Renounciation

I've been toying with this idea for several days now and I've decided to come out and say it. I officially renounce the Philadelphia Eagles front office. Specifically Joe Banner. Why? Joe Banner was on Howard "The King" Eskin's show last week and stated that he would have loved to bring Dawk back but his agent never gave him a chance to counteroffer. This incensed Dawk to the point where he felt it necessary to contact Derrick Gunn and give him the real story: he had given the Eagles every chance in the world to bring him back and they chose not to. Now, after finding out the terms of his new deal in Denver, it's tough to argue that the Eagles should have brought him back at those numbers but the injustice lies in the lies.

Joe Banner is a scumbag. Jeff Lurie is a scumbag. They knew they were letting the most popular and entrenched Philadelphia athlete in a long time walk away, they knew they weren't going to make any huge free agent acquisitions to quell our tempers, and decided to try and make us believe Dawk didn't want to be here so that we wouldn't call for their heads. Well that obviously backfired. It has become painfully obvious to me that the team that I love most does not love me back. The Eagles are content to always be good. Ever since the TO era backfired, they have refused to take any risks in order to make the team Championship caliber. Sure, they'll do all they can to be a playoff team, but anything beyond that is asking too much. Oh and they jacked up ticket prices again. So here sits a team, 40 MILLION UNDER THE CAP, trying to get more money out of its fans while placing what will in my best estimate be a diminished product on the field, just lining their fat pockets even more. I will always be an Eagles fan, but I will never again side with Jeff Lurie or Joe Banner and if they Eagles fall short of where they were this year, they should send every Birds fan $20 and a handwritten apology for being such arrogant, stingy, backstabbing F-ers.

Now that that is out of my system, the tournament is fast approaching and my mental list of picks is taking shape. I love UNC, Duke, Michigan St., Louisville, Missouri, and Pitt to make solid runs. I can promise you that I will pick against UConn, Oklahoma (something is seriously wrong with Blake Griffin, he jsut isn't his beastly self right now), all Pac-10 teams, and Florida St. if things remain the same in the coming week. Nova will make a Sweet 16 run and Penn St. will be bounced in the second round unless they are a 9 seed in which case I don't see them getting past round 1. Obviously all of these predictions are subject to change with regards to seeding and matchups.