And that was that . . . until Banner popped his head above ground late last week and invited the media to smack him over the head in an impromptu game of whack-a-mole. Sadly, most of my colleagues declined. Banner's remarks were perplexing and ill-timed and only served to complicate matters, and yet they went largely un-lampooned by area journos. Pity. Jeff McLane rightly pointed out the absurdity on The Inquirer's Eagles blog, Birds Eye View, but he was one of the few who took the time to dissect Banner's curious comments.
Banner's words deserve revisiting. To wit:
"Here's the reality on that," Banner said. "It sounds evasive, but it isn't. . . . We really have not had the meeting to start figuring this stuff out. Obviously we have to do that. . . . Obviously we have to make a decision on what we're going to do. But at this moment, I can tell you that we haven't even laid out a plan or sat down and even exchanged our different ideas or thoughts on that."
Bless his tone-deaf, meddlesome little heart. What would we do during the downtime if Banner wasn't around to kick-start a quick controversy?
First, Reid said the McNabb situation was already determined, then the president came along and muddied his coach's otherwise-crystal-clear comments with the "we have to make a decision on what we're going to do" bit. Banner managed to simultaneously hint McNabb might still be traded and usurp Reid's authority by claiming they haven't "laid out a plan" even though the coach said the decision is ultimately his. Oops. So much for being on message and echoing a predetermined, agreed-upon company line.
