulted Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

A quick aside here: That is the one thing I have criticized Owens for doing. It was immature and uncalled for. Asking for a raise is OK, although I wrote in April and still maintain that Owens was foolish to squander the goodwill and image rehabilitation he had built in his first season with the Eagles.

It all goes back to Page 8. Once Owens and Rosenhaus lit the match, the media fire was going to be impossible for them to control, especially in a market as combustible as Eagles-obsessed Philadelphia.

As Gary Papa said on Channel 6 Friday night, "T.O. and Drew Rosenhaus, coming at you every day for the rest of your life."

Sometimes, it's a good thing I no longer live in the Delaware Valley.

Meanwhile, it's scary that even the Eagles alumni teams are beating up the Redskins...

Randall Cunningham to Fred Barnett... touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.

So it was as the former teammates hooked up for three scores as a team of Eagles alumni topped their counterparts from Washington, 56-35, in a flag-football matchup for charity before a crowd of about 3,000 yesterday in Landover, Md.

Cunningham totaled eight TD passes and one nimble side-step of a Dexter Manley near-touch-sack before zipping a sideline completion to Barnett.

Dan Snyder will probably sign Deion for the rematch.