Front Office

The dynamic may have shifted slightly, some tinkering may have been done, but the Eagles still conduct business as they always have. And yet, the narrative, after what unanimously has been declared a successful offseason, has been that the Eagles have significantly altered their philosophy or shaken up the front office after a disastrous 2011. Not true. They have made changes. However, they are micro adjustments that owner Jeffrey Lurie hopes will have a net macro result - the Eagles finally winning a Super Bowl.

In an effort to further compartmentalize its front office, the Union added longtime Philadelphia sports executive Dave Rowan as executive vice president and chief revenue officer. Rowan, who held positions with both the Eagles and Phillies in addition to the Jacksonville Jaguars, will oversee corporate sales, involving marketing, ticket sales and general revenue. "Dave will be a huge asset to our organization," said Union president Tom Veit. "Not only is he a Philly guy with a great reputation but he also possesses an understanding of the Union culture and our relationship with our supporters.

It is hard to imagine anyone who looks bad compared to the Lords of Baseball, a group differentiated from the student body at Allenwood Federal Prison or the State Home for the Bewildered only by larger bank accounts. It is hard to imagine Marge Schott. She is rude and crude and not very bright, thus debunking the myth that smart and rich necessarily go together. She mistreats employees, venerates a dog, routinely makes racist remarks, treasures a swastika armband and never misses an opportunity to say something abysmally dimwitted.

Former Flyers captain Dave Poulin has joined the Toronto Maple Leafs' front office. Poulin was unveiled yesterday as the club's new vice president of hockey operations. Best known for his days with the Flyers (1982-90), where he led the team to the Stanley Cup finals in 1985 and '87, Poulin played 12 seasons in the NHL with the Flyers, with whom he signed as a free agent after playing at Notre Dame, the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals. He played 724 career NHL games, with 205 goals and 325 assists.

Chicago's college scouting and pro personnel directors are leaving the club, making way for new general manager Jerry Angelo to bring in his own people. Bill Rees, director of college scouting, previously received permission to speak with San Francisco 49ers. Scott Campbell, director of pro personnel, received permission to speak with the Washington Redskins, according to Bears officials. Redskins. Washington agreed to a one-year, $1.1 million deal with offensive lineman Ben Coleman.

Coach George Karl and president-general manager Bob Whitsitt of the Seattle Supersonics both got something they wanted yesterday: Karl got a better contract, and Whitsitt got permission to leave. In settling a front-office mess that at times approached comedy, the Sonics said they had agreed to release Whitsitt from the final three years of his five-year contract. They also agreed to amend Karl's contract, which was to have expired after the 1996-97 season. Karl had been making about $600,000 a year.

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has finalized his front office staff. A baseball source said last night that Amaro will hire Scott Proefrock, Baltimore's director of baseball administration, as an assistant general manager. An announcement could come today. Amaro already has named Benny Looper and Chuck Lamar assistant general managers. Proefrock will assume the role Amaro had under former general managers Ed Wade and Pat Gillick, which was handling big-league contracts and the composition of the roster.

According to quarterback Jim McMahon of the Chicago Bears, the Super Bowl champions will "self-destruct" if they continue to take a hard line on signing potential holdouts. McMahon was in Washington Saturday to be honored by the National Quarterback Club, which benefits cystic fibrosis research. And he used the occasion to take some swipes at the club's front office. He told the black-tie audience that after Chicago's 46-10 Super Bowl win over the Patriots last month, President Reagan made a collect phone call to congratulate him. "But knowing how cheap the Bears are, they wouldn't accept the call," he said.

The Buffalo Sabres removed second-year president Doug Moss and replaced him with Larry Quinn, the man who guided the Sabres into a new $127 million arena, the team said yesterday. The move appears to end a power struggle between Moss and Quinn, who was a candidate for the president's job when Moss got it in December 1994. "The decision to make this change and have a mutual agreement with Doug did not occur in rapid fashion," Sabres co-founder Northrup Knox said. "This has been in the works for some time.

The dynamic may have shifted slightly, some tinkering may have been done, but the Eagles still conduct business as they always have. And yet, the narrative, after what unanimously has been declared a successful offseason, has been that the Eagles have significantly altered their philosophy or shaken up the front office after a disastrous 2011. Not true. They have made changes. However, they are micro adjustments that owner Jeffrey Lurie hopes will have a net macro result - the Eagles finally winning a Super Bowl.

The 76ers and the Indiana Pacers don't resemble each other at all at this late juncture of the season, but it wasn't that long ago that they were kindred franchises. The third seed in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers were an eighth seed in 2011, right behind the Sixers, after first-year coach (and South Jersey native) Frank Vogel took over a 17-27 team from Philly's Jim O'Brien and coached it to 20-18 the rest of the way and into the playoffs, where the Pacers were eliminated, 4-1, by Chicago.

WHEN I THINK of Roger Torres' predicament, this quote comes to mind. "Sometimes we must get hurt in order to grow, fail in order to know, sometimes visions clear only after eyes are washed with tears. " I'm not sure who said it, but if only that person knew how much those words apply to the injured Union midfielder at this moment. For the next 5 to 7 weeks, Torres must watch his club's progress from the sideline as he recovers from a torn meniscus in his left knee.

When the Indianapolis Colts lured Ryan Grigson away from the Eagles to be their new general manager, it brought to mind the last time Grigson's name was uttered publicly in the NovaCare Complex. It was two years ago this month. In announcing the promotion of Howie Roseman to general manager of the Eagles, Andy Reid mentioned Grigson as one of the other candidates in the exhaustive, NovaCare-wide search process. Louis Riddick, who was also already on staff, was the other man Reid interviewed for the job everyone knew was being handed to Roseman.

JEFFREY LURIE is mad as heck, and he isn't going to . . . fire his coach. See what I did there? Fooled you! Just channeling my inner Jeffrey. The Eagles' chairman spoke to reporters yesterday and said a lot of harsh things he'd never said before in connection with Andy Reid. Called the 8-8 2011 season the most disappointing of Reid's tenure and of Lurie's, which presumably makes it worse than going 3-13 under Ray Rhodes in 1998. Called the first half of the season "ludicrous," "unfathomable" and "unacceptable," sprinkling "disappointing" and "disappointment" into virtually every sentence.

When the Eagles finish the schedule against the Washington Redskins on Sunday - and particularly if they finish with a win to avoid the ignominy of a losing season - they will pack their gear and head into the most uncertain offseason of Andy Reid's coaching career. Before their current three-game win streak, when the team departed Seattle dragging the humiliation of a 4-8 record, it seemed obvious that the organization would have to rethink all aspects of the football operation, starting with the tenure of Reid himself.

ED WADE certainly has heard the jokes. Brad Lidge. Roy Oswalt. Hunter Pence. At times, it seemed as if he was helping his former team more than his current one while the general manager of the Astros. "I'm prepared for the remarks that I only traded with the Phillies so Ruben would give me a job if I got fired," Wade lightheartedly told the Houston Chronicle yesterday. Well, Wade was fired in November with 2 years left on his contract - caught up in the ownership change in Houston - and now is back with the Phillies as a special consultant to the baseball operations department.

As the Eagles have changed lanes this season - drifting across traffic, falling ever farther behind the other teams cruising past - neither the coaching staff nor the players have distinguished themselves. They finally piled into the guard rail on Thursday night in Seattle with a loss that proved their eyes are no longer on the road. By the end of that mess, the Eagles couldn't even get the proper number of players on the field before the Seahawks took a knee on the final play.