Leonard Weaver

West Catholic High two-way standout Jim Lynch has been selected the winner of this week's Leonard Weaver/Daily News award. Weaver selected the senior tight end/defensive end to receive his two game tickets to tonight's preseason finale against the New York Jets. The Eagles fullback will give his two game tickets for each Eagles home game this season to local high school football players who excel on and off the field. "Jim has a 3.14 GPA," West Catholic coach Brian Fluck said.

The Eagles' hottest ticket this season is Sunday's game when Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb returns after spending 11 seasons as the Birds' quarterback. Monsignor Bonner High junior lineman Tyler Ramirez will be there to welcome McNabb back to Philly. Talk about great timimg. Ramirez has been selected the winner of this week's Leonard Weaver/Daily News award. Weaver is giving his two game tickets for each Eagles home game this season to local high school football players who excel on and off the field.

Who would have thought that on the day the Eagles had their most-balanced offense of the season, the fullback would have been featured so prominently? Perhaps the one person surprised the most was the fullback. In an era when the position is used almost exclusively as a blocker, the fullback never can make presumptions about playing time - especially in an Andy Reid offense. "All week I didn't even get any runs in practice," said Leonard Weaver, who carried the ball eight times for a career-high 75 yards and the game-opening touchdown as the Eagles pummeled the Giants, 40-17, yesterday.

1. Jamaal Jackson's 2. Leonard Weaver's 3. It's too hard to choose. They're both awful news for the Birds.

Leonard Weaver, FB, Eagles, left knee Jamaal Jackson, C, Eagles, torn right biceps Jared Odrick, DE, Dolphins, foot Matt Moore, QB, Panthers, concussion Kevin Boss, TE, Giants, neck and concussion Chase Blackburn, ST, Giants, right knee Aaron Berry, DB, Lions, shoulder Charly Martin, WR, Carolina, concussion Connor Barwin, DE, Texans, right leg Matthew Stafford, QB, Lions, right shoulder...

RUSHING OFFENSE: LeSean McCoy had just six carries for a season-low 2 yards. Leonard Weaver continued to prove he can be productive as a runner. He had 12- and 15-yard runs and finished with 37 yards on five carries. Michael Vick converted a third-and-1 into a 5-yard touchdown run. Grade: B-minus PASSING OFFENSE: Donovan McNabb threw just 25 passes, but averaged 9.52 yards per attempt. He had a pair of 50-plus yard completions to Jeremy Maclin and fullback Leonard Weaver. Maclin, who finished with four catches for 83 yards, has had 60-plus receiving yards in four straight games.

Free-agent running back Mike Bell will visit the Eagles tomorrow at the NovaCare Complex, according to a team source. Bell is a restricted free agent, but he was given an offer from the New Orleans Saints at the lowest tender level. The Eagles would not lose a draft pick if they were to sign him, but New Orleans has the right to match any offer. Bell has visited the Seattle Seahawks. The 6-foot, 225-pound tailback ran for 654 yards on 172 carries (3.8 yards per carry)?and five touchdowns last season for the Super Bowl champion.

Do the Eagles have a quarterback controversy?   Before Kevin Kolb left the game with a concussion in the second quarter, he was awful. Completed just five of 10 passes for 24 yards and should've had two or three interceptions. His decision-making was poor. Mike Vick brought the Eagles back, mostly with his legs.   Finding a fullback.   Leonard Weaver looks like he's out for the year with a torn left ACL. Little Eldra Buckley replaced him in the few two-back sets the Eagles ran yesterday, but he isn't the long-term answer.

There was a time when being without Brian Westbrook meant the Eagles' offense was going to struggle, but the Birds are 2-0 this season with No. 36 sidelined, winning by 20 and 23 points. Yesterday, the unlikely combo of rookie running back LeSean McCoy (11 carries, 82 yards) and Leonard Weaver (eight carries, 75 yards) confounded the Giants' defenders with long touchdown runs in a 40-17 Eagles victory. Eagles coach Andy Reid seemed to be saying afterward that if Westbrook faces no further setbacks in recovering from the concussion he suffered against the Redskins, he will play this Sunday against the Cowboys.

Versatile South Philadelphia High senior Daniel Wallace has been named this week's winner of the Leonard Weaver/Daily News award. Weaver, the Eagles' All-Pro fullback, selected Wallace to receive his two game tickets for Sunday's season opener against the Green Bay Packers. Weaver will give his two game tickets for each Eagles home game this season to local high school football players who excel on and off the field. "Daniel Wallace is one of our most outstanding players," Southern coach Stanley "Stash" Tunney said.

Former Eagles Pro Bowl fullback Leonard Weaver will sign a one-day contract and officially announce his retirement with the team on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Weaver earned a Pro Bowl invitation and Associated Press all-pro honors in 2009, his first season with the Eagles, after leading all NFL fullbacks in rushing attempts (70) and yards (323) to go along with four touchdowns (two rushing, two receiving). He suffered a career-ending knee injury in 2010. Originally signed as a rookie free agent by the Seattle Seahawks in 2005, Weaver played in 63 games (19 starts)

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - It's official: DeSean Jackson is holding out. The Pro Bowl wide receiver was not at training camp Thursday as the Eagles held their first practices. "As a coach, you want everybody here," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "You want as many reps with your [starters] as you can possibly get. That would be one side of it. The second side of it is we're going to coach like crazy on the guys that are here. " Jackson can be fined $30,000 for each day he misses, although it is up to the team to decide if it will impose that penalty.

BETHLEHEM - Everyone knew David Akers wasn't coming to Lehigh, but it still seemed strange when the special-teams drills started yesterday with the Eagles' all-time leading scorer nowhere in sight. It seemed even stranger hours later, when a source close to the situation confirmed that Akers had signed with the San Francisco 49ers. Akers, 36, a five-time Pro Bowl selection, played in more Eagles games than anyone else in franchise history (189, and 19 more in the postseason)

Eagles Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik remained in serious condition at a Bethlehem-area hospital Thursday, two days after experiencing shortness of breath, according to a St. Luke's Hospital spokeswoman. However, the 85-year-old Bednarik was improving and was "sitting up in bed and talking" as of Thursday, his son-in-law Ken Safarowic said. "They're still running tests on him," said Safarowic, who is acting as a spokesman for the Bednarik family. "It's not a heart attack. His heart is as strong as when he was playing.

Leonard Weaver realized pretty quickly after his Comcast SportsNet interview aired Tuesday that fans weren't getting the message he had intended to send. In referencing and agreeing with the statement of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson that owners looked at the locked-out players as "slaves," Weaver set off a backlash that flooded his Twitter account. Yesterday, after apologizing via Twitter, the Eagles fullback made the media rounds, trying to explain himself. Weaver said he wanted to draw a parallel between workers who feel powerless when treated arbitrarily and NFL players, whose huge salaries might make them seem immune to such treatment.

From: Gonzalez, John To: Fox, Ashley; Fitzpatrick, Frank Subject: Go Westbrook, young man?   Brian Westbrook said he talks to Andy Reid almost every week and he'd "love to be back in Philly. " Do you think the Eagles would be - or should be - interested in bringing him back? From: Fitzpatrick, Frank To: Fox, Ashley; Gonzalez, John Subject: Go Westbrook, young man?   Perhaps as a coach. I don't see a great need for him - or his salary - on the field.

A YEAR AGO yesterday, Leonard Weaver was rejoicing after getting to play in the Pro Bowl for the first time. They held the Pro Bowl again yesterday, in Hawaii, but Weaver was in Birmingham, Ala., rejoicing over his three sons joining him for a visit, as Weaver continues his rehab under the auspices of Dr. James Andrews. This has been a tough season for the big fullback who might have been the Eagles' top veteran addition of 2009, on and off the field. "The question has lingered in my mind - why now?"

Rehabbing Weaver shares lesson with Eagles ticket winner SINCE TEARING his anterior cruciate ligament against Green Bay on Sept. 12, fullback Leonard Weaver has focused the majority of his time on rehabilitation. But he has still managed to keep up with the Eagles while keeping up his work in the community. Throughout the process of rehabbing his ACL, the All-Pro has continued to reward Philadelphia youth through the Leonard Weaver/ Daily News Award, which grants a local high school football player who has excelled on and off the field tickets to an upcoming home game.

As inconsistent as the Eagles have been this season, a few things about Andy Reid's teams have remained relatively consistent over the years: They get better as the season progresses into November and December, and they make the playoffs. In his 11 previous seasons, Reid's teams were 63-33-1 (.655) from November on. In September and October, they are 49-37 (.570). And in those 11 years, the Eagles reached the postseason eight times. Probability alone does not guarantee that the current Eagles, 4-3 and fresh off a bye week, will reach the playoffs.

THIS WAS a couple of weeks ago, right after the Eagles announced that they had swapped running backs with the Cleveland Browns, exchanging little-used Mike Bell for Jerome Harrison . Somebody asked general manager Howie Roseman to explain how he and head coach Andy Reid could have been so wrong about Bell, who they had signed less than 7 months earlier to be the changeup to LeSean McCoy's fastball. In five games with the Eagles, Bell rushed for just 28 yards on 16 carries and was of little use as a receiver or a blocker.