Lurie used a lot of words, but didn't say a lot

FROM KEITH GROLLER

I got a chance to spend a day at Eagles training camp on Wednesday, and lucky me, I get the day that the NFL officials arrive for a presentation on the rule changes and owner Jeffrey Lurie does his annual "State of the Eagles" press conference.

Lurie is not shy. One of my colleagues said he was very articulate, and I agree. He could have a career as a politician.

You'd have to ask the players and his workers if he's generous enough with his salaries, but he's certainly not tight with his words. If you see the transcript of his 40-minute session under the media tent you'll see a lot 10 and 15-line answers. His opening statement alone nearly took up a full page.

Naturally, he went on and on about numerous topics on Wednesday.

He supports the 18-game regular season, he's excited about the worldwide distribution opportunities for the NFL and is optimistic that a new collective bargaining agreement can be worked out that will avert a work stoppage and a new business model can be created that will extend the NFL's extraordinary popularity around the globe.

But in regards to two quarterbacks -- his former one now in Washington and his current backup -- I found some of his remarks disingenuous.

Lurie spent a lot of time talking about Vick's work in the community and talked about societal issues, recidivism rates, etc., as if he was brought in here more to be a role model who could revitalize some of the downtrodden areas of Philadelphia.

To me, the guy was brought in here for one reason -- the potential to again be one of the league's most exciting players and to provide depth at the most critical position on the team.

And if it doesn't work out here -- and if Kevin Kolb stays healthy and plays well, it won't for Vick -- then the Eagles will use him as a bargaining chip in trade talks. This is not about community service, this is business, nothing more, nothing less.

Lurie did a lot of tap-dancing around the difference between "wrongdoing" and a "lapse in judgment." Lapses in judgment would seem to be wrong, too, but as long as Vick isn't charged with anything he's not doing anything wrong?

He did make sense when he talked about how difficult it is for a guy like Vick to get away from his old environment and his old entourage and circle of friends. It's clear that he has had major trouble escaping the bad guys who have dragged him down for years. He hasn't had the strength and/or desire to separate himself.

And when the NFL talks about giving Vick support they're talking about ways Vick can distance himself from the people in his past who haven't been good for him. Seems he's incapable of doing that himself.

That makes sense.

But I also was disappointed in Lurie's explanation of the Donovan McNabb trade, talking about a natural evolution for an NFL team. He talked about how you develop your young quarterback and then deal your old quarterback while he still has some market value.

This was just business, Lurie explained.

Just like with the tap-dancing he did with Vick, my guess is fans wanted more on this topic, too, a little more fire and emotion.

They wanted to hear how Kevin Kolb is the man and how it was time to change the team's culture.

Instead, they got a business calculation, and not a guy talking from the heart.

Lurie doesn't seem like a bad guy. Say what you will, but the last 10 years have been a golden era for Eagles football and his leadership has brought a lot of positives.

And you don't make a fortune in any facet of life without being able to talk out of both sides of your mouth -- at least every once in awhile.

You can judge for yourself.

Here's his very detailed answer from the transcript on the McNabb trade:

On the process he went through when deciding to trade QB Donovan McNabb:

“There was an evolution. One of the philosophies of the team, as I think I’ve iterated and you’ve all heard from us over and over is the importance of the quarterback position. We’ve always wanted to develop young quarterbacks, while we had good quarterbacks. That’s not easy to do sometimes. In some cases, you market them and get a number two pick for A.J. [Feeley] that we got and you have success with other players that you bring in, like Jeff Garcia. But the philosophy is that it’s a quarterback-based league. You have to develop young quarterbacks in their prime and the best way to do it if you can is to develop that player, pinpoint the player, develop him while you have the quality quarterback we had in Donovan. So, I think there was a natural evolution here. Kevin [Kolb] is more than ready to play. Donovan had a good season. There wasn’t the feeling that we would drop off in any way, having a new quarterback there’s a risk. There’s obviously an unknown involved there, but there wasn’t a sense that this is a drop-off situation. This was a perfect opportunity for the player youth and developing to take the reins of the team and maximize his capabilities. At the same time, you try to balance that with market value for the players you have and Donovan a year ago coming off the ACL [injury] maybe didn’t have the league-wide value. This year he had a very good season and we had to explore what the value was. So, the thought was and I think, you know, along the philosophical lines we’ve talked about is develop a young quarterback and get some market value for Donovan, which we hoped to have two very good young players in that trade. Donovan, again, I guess I haven’t even spoken about it, but the best quarterback I think the Eagles have ever had; classy, terrific in every way. He did not win a Super Bowl, but the franchise over the last 10 years as you know, five division championships, five appearances in the championship game in the NFC Super Bowl, a very extraordinary decade by any measure except for the lack of a Super Bowl championship. So, he’s going to be back here some point as a legend, as the greatest quarterback in the history of the team. But I think the timing felt right to the decision-makers, [head coach] Andy [Reid] in particular whom was the final decision-maker just felt the timing was right to probably like Green Bay [Packers] did with [QB] Aaron [Rodgers] and [QB] Brett [Favre]. It was the right timing to let the young quarterback really thrive and with market value coming back. So, we were able to get the value of a number one pick. Hopefully, two good young players and hopefully have a good young quarterback. If we don’t, we’ll be drafting more and more quarterbacks. But that really is the philosophy, and you hope to do it. If you picked wrong, you’re going to be picking quarterbacks.”

KEITH GROLLER

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/