Just a couple of weeks earlier, having built an 11-4 record, the Eagles still could pretend that was not the case. It was true that the running game was not dependable (or employed very often), true that the offensive line was in shambles, and true that the defense was patched together to the point that no one seemed surprised any longer that Jeremiah Trotter was the starting middle linebacker. If they shoved Bednarik out there, it wouldn't have been much odder.
The check finally bounced in the last week of the regular season and then again in the playoffs, and the players were aware that some faces would be missing from the next locker-room get-together.
What they couldn't have known, however, is just how many, and - more to the point - which of their teammates would not return. They might not need name tags as training camp begins Monday, when rookies and selected veterans report to Lehigh University, but it wouldn't hurt.
Gone from the group that played in the postseason game against Dallas are Jason Babin, Reggie Brown, Sheldon Brown, Chris Clemons, Chris Gocong, Darren Howard, Sean Jones, Donovan McNabb, Alex Smith, Trotter, Brian Westbrook, and Will Witherspoon.
That name slipped in there between Jones and Smith is the real indication that Andy Reid is not just opening the 12th training camp of his coaching tenure but is really scripting an entire second act.
