Sept. 16, 2026
One of the first signs of getting older is confusion. At 75, I find myself more confused about stuff now than ever before. And nothing confuses me more than the way the Eagles do business.
For example, let’s consider the strange case of Landon Dickerson. The seven-year NFL veteran was hideous in the narrow 24-22 Eagles victory over Washington on Sunday. He spent most of the game looking behind him, a revolving door for a variety of mediocre defensive linemen.
After a performance in which Dickerson called himself “a complete liability,” the big left guard was placed on the injured list Monday with new right-knee problems. He played the entire 60 minutes – 55 snaps in all – while in significant pain with an injury the Eagles apparently never diagnosed.
Now this is the part that confuses me. No team in the NFL has been more conservative in the preseason, relegating all of the important starters to the sideline for all three practice games. Hey, the system obvious works. The Birds are undefeated in the past six opening games.
By now, you should already know my question: How could a team so emphatic about curbing injuries not identify and react to one of its key blockers nursing a physical problem so serious, he now will occupy the injured list for at least the next four weeks?
Dickerson only bewildered me further when he explained that this new malady – he has limped through most of his NFL career with foot, thumb and several knee injuries – happened when a teammate rolled up on his right leg during training camp.
Surely, he was in distress that day. Was there no follow-up by the training staff? After dealing with three previous right-knee injuries, how was Dickerson cleared to play with an entirely new problem in the same place, a problem that unfolded in public view at training camp?
And there is one more area of obvious confusion for me. During the game, Dickerson took every snap despite his abysmal performance. Did no one check to see whether he was OK while Washington’s defensive linemen used him like a turnstile for 60 minutes?
The most obvious answer was provided by Dickerson himself, who said he lied about how he was feeling. If you know anything about sports, this is usually what happens. Players want to play, so they do, even when they shouldn’t. It’s up to the coaches and trainers to see through the deception. The Eagles never did.
Hey, I realize I have made no secret of my distaste for the hiring of Chris Kuper as the new offensive-line coach after the best ever to do that job, Jeff Stoutland, was nudged out the door after last season.
But still. . . . How does the position coach not know he’s working with an injured player, and especially so when that player obviously couldn’t block because of a bad knee? At some point during that debacle did Kuper not feel an urge to explore the situation further, or to replace his veteran lineman for no reason other than a bad performance?
Of course, there’s one more inevitable question causing my confusion. Why did no one in the media after the game, or in the two days since then, ask any of these questions? The inquiries require nothing more than a critical mind. Basic logic suggests they would have to wonder how an Eagles team that prides itself on injury prevention could allow a seriously injured player to play 60 minutes on Sunday?
I must acknowledge that this may be more my problem than anyone else’s. The Eagles – thanks mostly to the brilliance of Jalen Hurts – won the game anyway. Dickerson is now getting the treatment he has needed for the past month. All’s well that ends well.
Let’s see about that. Let’s see if the Dickerson injury and all the drama associated with it are a missing sprocket in an otherwise well-oiled Eagles machine, or if it’s an early sign that the people in charge – especially Kuper – have no clue what they’re doing.
While we’re on the topic of teams mishandling injury reports, we need to include the Phillies for similarly dubious behavior. None of our teams have figured out yet that it doesn’t make sense to deceive the public.
When Jesus Luzardo went down with a sore throwing shoulder last week, I snickered at the initial reports issued by the Phils that the injury did not appear to be serious. After all, the tests all showed no damage to the lefty starter’s throwing arm. He would be ready before the end of the season, for sure.
OK, let’s start with the simplest premise. At no point, ever, should the words shoulder pain and not serious appear in the same sentence when the reference point is a big-league pitcher. Only a newborn or a moron would believe that a pitcher who already threw 179 innings could experience enough pain to miss a start but would then be fine to resume throwing.
Still, the Phillies tried to sell that story for more than a week before – shocker! – the team announced on Tuesday that Luzardo, the best Phillies starter of the past two months, would head to the IR and would miss at least the rest of the regular season.
Spoiler alert: Luzardo will not throw another pitch this year. How can I be so sure? Because his shoulder hurts. Because after six months of pushing his arm to its absolute limit, the inevitable happened. There’s a price to pay when you light up the radar gun with 100 mph fastballs for all that time.
The only real question is whether the Phillies knew they were downplaying a serious injury to fake out fans and opponents, or whether they somehow convinced themselves that a sore shoulder in September was no big deal.
I’m in a generous mood today, so I’ll say the team indulged in only some wishful thinking with its initial diagnosis of Luzardo’s injury.
But the message here should be clear. Believe nothing our teams say about injuries. They find it comforting, at least for themselves, to think positive thoughts even when all the evidence suggests otherwise.
Cleaning out the notebook. . . .
- I don’t know enough about hockey to tell you whether rookie Porter Martone is going to be a big star, but I can say he definitely carries himself like one. At 19, he has been making appearances everywhere as Flyers training camp opens, including an impressive visit to the Phillies broadcast booth during a recent game. Superstars tend to have a certain swagger. Porter Martone, even before his 20thbirthday next month, already has that.
- Am I the only one bothered by the fact that Tom McCarthy misses big Phillies games in September to work for the NFL? I think McCarthy is the most underrated broadcaster in Philly, and his versatility is remarkable. I just don’t like the message it sends when the top play-by-play voice of the Phillies prioritizes NFL games over his own team’s most important contests.
- People who say it’s way too early to declare top draft picks Makai Lemon and Eli Stowers busts are absolutely right. Some kids need more time to show their skills in the NFL. All I’m saying is that Stowers already going down twice with injuries and Lemon being both not very big and not overly fast have alarms going off in my head. Or maybe it’s just tinnitus. At my age, I can’t tell anymore.
- I have always considered Troy Aikman the best NFL analyst, even though he was once a Dallas Cowboy. But media giant Dan LeBatard unmasked a real problem Aikman has with giving out superlatives. LeBatard compiled a list of how many times Aikman said someone or something was “as good as anyone (or anything)” in football this week on Monday Night Football. Troy did it 14 times in one game. Now I find myself starting to question whether Aikman is as good as any broadcaster in the NFL.
- Make sure you circle Sept. 28 on your calendar. That’s the day LeBron James will make his debut as a Sixer, three months after signing here as a free agent. An appearance at Media Day is as close as the fans will get to LeBron’s introductory news conference. He couldn’t clear a single day to drop in here from his home in New York City. I don’t know about you, but I’m already listening for the whir of his helicopter.