Hank Fraley

His nickname - "Honey Buns" - is not the most flattering. His body type - a favorite subject of John Madden's - is not beach buff. His college - Robert Morris - is not a football factory and won't be showing up in the BCS rankings in this, or any other, century. With all that going against him, center Hank Fraley still has become a durable anchor in the middle of the Eagles' offensive line. For offensive linemen, there really is only one personal statistic that matters: games started and games played.

The view from New York Coach Tom Coughlin, a tough marker, won't assess [Eli] Manning publicly with a grade, but after earning perhaps a B in his first start in a 14-10 loss to the Atlanta Falcons a week earlier, he deserved no better than a C on Sunday, if not a D. And he understood that better than anybody, even though he is being marked on a rookie curve. - Dave Anderson New York Times Reid's views Excerpts from Andy Reid's day-after news conference at the NovaCare Center.

The Eagles agreed to a five-year contract with center Hank Fraley yesterday. The contract, which includes the current season, keeps the 25-year-old Fraley with the Eagles through the 2006 season. The details of the contract were not available last night. Fraley's agent, Ralph Cindrich, did not return a phone message. Eagles president Joe Banner confirmed that the contract was to be signed today but declined to comment on the deal's specifics. Banner has been discussing contract extensions with a number of players.

The talk wasn't about covering the spread and making people somewhat wealthy, if not happy, yesterday after the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. The topic of conversation was quarterback Donovan McNabb, especially on the talk-radio shows. Some questioned his throwing ability and leadership, especially during the ineffective last-minute drive that ended in an interception, his third of the game. But one of his teammates came to his defense yesterday.

The Eagles took care of some business yesterday, tendering contracts to four of their restricted free-agent players. The one-year, roughly $600,000 offers to fullback Cecil Martin, guard Doug Brzezinski, safety Rashard Cook and wide receiver Na Brown allow the Eagles to retain right of first refusal on each player. That means that if another team offers any of the four a contract, the Eagles would have 10 days to match the offer, or choose compensation from the other team.

With Eagles center Hank Fraley out for the season with a torn rotator cuff, Jamaal Jackson will get his first chance to play and start in an NFL game. Coach Andy Reid announced yesterday that Jackson will start at center against Dallas in Monday night's key NFC East game at Lincoln Financial field. The Eagles signed Jackson this week from their practice squad. Jackson was originally signed as an undrafted free agent out of Delaware State in 2003, and spent most of that season on the practice squad.

Postseason honors are nice, but the postseason itself is much nicer, Eagles rookie defensive tackle Corey Simon said. He has 9 1/2 sacks, but the sixth overall pick is anything but guaranteed the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year award. A couple of sacks tomorrow against the visiting Bengals would help his cause - not that he has anything to be ashamed of now. "Any time you can put up the numbers I've put up, you can't help but be happy," Simon said. Simon has a half-sack fewer than Eagles end Hugh Doulgas compiled as a rookie with the Jets in 1995, when Douglas won the league's Rookie of the Year award.

As far as the Golf Channel is concerned, the Philadelphia Eagles whiffed big-time yesterday. After promoting yesterday's scheduled taping of Big Break All-Star Challenge with a half-dozen popular Eagles, then flying host Rich Lerner and a dozen producers, cameramen and technicians up from Orlando, Fla., the Golf Channel got stiff-armed - or simply stiffed - by some no-show Eagles. The no-shows were Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, Hank Fraley and Hugh Douglas, who was to have been the special guest host with Lerner at the filming, scheduled for 8:30-10 a.m. at Ron Jaworski's Valleybrook Golf Club in Blackwood, Camden County.

The best moment Monday night at the Superdome didn't occur on the field. Sure, Donovan McNabb's touchdown pass to Freddie Mitchell was a thing of beauty for Eagles fans and Lito Sheppard's 88-yard punt return for a touchdown was reason to believe that there is life after Brian Mitchell. Nothing, however, could compare to what happened just outside the Eagles' locker room following their 27-17 exhibition win over the New Orleans Saints. That's where a reunion between Eagles center Hank Fraley and his brother, David, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, took place.

Former Eagles center Bubba Miller signed a one-year contract with the New Orleans Saints yesterday. Miller, with the Eagles since being signed as a rookie free agent in 1996, missed the 2001 season after breaking his right ankle in the preseason finale. Hank Fraley started 15 games in Miller's place and was re-signed to a one-year contract in March. Miller, who was an unrestricted free agent, will be paid the veteran's minimum of $650,000. The Saints also signed tight end Eddie "Boo" Williams, an exclusive-rights free agent, to a one-year contract.

In 2000, Bubba Miller fractured his ankle in the final preseason game and the Eagles entered the season opener with untested Hank Fraley as the starting center. Fraley, who had never before played an NFL snap, kept the job for more than four seasons until he suffered a shoulder injury in the eighth game of 2005. Jamaal Jackson, who had never delivered an NFL snap, replaced him and started the next four years. In both cases, the Eagles lost an established starting center. In both cases, they gave the job to somebody who had provided no reason for confidence.

Inside an office at the Eagles' NovaCare Complex hangs an enlarged Sports Illustrated cover from Aug. 14, 2006. It features Jamaal Jackson, then a third-year player with only eight career starts, crashing in practice against Hank Fraley, who at that time had spent 4 1/2 seasons as the Eagles' full-time starting center. The headline reads, "Survival Game: Fighting for a Job in the NFL. " Jackson won that battle, forcing Fraley out to Cleveland. But now his tenure as the leader on the Eagles offensive line is in jeopardy.

When Jamaal Jackson took his first step off the field Sunday, right arm dangling from a season-ending torn triceps, Mike McGlynn might have taken his first step toward becoming the Eagles' permanent center. Hard to put it that way without wincing at the indelicacy, which was why one of the first things McGlynn said yesterday when reporters gathered around his locker stall was, "You never want to see anybody go down. " But as McGlynn has noted in the past, Jackson got his foot in the door in 2005, when Hank Fraley suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in the eighth game of the season.

In Super Bowl XXXIX: Lost to the Patriots, 24-21, at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville. From the clips: "The Eagles came in as seven-point underdogs," wrote Daily News Eagles beat writer Les Bowen. "To win, they needed for Donovan McNabb to outplay Tom Brady, which he didn't, and they needed for Andy Reid to do something that would make Bill Belichick adjust, rather than the other way around. " What went wrong: The Eagles weren't overmatched, they were just sloppy. McNabb had 357 yards passing in the Super Bowl, but the offense showed no urgency in trying to rally from a 10-point deficit with 5:40 left.

BETHLEHEM - Mike McGlynn wants a chance to win the Eagles' starting center job, to build on the work he put in Friday night, when McGlynn started the preseason opener against Jacksonville. When the Birds gathered yesterday for their first day of practice after that game, McGlynn suddenly seemed much farther from that goal. In the morning, longtime starting center Jamaal Jackson startled nearly everyone by donning his uniform and taking part in individual drills, Jackson and left guard Todd Herremans removed from the physically unable to perform list.

Hank Fraley was happy to fill in anywhere the Cleveland Browns needed him. Center, guard, even tight end. He went wherever. Yesterday, he was told the Browns no longer had a spot for him. A 10-year veteran, the versatile Fraley, who bailed the Browns out when LeCharles Bentley was injured in 2006, was released by Cleveland 2 weeks before he was due a roster bonus. The move was made in preparation for free agency, where the Browns have been among the NFL's most active teams in recent years.

THE LAST TIME the Eagles played the Cowboys, back on Nov. 8 at the Linc, Donovan McNabb was picked off twice and never looked comfortable in the pocket. The Birds' offensive line got shuffled when left tackle Jason Peters suffered a first-half ankle injury, then was reshuffled when he returned. It gave up four sacks and seemed overmatched, most notably when it couldn't pick up a key fourth-quarter first down from the Dallas 45 on second-, third- and fourth-and-1. (The spots on third and fourth down almost certainly were wrong, but let's not rehash that again.

The glue to the Eagles' offensive line this season landed in the trainer's room before the end of the first quarter yesterday. Center Jamaal Jackson suffered a sprained left knee with 5 minutes, 36 seconds left in the first quarter and did not return. Coach Andy Reid said after the game that Jackson would have an MRI examination on the knee today. Jackson's injury forced the Eagles to shuffle their offensive line once again, which has been an ongoing saga for this team since the start of training camp.

CERTAIN GROUPINGS become familiar enough to seem permanent. The Art Museum anchors one end of the Parkway, City Hall the other. Gaze north up the Delaware on a clear day from the middle of the Walt Whitman Bridge, you know you'll see the pale-blue span of the Ben Franklin. That's how it has been with the Eagles' offensive line and its tackles, Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan. One hundred thirty-four regular-season games, the Birds played with those very large, talented men bracketing the guards and the center.

About 90 minutes after the Eagles completed their 17-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins a week ago at Lincoln Financial Field, veteran safety Brian Dawkins was asked whether the unbeaten New England Patriots were unbeatable. "Every team can be beaten - that's a given," Dawkins said. "There's no team that's played the game that can't be beaten. " Given how dominant the Patriots have been through 10 games, Dawkins' point certainly is open for debate. Few people believe the Eagles have any chance of going into Gillette Stadium tonight and shocking a national television audience with an upset of a team favored by 24 points.