http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/13536016.htmAs dust settles, Kalu blames T.O.By Bob BrookoverInquirer Staff WriterThe answers as to what went wrong were not any different from the ones you have been hearing for the last two months.The answers as to how to make it right again next season were as elusive as victories during those last two months.After meeting with his players yesterday at the NovaCare Complex, Eagles coach Andy Reid held one last news conference and did his best to reveal as little as possible about what lies ahead for a team that went from the Super Bowl to a 6-10, last-place finish in the NFC East.The coach at least acknowledged that he knows there's a lot of work to be done if the Eagles are to restore their status as Super Bowl contenders next season."I think we all do," Reid said. "You have to dig in and go. You have to take care of business. Everybody has to work a little harder and good things will happen."Not much good, of course, happened during the 2005 season. Chaos, controversy and injuries became the story line.Good T.O. became bad T.O., and bad T.O. became banished T.O.Donovan McNabb played hurt for the first nine games of the season, then didn't play at all after that.Brian Westbrook got his contract extension and then got hurt.Jim Johnson's pressure defense got more pressure from its own offense than it put on opposing quarterbacks.The Eagles were the NFL's Humpty Dumpty, and the prevailing sense one got as players checked out was that it was Terrell Owens' antics that triggered the great fall.Defensive end N.D. Kalu, an unrestricted free agent who feels he has played his last game with the Eagles, said he noticed a change in Owens last year during the postseason. Owens has said that he thought the Eagles' players disrespected his ability by saying they could get to the Super Bowl without him."I don't know why he took things personal," Kalu said. "Everybody on this team admired him and what he does. That's why it's a shame he took it the wrong way."Kalu said Owens became a disruptive force in a tranquil environment."Everybody else in here is so friendly," Kalu said. "We're almost like the [San Antonio] Spurs of the NFL as far as the way we carry ourselves. But he's a bona fide superstar and, with that, he had some divalike attributes. That's just something we never had here before."The focus, according to Kalu, became more on Owens and the Eagles' soap opera than it did on football."He's the type of guy who holds a grudge better than anybody I've ever seen," Kalu said. "He held it through the whole off-season. He took everything in a negative way, and I think that's when things started turning bad. He carried that grudge the entire off-season, and then he started saying things about Donovan. That's when it really started getting bad... ."Everybody here was blue-collar, and we all kind of said that Donovan is the star of this team. Then [Owens] came and he's an unbelievable talent and, at the same time, I think he wanted to be recognized as the best talent on the team. I think that kind of divided us."The Eagles and Owens were like a Hollywood married couple. First, they had a one-week separation in training camp, then they had a messy public divorce a few months later.Regrets?"I am not going to get into all of that," Reid said, repeating an answer he gave more often than any other when asked about T.O. this season. "I made the decision and went with it, to bring him here and then to sit him down. That is what I did, and I am not going to look back on it."Though the Eagles already were in the midst of their monstrous free fall when Reid dismissed Owens in early November, what transpired afterward was truly amazing.McNabb's season ended a week later after he threw an interception against Dallas that pretty much killed the Eagles' playoff hopes. The quarterback was steamrolled by Cowboys linebacker Bradie James on the play, aggravating the sports hernia he had endured all season.Owens isn't coming back, but Kalu believes that when McNabb does, the Eagles will be on their way to fixing their problems."The quarterback is the most important position on the team, and when one of the best quarterbacks in the league goes down, something is going to happen," Kalu said."We'd see him the day after a game just limping and we'd say, 'How's he going to get on the field the next week?' Somehow he did it until he just couldn't do it anymore. My point is, when he's healthy, we kind of all feed off him."Presumably, McNabb, who underwent the first surgery of his life to repair the sports hernia, will be back healthy in 2006."I think he should be fine for the first minicamp" in four months, Reid said. "We will see as time gets closer, but he should be OK for that."Reid said the quarterback will spend most of his time this off-season in this area, a change from recent years when he worked out with personal trainers at his winter home in Phoenix."He is going to spend most of his time up here, so we will be able to keep a close eye on him," Reid said. "The rehab part of it, he has to go slow, in particular with the lifting part of it. The doctors have him on a schedule and they are going to check him periodically to see how he is doing."The Eagles, meanwhile, will have periodic updates on how they plan to fix this team.It will start with the free-agency period, which is less than two months away, then continue with the draft at the end of April."If there is a plus [to the season's being over], it's that it buys you time to take a close look at your roster, a close look at free agency, and get a jump on the draft," Reid said. "It obviously gives you a little more time to take a deep breath and take a look at the big picture of things."
Kalu is retarded. The reason the Eagles suck is:McNabb got the sports hernia and they KEPT HIM AS A STARTER, EVEN WHEN HE WAS INJURED, AGGRIVATING THE INJURY FURTHER.Especially when Reid demanded that he pass 80% of the time!They needed to get him the surgury right away, so THAT RIGHT THERE is the main reason they suck, look at their QB situation.Secondly, everyone knows T.O. is an ass, but lets face it, suspending him and crap was the WRONG decision, blame REID not T.O.They would have been a lot better off with him playing for them as an asshole instead of him not suiting up at all.That's my view on the subject...
TO is the Eagles scapegoat, thats all it is.Was he the main problem? Probably not. Will he be blamed for that? Yes.
