IT MIGHT WORK AFTER ALL?

by Tracer Bullet, Staff Writer

Lito Sheppard, as expected, reported to mini camp today and despite what Eagle FS Brian Dawkins and former Eagle CB Troy Vincent think, maybe he's not so disgruntled after all?

Dare I hope? A cornerback rotation of Sheppard, Sheldon Brown and Asante Samuel would easily be the best in the NFL. If DEs Trent Cole and Chris Clemons can replicate their 2007 sack totals (12.5 and 8, respectively), this defense is suddenly very difficult to throw against.

Admittedly, it is May and it is the team website saying Sheppard is ready to play after talking to head coach Andy Reid earlier this week. I didn't believe everything I read in Pravda either.

Sheppard might not be nearly so agreeable come September when he's the nickelback and Asante Samuel arrives at the stadium carried on the backs of a dozen West Philadelphians (unemployment is high in the city; a man offers you a job, you better take it), wearing a gold lame´ jockstrap and cleats made of solid diamonds. (Industrial grade diamonds, of course. He wouldn't want to be ostentatious.)

And this is Philadelphia; the Place Where Hope Goes to Die. We can find a cloud for every silver lining. Our greatest athletic hero is fictional boxer with an incomplete grasp of the English language. Depending on who you ask, Andy Reid has only had one good draft (2002), is possibly the worst coach to ever walk a sideline and Donovan McNabb is the worst quarterback to ever, uh, go to six Pro Bowls and win two-thirds of the games he's started.

I'm sure this will end, like most of the times I've tried talking to a woman, in tears and angry threats. But, hey, it's a long time until football season starts and all I've got is my dreams. And if, come September, all I've got of Sheppard is my memories, well at least we'll always have Dallas.