Ricky Watters

There were plenty of boos because it is Philadelphia, but Ricky Watters' return to Veterans Stadium yesterday in a Seattle Seahawks uniform hardly generated enough vocal abuse to rock the Richter scale. The boobirds obviously lacked the seething hatred they consistently drum up for the Cowboys or various New York Giants. To hear real Philadelphia booing would have taken an appearance by Jeff Lurie or Joe Banner to explain how they let Watters leave town without making him an offer.

The Eagles will not game plan to ruin Ricky Watters's homecoming Sunday at Veterans Stadium. They can't. The rest of the Seahawks' attack is too good. Quarterback Warren Moon held out for most of training camp, then zapped the Cardinals for two touchdowns in his first preseason game. In his second game, against the 49ers last week, Moon went 7-for-10 for 100 yards. "He's getting better with age," Eagles coach Ray Rhodes said. "He gets one week of work in and goes down to Arizona and shreds them.

Dana Bible's first task as the new offensive coordinator of the Eagles was to do something that nobody in the organization - or the entire Philadelphia region - had been able to do for three years. Ignore Ricky Watters. Bible watched tapes of all of the Eagles' 1997 games in order to learn about the offensive players he was inheriting. Since Watters left the team as a free agent, Bible did not need to watch him run or catch the ball. That means Bible hit the fast-forward button 333 times - once for every time Watters touched the ball last season.

Running back Charlie Garner, still recovering from the sprained left ankle he injured during last week's preseason loss to New England, may have to sit out the Eagles' season opener Sunday against Seattle at Veterans Stadium. An injury report released yesterday listed the Eagles' No. 1 running back as "questionable" to play, and coach Ray Rhodes said the team will decide Garner's status tomorrow. "Charlie is still tender," said Rhodes, who five days ago predicted Garner would be well enough to start the opener.

Eagles cornerback Bobby Taylor was enjoying a string of great games when he injured his right knee in Game 6 last season at Jacksonville. Taylor, taken in the second round of the 1995 draft out of Notre Dame, drew the pity of several teammates. On his way to the weight room, one defensive teammate looked at Taylor sitting in his locker, head bowed, disgusted at the world and said, "You know, Bobby's the only guy from Notre Dame I ever liked. " Running back Ricky Watters sat less than 10 feet away.

Ricky Watters has been on the field for every Eagles game Ray Rhodes has coached. This one will be a little different. OK, a lot different. His former teammates are amused by questions about the running back who rushed for 3,794 yards and scored 32 touchdowns in his three seasons in Philadelphia. They know that Watters' reputation is bigger in some ways than his accomplishments. They're just not sure why. "You need those types of athletes," cornerback Troy Vincent said.

From the moment Ricky Watters spots you watching him, looking into his eyes, waiting for him to commit yet another faux pas, he begins to make his case: Focus on the present, the past is irrelevant. Check out the Afro, not the frown. Did you see my new owner? He appreciates talent and hard work and has the money to bring it all together. Slice through the rhetoric, the rap rhymes and the tranquil atmosphere Watters declares has given him a new lease on life, and it's clear what he wants more than anything else right now: A new image.

The outrageousness is gone. Training camp is different because of it. For the first time since Ray Rhodes took over the team in 1995, he is supervising a full camp without Ricky Watters in it. The combative, insubordinate Pro Bowl running back, labeled selfish by his harshest critics and overly competitive by his gentlest, was not around when veterans and rookies practiced yesterday morning. Watters left via free agency in February. He is sweating in Seattle. His absence was noticed at Lehigh University.

By the end of yesterday's minicamp practices, the fields behind Veterans Stadium were downright balmy, reminiscent of spring in Florida. Which, for all the Eagles knew, was what cornerback Troy Vincent was enjoying right then. Vincent, who spends the offseason in Florida, was absent without leave at the first day of mandatory minicamp yesterday. Last year, running back Ricky Watters missed minicamp with what he said was the flu. However, Watters had threatened to miss all of the preseason camps and hold out if he didn't get a new contract, so his absence was expected.

Cornerback Troy Vincent was the surprise winner of this year's Ricky award - a tin-plated statuette in the shape of a certain former Eagles running back - for ticking off Ray Rhodes by skipping a mandatory minicamp. Unlike last year, when Ricky Watters' absence was almost predictable, Rhodes seemed mystified as well as miffed about Vincent being AWOL. Players were required to report by 6 p.m. Thursday for a team dinner meeting. The only other absentee was wide receiver Antwuan Wyatt, who was excused to fulfill a court-mandated community-service obligation.