Gonzo: Needed: A straw that stirs the drink

Watching one of your favorite shows go off the air is never easy. It's a little like someone passing away - there's a mourning process. It takes time to sever the attachment or at least accept what happened.

When NBC finally said goodbye to The West Wing, I hung a picture of John Spencer/Leo McGarry in my work cubicle. It sat there for a year and was positioned slightly higher than the photo of my then-girlfriend.

For years, the longest running drama in Philadelphia has fascinated sports fans with off-field antics, bickering, backstabbing, petty jealousy, complaints and general craziness. Sadly, after more than a decade, there's a chance that the Eagles unpredictable but mesmerizing soap opera (As The Birds Turn? Guiding Flight?) might be discontinued.

A moment of silence for the not-yet departed.

The Eagles' locker room was once stocked with oversized personalities willing to yammer in front of a television camera until the battery lost its charge. If Lito Sheppard wasn't grumbling about his contract, there was always the possibility Sheldon Brown might pop off and say something of note. They're gone now. So are Shawn Andrews and Terrell Owens, Freddie Mitchell and Hugh Douglas and others. And though it was time to move on as far as football goes, those of us who enjoy a solid sideshow will miss Donovan McNabb's often ridiculous one-man Party of Five.

Compared with some of the guys who once served under Andy Reid, the current crop of Eagles is about as entertaining as Michael Strahan's short-lived show on Fox. Who is going to hold the driveway workout/news conference? Who's going to catch a locker room beat down courtesy of the team's ambassador? Who's going to get his Michael Phelps on or thank his hands for being so great or rock an air guitar at the worst possible moment?

Who's going to give us something to talk/complain/laugh about?

Maybe most of what happened in the past was detrimental to the team, but it was also entertaining. If the Eagles have any shot of continuing the town's best Off-Broadway production for a 12th-straight season under Reid, only one man can make it happen - and he's not talking.