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Take yourself back to 8th grade basketball. Your team was good, very good. Like you know…good, but not great.
Then were was a team who was “good” but they looked GREAT. They hopped off the bus with fifteen super athletes. You couldn’t help but pay more attention to then in warmups than making your off-hand layups. You were screwed if you were a captain too. You’re thinking to yourself when you shake hands with their captain at half court, Holy shit, they’re this tall and their voices are deep as shit. How in puberty hell does this kid have full beard? Oh great, now their dunking in warm ups…we’re going to get killed!

The games starts. You’re nervous as shit and have few turnovers to begin the game. They are way more athletic than you’re team and it shows. After a few possessions your team calms down and you notice things, they are unorganized and have no leadership. Then you notice another thing, your team is actually winning. You slowly forget about their 360 dunks in warmups and realize their point guard can’t dribble with this left hand and that their big man must be required to hit a three before he starts to play in the post. With every timeout they call, you see them bickering like brothers. You wonder to yourself, they argue like brothers…but they sure don’t play like it. Brothers have been playing with themselves forever and know what the other is going to do before the other knows. You realize you’re not playing a team, but just some make shift all-stars posing as team and struggling to gel seamlessly.

Now flash forward to yesterday. You remember that 8th grade team that was supposed to kick your ass, but instead got their asses handed to them? I present to you the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles. The Dream Team. Michael Vick, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin, Brent Celek, DeSean Jackson, Jason Peters, Jason Babin, Trent Cole, Nndamdi Asomugha, Asante Samuel, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie — all Pro Bowlers baby! The Dream Team is 4-8…not a dream team at all. Please, don’t even give them the excuse of calling this a nightmare. A nightmare is something you can’t control. Naw cuz, this….this right here….this is reality. In real life, they’ve stepped on the field twelve times this season and lost eight games.

The Eagles should be 10-2 with the talent they have on their roster. No one never said they lacked talent, but I’ve always said they lacked leadership. Last year, they were the youngest team in the NFL, and I’m not sure were they stand this year, but I’d put money on it that they are still in the top 5 in terms of youngest NFL teams. I’d love to give Michael Vick a pass, I love Vick, but he’s not a leader. He never really has been, as far as vocal leaders go. He had a poor work ethic in Atlanta and he’s admitted that. He says it has changed in Philly, and it may very well have changed. So, if Vick is working hard, what about the other 52 young players? Why are the Eagles losing? I can easily assume that Vick isn’t getting in anyone’s face when they mess up. Did you see Tom Brady get in Chad Ochocinco’s face a few weeks ago? That’s leadership.

Let me go on a quick tangent…sorry. I know Vick didn’t play last night. I watched the game. The ’92 Buffalo Bills have the greatest comeback in NFL history, in the playoffs, no less with a backup quarterback. Hell, Jason Garrett was able to win a few games when Troy Aikman went down. And don’t forget, John Elway’s last year, he missed six games with a rib injury and Bubby Brister won all of those games. Leadership is leadership. It starts with one person and seeps into the rest of the locker room.

A quarterback can’t chose to be ONLY be a leader by example. Sometimes you have to speak up, but Mike isn’t going to do that. Hell, Matt Barkley, USC’s quarterback got in Marc Tyler’s(USC running back) ass when Tyler almost blew the Oregon game two weeks ago when he fumbled the ball. Leaders speak.

The Eagles remind me of the “cool kids” in school. They were all good kids, no misfits at all in the bunch. They went to college, had fun and got decent jobs. But in all honesty, you look at where they are at in life — they are average. Not bad people, but they are average AND they had the potential to all be GREAT. No one in the group had the courage to say, “hey…let’s try harder, let’s do this, let’s grow up or let’s actually be somebody.” Everyone wanted to play nice guy and “just be cool and have fun”. Do you ever see the Eagles show any emotion on the field at all? I don’t. I see if off the field and locker rooms, ala DeSean Jackson last night.

Talent will only get you so far. We all love “The Cool Teams” – The Fab Five, The U in the late 80s and 90s, and even the 2007 Memphis Wildcats. Forgive me for including the The U, they actually won several championships. Why? They partied hard, they balled harder, but most importantly they had leaders. They wanted that shit and didn’t care who they pissed off to get it….teammates included. The Fab Five made it to the championship game as did the Wildcats, but immaturity and inexperience failed them when they needed leadership the most. The 2011 Philadelphia Eagles aren’t even close. I guess I’ll give them the excuse that it is easier to slip by on talent alone in college, before it eventually catches you. In pro ball, it’s not happening. Remember the Dallas Mavericks with Jason Kidd, Jimmie Jackson, and Jamal Mashburn? They didnt’ go very far. What about the Washington Bullets when they had Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, and Rasheed Wallace? Yeah, didn’t do anywhere either. Even the old Atlanta Falcons teams in Deion’s hay day with Andre Rison, Michael Haynes, Jeff George, Jesse Tuggle and Brian Jackson were pretty young…and they only went to the playoffs once. All youth, no leadership.

Maybe the lockout affected the Eagles, and they didn’t have enough time for the new players to get in the groove and learn the system. Cool, I can live with that, and I’ll even say they’d be 9-3 or 8-4 at this point if they did have the benefit of a true off-season. A true off-season doesn’t mean you have leaders on your team? Tim Tebow fan or not(and I’m not) he’s a leader, he plays with passion and will get in your face. Imagine if Vick just had half the leadership skills of Tebow. If he just spoke up a few times…pissed a few people off….got in a few people’s faces. It sucks that this falls on him, but he does happen to play the position of quarterback. The position that people look to for leadership.

If there is no one to lead, don’t expect a ring.

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer

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