The Eagles begin their annual migratory return to Lehigh University today, settling in for a short, time-honored roost that is a good deal more honored by time than by the players themselves.
In fact - with all due respect to the fine people of the town of Bethlehem and all of Northampton County and those tireless PennDot workers who have made the Northeast Extension the exciting experience that it is - you could end this antiquated silliness right now as far as I'm concerned, too.
Perhaps in a bygone era, the idea of getting the team together for a real bonding experience before the season was worthwhile. You got the rookies to sing their college fight songs, and you short-sheeted the beds and had some meaningful "bull sessions" around the campfire, and, man, that stuff paid off in the cold rain of late December when it was third-and-1 at the 5-yard line. Sure, it did.
The Eagles have a coach in Andy Reid who believes in those sepia-toned lessons from the past: Teams play as they practice. Good people do good things. Training camp is an opportunity to build team unity through collective suffering.
As long as Reid is around - and while the clock is ticking on that one, it isn't very loud yet - some of this is going to be on the menu. That's just who he is. This year, however, even Reid has scaled back on the team's internment at Lehigh. The full squad will be bunkered in for less than two weeks, partly because of the exhibition schedule and partly because the NovaCare Complex is a better place to practice.
If the organization chose to do so, the entire training camp could be held at NovaCare. You could still get the fans involved, maybe hold practice a few times at the Linc (with concessions open!) and have the same autograph sessions that the players more endure than embrace.
It is an idea whose tide has crested for some other teams but hasn't quite lapped onto the wide banks of Lake Lurie. Maybe soon. In any case, it is back up the Extension, with equipment trucks loaded down by pads and helmets, preparing for a season bearing an equally heavy weight of unanswered questions.
Chief among those questions for the Eagles is whether quarterback Donovan McNabb will be fully healed from a 2006 season-ending knee injury that required ACL surgery. And more to the point, if even a completely recovered McNabb is good enough to get the team to the championship that has eluded him in his first eight NFL seasons.
