Chad Lewis

His soft voice matches his soft hands, but those hands weren't enough to keep him around. Second-year tight end Chad Lewis was released yesterday. Lewis, 26, delighted Eagles fans last season when, as an undrafted free agent, he made the team out of Brigham Young, where he was the Cougars' No. 2 tight end. Lewis caught 12 passes, four for touchdowns, in 1997, but had no catches and saw very little playing time in this year's preseason games. Despite long hours attempting to improve, the 6-6, 252-pound Lewis was hurt by his suspect blocking ability.

The last time the Eagles played the Atlanta Falcons, Chad Lewis was right in the middle of the action and the celebration. Thanks in large part to his two touchdown catches in the right corner of the north end zone at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles finally cleared the NFC championship game hurdle that they had stumbled on the previous three seasons. As it turned out, of course, it was a bittersweet moment for the Eagles' classy veteran tight end. The first TD catch, an amazing tightrope-walking grab, will be part of team highlight reels 100 years from now and still draws viewing requests from his friends and neighbors back in Utah.

Tight end Chad Lewis got his precious football back yesterday. Rich Sutton and his nephew Johnny Giordano, 11, made out all right, too. Lewis, an Eagles rookie, caught the touchdown pass that beat the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday at the Vet and celebrated by hurling the ball into the stands. He immediately regretted it. Besides having to pay an automatic fine of $2,500, Lewis wanted the memento to display alongside the first ball he'd caught for an NFL touchdown, against the Cowboys on Sept.

Necessity, best known as the mother of invention, is at least a close relative to the Eagles' new youth movement. With their record at 3-8 and a number of players injured, Andy Reid and his staff will devote the last five games to evaluating the younger players on the team. The one lineup change that will add an older player is even designed to let the coaches see what they have as the focus turns toward reloading for next season. "We have what we have," coach Andy Reid said.

Chad Lewis laughed while riding home after the NFC championship victory over Atlanta that vaulted the Eagles into the Super Bowl. Some would say he had little reason to smile, after suffering a Lisfranc sprain in his foot that will require surgery tomorrow and keep him out of the big game on Feb. 6. But when he thought of his first touchdown catch of the day, he could not help but laugh. The tight end's season might be over, after he was injured on his second touchdown of the day, but Lewis made it a memorable day. When it was over, he thought of a historic moment in football history that was reminiscent of the touchdown reception he made in the first half of the Eagles' 27-10 win Sunday.

The instant friendship made perfect sense. Chad Lewis was guiding Justin Ena around the Eagles facility all week, one BYU guy taking another under his wing. The friendship was not exactly instant, though. It turns out Lewis and Ena already knew each other. In fact, Ena is with the Eagles at least partly because of his friendship with the Pro Bowl tight end. "We've been working out together almost every day for the last month and a half," Lewis said. "A group of us worked out in Provo [Utah]

In a strange twist, Donovan McNabb will replace Green Bay's Brett Favre in the Pro Bowl. That's strange because McNabb, who missed six games with a broken ankle, is coming off a more serious injury than the foot injury Favre cited in withdrawing from the NFL's all-star game. "I'll rest the ankle next week," McNabb said yesterday. "If it's the right thing to do, then I'll play. " Offensive tackle Jon Runyan was also added to the roster, replacing the St. Louis Rams' Orlando Pace.

This will eat at Eagles tight end Chad Lewis for a while. He knows that. Lewis will look back at yesterday's game and picture the lost opportunities in his mind. The Eagles had a 17-13 halftime lead against the St. Louis Rams - a team that rarely gives up more than 17 points - and did not build on it. They had momentum on their side and the Rams' fans on edge, but could not cash in. Something happened to the Eagles' offense in the second half of yesterday's 29-24 loss to the Rams in the NFC championship game.

The play was about the only memorable one during the first-half debacle. Donovan McNabb dropped back and threw deep, down the middle of the field. Tight end Chad Lewis stretched in midair, poked out his right hand, and hauled in the pass. Look, fans, one hand! Then, as a rare cheer erupted, Lewis raised both hands in the air, as if he were trying to catch all the praise. The Eagles were on the 4-yard line, a few nudges from having a chance to take the lead during a half in which they were thoroughly dominated.

Even though rookie Chad Lewis had opened the game at tight end Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys, Eagles coach Ray Rhodes was reluctant this week to say that he had unseated incumbent starter Jason Dunn. After all, Rhodes said, Dunn replaced Lewis on the second play and saw plenty of action in the 21-20 defeat. But Lewis made two catches for 19 yards and a touchdown, and is slowly but surely creeping ahead of Dunn, a second-round draft pick who was a rookie star last season.

Gloucester Catholic headed to Las Vegas this week in search of quality competition. On Thursday, The Inquirer's top-ranked baseball team found it, when Bishop Manogue of Reno, Nev., scored in the bottom of the seventh inning to hand the Rams their first loss, 3-2, in the Bishop Gorman Easter Classic. Gloucester Catholic's aggressiveness on the basepaths resulted in a 2-0 first-inning lead, without the benefit of a hit. After Pat Kane was hit by a pitch, Brett Tenuto walked, and both advanced on a double steal.

In honor of Kevin Kolb limping back into town, we present this equally lame quiz on Eagles quarterbacks during coach Andy Reid's tenure. 1 Who caught the most touchdown passes from Donovan McNabb? a. Brian Westbrook. b. Terrell Owens. c. Chad Lewis. 2 Who caught the first postseason touchdown McNabb ever threw? a. Chad Lewis. b. Na Brown. c. Todd Pinkston. 3 After McNabb and Koy Detmer, who was the third to play quarterback in 2004? a. Toe Blake. b. Henry Blake.

THE EAGLES WILL get to the Super Bowl this season! The Eagles will win the Super Bowl!! They will win another one within the next 5 years!!! Who says so? Chad Lewis says so, and here's a guy who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't curse and doesn't feel an ounce of bitterness that the last time the Eagles got to the Super Bowl he caught the touchdown pass in the NFC Championship Game that sent them on their way, but broke his foot on the play, shattering those boyhood backyard dreams.

Eagles tight end Chad Lewis experienced his best and worst moments in last year's 27-10 NFC title win over Atlanta. Lewis caught two touchdown passes, but also suffered a sprained left foot that not only sidelined him for the Super Bowl but also took about 10 months to heal. He rejoined the Eagles on Nov. 9, and in five games has three receptions for 39 yards. Lewis, 34, spoke recently about his comeback and his experiences away from the football field. Question: After such a difficult injury, how are you feeling?

The news earlier in the week that Eagles running back Brian Westbrook is out for the season with a Lisfranc sprain is under review. On Tuesday, the Eagles made the announcement that an MRI exam revealed that Westbrook had a Lisfanc sprain in his right foot and would be sidelined for the final four games of the regular season. Baltimore foot specialist Mark Myerson, who examined Westbrook after the initial announcement, now has a different interpretation of the running back's ailment.

Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens and Brian Westbrook. They were the Eagles' version of the Big Three at the start of this season. Now, like the team's playoff hopes, they are all gone. Westbrook became the third and final player from that trio to check out of the 2005 season yesterday when an MRI exam revealed that the running back has a Lisfranc sprain of his right foot. He suffered the injury on the Eagles' first offensive series of Monday night's disastrous 42-0 loss to the Seattle Seahawks at Lincoln Financial Field.

The last time the Eagles played the Atlanta Falcons, Chad Lewis was right in the middle of the action and the celebration. Thanks in large part to his two touchdown catches in the right corner of the north end zone at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles finally cleared the NFC championship game hurdle that they had stumbled on the previous three seasons. As it turned out, of course, it was a bittersweet moment for the Eagles' classy veteran tight end. The first TD catch, an amazing tightrope-walking grab, will be part of team highlight reels 100 years from now and still draws viewing requests from his friends and neighbors back in Utah.

Chad Lewis still has a locker with a nameplate on top of it and a collection of No. 89 jerseys hanging inside at the Eagles' NovaCare Complex. The veteran tight end revealed last week that he also still has a burning desire to play the game of football, and, even though he's an unemployed free agent at the moment, it's hard to imagine him playing anywhere other than Philadelphia. Just back from a visit to China with NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, Lewis was in Baltimore on Friday to visit Mark Myerson, the foot specialist best known for his operation on wide receiver Terrell Owens' ankle last season.

The Eagles signed tight end James Whalen to a two-year contract yesterday, but it doesn't necessarily signal that veteran Chad Lewis is about to retire. In fact, a league source said yesterday that the Eagles are convinced that Lewis, 33, is determined to return from the Lisfranc sprain of his left foot that he suffered making his second touchdown catch in the team's Jan. 23 NFC championship victory over the Atlanta Falcons. With Lewis recovering from the foot surgery and fellow tight end L.J. Smith undergoing back surgery recently, the Eagles felt as though they needed at least one healthy tight end on their roster even at this early stage of the off-season.

THANK YOU, Eagles. Not only for the way you played, but also for the way you carried yourselves off the field. This was a team the entire family could - and did - get behind. In my house, lined up on the sofa on Sunday night, we made some memories. It was just the way you hope it would be: me with my three sons, 4, 7 and 9. It's funny how things come full circle. Just as I did 30 years ago (then in homage to Roman Gabriel), my boys were each wearing No. 5 jerseys.