The Ultimate Team Player

In today's sports atmosphere, most players are in it for themselves. From the fame to the fortune to the women, while some great athletes are team players, many - particularly those who play the glamorous" football positions (QB, WR, RB, etc.) are not true team players.

But there are some, and Brian Westbrook is one of those players.

If you didn't catch it, at the end of the Philadelphia Eagles game against the Dallas Cowboys, with just over two minutes remaining and the Eagles clinging to a 10-6 lead, Eagles' RB Westbrook had an opportunity to score a touchdown. He was wide open, he could have run it in. But he had his offensive tackle running behind him yelling for him to fall down and not score. And he didn't.

This play allowed the Eagles to run the clock out and ensured that the Cowboys didn't make any last second heroics to win the game.

Now, I'm sure most fantasy owners were upset, but fortunately, Westbrook doesn't really care about his fantasy numbers - or his actual numbers, for that matter. Instead, he deprived himself of a touchdown and helped his team seal a huge win (for morale at least, if nothing else). He didn't have to listen to his offensive lineman, but for the sake of the team, he did.

Now that's what I call a role model. I hope the kiddies picked up on that one.

This Eagle's Not Endangered After All*

That crazy Irishman, Donovan McNabb, silenced his critics with quite the noteworthy performance on Sunday afternoon, throwing for 381 yards, 4 touchdowns, and no interceptions in a rout of the Detroit Lions, 56-21. And his colleagues kicked in some big games of their own - so big they set an NFL record for one team having a 100 yard rusher (Kevin Curtis), a 100 yards receiver (Brian Westbrook), and a 300 yard passer (McNabb). Not too shabby.

I'm guessing this Tuesday will be a whole lot smoother than the last one. Nothing beats winning to keep the home crowd from trying to drown you with cement shoes.



*Title refers to the bald eagle (the bird, not McNabb) which has, like McNabb, also recently recovered from the endangered species list.