Jeremiah Trotter

The backyard light was on. The wood lay uncut. Myra Trotter's message was clear. His son might be the football hero at Hooks High School, an NFL draft pick in the making, but that didn't get the wood cut. Jeremiah Trotter picked up the ax and started swinging. "We had a security light out in the yard," Trotter, the Eagles' new linebacker, said. "I tried to get over on my dad, staying out after practice, lifting weights and hanging out with my friends. When I came in, though, he had the light waiting for me. "Finally, I got the picture.

He was here before as a top-of-the-line starting linebacker and left for the security of a long-term contract. Now, he has returned to find himself second on the Eagles' defensive depth chart and a member of coach John Harbaugh's special teams. If this sounds familiar, then you remember Jeremiah Trotter's story from training camp two years ago. This time, the linebacker is Shawn Barber, and it remains to be seen how the second chapter of his Philadelphia story unfolds. Barber, who played just one season with the Eagles before leaving for a lucrative long-term deal with Kansas City, does not mind at all being compared to Trotter.

The running back and the middle linebacker were at the NovaCare Complex yesterday, all smiles and eagerness about the 2002 season. That would be Correll Buckhalter and Barry Gardner who showed up for the first day of the Eagles' unofficial off-season workout program. For the record, unhappy campers Duce Staley and Jeremiah Trotter were among the roughly 50 percent of players who did not make an appearance at the complex. That's technically not news. Attendance is not mandatory.

He is coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, yet Dick Vermeil makes no attempt to hide his affinity for the Eagles, not even from one particular free agent he was wooing a few weeks ago. "You know, I'm an Eagles fan," Vermeil told Jeremiah Trotter during Trotter's free- agency trip to Kansas City. "I coached there. I lived there. I have grandkids that root for you guys. They know you. My permanent residence is outside Philadelphia. So I have to ask: Why do you want to leave?" Trotter didn't.

It was easily the most memorable moment of what has been a largely uneventful training camp. There was Jeremiah Trotter, the Eagles' 260-pound middle linebacker, throwing himself into the vast midsection of 330-pound offensive tackle Jon Runyan. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall," Trotter said afterward. "I don't back down from anybody. " The two heavyweights squared off in perhaps the best training camp fight in recent years here. It was a full-on hockey-style fight, with punches thrown and teammates rushing in from every direction to jump into the fray.

Troy Vincent remembers his first trip to the Pro Bowl, when he and safety Brian Dawkins were the Eagles' lone representatives. "There were a lot of Tampa Bay guys in the huddle," Vincent said. "It's nice to see more birds on the helmets. " Vincent and Dawkins are going back to Honolulu this year. They will be joined by defensive teammates Jeremiah Trotter and Hugh Douglas and kicker David Akers. The five representatives equal last year's Pro Bowl contingent. The difference this year is that no one from the offensive side was chosen.

1. Chris Gocong 2. Joe Mays 3. Jeremiah Trotter 4. Will Witherspoon

I'm very fired up and broken up about Eagles coach Andy Reid's action to cut Jeremiah Trotter. I believe that Trotter was a very good and reputable team player and that his cut before the season was random. The team and the whole city of Philadelphia, and Eagles fans all over, deserve an explanation as to why. I would have loved to see Trotter play with the Eagles and feel as though it won't be the same, especially since he has contributed so much in the past. It makes you wonder if Donovan McNabb is next in line.

Eagles players, mascot Swoop, the Eagles cheerleaders and Pep Band will appear at a "Believe in Green" playoff party from 6 to 8 o'clock tonight at Chickie's & Pete's in South Philadelphia. Eagles linebacker Omar Gaither, defensive end Victor Abiamiri and defensive tackle Mike Patterson will be joined by Eagles alumni Jeremiah Trotter, Bill Bergey, Fred Barnett and Vaughn Hebron to meet fans and sign autographs. Autograph tickets will be given out on a first-come, first served basis.

WHY IS anybody surprised that Andy Reid released Jeremiah Trotter? Reid has a history of not caring about middle linebacker, which he once famously stated "wasn't important. " Eagles fans know the importance because we all had our hearts broken by Joe Jurevicius, who ripped off an 80- yard reception in the championship game loss to the Bucs. Jurevicius left "unimportant" middle linebacker Levon Kirkland in the dust. The next year we had to watch Mark Simoneau feebly try to tackle DeShaun Foster in the championship game loss to Carolina.

Sometimes, coaches can exaggerate about players they've just drafted. But Andy Reid wasn't kidding when he said defensive end Vinny Curry "might be the biggest Eagles fan ever. " When the second-round pick from Neptune, N.J., met reporters Saturday, he displayed all the emotion, passion, sense of history and pride of the thousands he'll soon play in front of at the Linc. His eyes welled as he talked about meeting Brian Dawkins and Mike Vick. He name-checked Randall Cunningham and Troy Vincent, and insisted that it was Freddie Mitchell who originated the championship belt celebration.

DeMeco Ryans finally loosened the mint-green tie he had grabbed hastily to accent his green-checked shirt and navy suit before an unexpected flight to Philadelphia on March 21. His voice had gone dry and scratchy, despite swigs from a nearly empty water bottle that crinkled in his grip as the questions kept coming. On his first day as an Eagle on March 21, Ryans sat in the team's offices finishing the final round of a gauntlet of interviews with reporters and radio hosts.

JAMAR CHANEY didn't need to confer with any Eagles coaches to know what the acquisition of DeMeco Ryans was going to mean for Chaney, the Birds' incumbent starting middle linebacker. "He's going to start off at the MIKE, that goes without saying," Chaney said last night, a few hours after the news broke that the Eagles had sent a fourth-round pick in next month's draft to the Houston Texans for Ryans, a two-time Pro Bowl middle linebacker. The teams also exchanged third-round draft choices.

The NFL's franchise tag, which somehow survived in the lockout-forged collective bargaining agreement, can be used in different ways. It can be a minor bit of necessary paperwork on the way to a fair and honorable deal, or it can be a major weapon deployed by a team to impose its will on a player. Let's hope the Eagles' application of the tag on DeSean Jackson is more like the former than the latter. Their history offers mixed signals. In the past, the Eagles used the tag as a blunt instrument in dealing with linebacker Jeremiah Trotter and defensive tackle Corey Simon.

I still can't get over the fact that the No. 1-seeded Green Bay Packers got smoked at home by the New York Giants in the NFC semifinals, and I have no stake in the Packers nor do I even care about the city of Green Bay or the state of Wisconsin. I really can't get over the fact that Packers fans seem to have already gotten over the loss. See, I come from a city that takes defeats hard. If the Eagles had been the No. 1 seed in the conference playoffs with a sparkling 15-1 record and then gotten whupped by a team that just barely made the tournament, I don't think many fans here would have been sane enough to pass so much as a driving test.

For an afternoon, DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin were away from the questions about their 4-8 record, away from the glare that has followed them all season. Tuesday, on the Eagles' off day, Jackson and Maclin presented a $10,000 grant to Our Lady of Calvary school in Northeast Philadelphia for its work encouraging students to be more active. The award was given through the NFL's Play 60 program, which encourages health and fitness for young people. Jackson and Maclin arrived to raucous cheers from pre-kindergartners through eighth graders, many wearing Eagles jerseys.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - He was benched briefly for running a punt backwards. He negated a huge 50-yard pass, which would have dug out the Eagles from their own 2-yard line, by tossing the ball at a Giants coach and taunting their sideline, drawing a penalty. In another time, in an earlier Andy Reid era, DeSean Jackson might not have returned to the field for the big punt return that punctuated the first half and set up the touchdown that gave the Eagles a 10-0 second-quarter lead.

AS YOU WORK your way through the Eagles' locker room, it is easy to notice the void. The question you ask isn't complicated: Now that your team is 3-6 and all but eliminated from the playoff race, who steps up? With a season of such promise smashed against the rock, which players are going to pull this unit together and convince it that the last seven games matter, that the team has to keep pushing through? And there is the problem. You pass by the quarterbacks, the defensive backs, the wide receivers, the defensive linemen, the offensive linemen.

THIRTEEN YEARS ago, I got a call from someone at Comcast-Spectacor inquiring whether I had any interest in being on a panel after every Eagles game to talk about the results and where the Eagles' season was headed. They said they would pay me, but I felt that as mayor, such payment would appear inappropriate, so the money was directed to charity. (I should note that today, as a civilian, I no longer deem the payment to be inappropriate, so it is directed to my bank account.) So 13 years ago this Sunday, I did my first "Eagles Postgame Live.

"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you. "   - Stealers Wheel, 1972   EVENTUALLY here, we are going to get to Casey Matthews and tonight's preseason game against Cleveland. First, though, a trip down memory lane. One of the first stories I wrote when I took the Eagles beat for the Daily News in the spring of 2002 came from a phone conversation with middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, who had just been released after an acrimonious contract negotiation.