New Promotion: Hatfield Franks Get Your Eat-on

Since the staff at Citizens Bank Park decided to take away our fun by dumping "College Night," I think it'd be a great idea to endorse something new for the 2008 season; "Hatfield Franks Get Your Eat-On" - whatever Mr. Eaton's ERA is heading into the game is the amount of Hatfield Franks each fan is entitled to get - FOR FREE! Let's face it, Phillies pitching is getting shelled this spring. I know, I know, it's spring training. News flash folks; we have 15 days until Opening Day. The 8-million dollar man is 0-2 with a 15.75 ERA so far.  That's 15 franks free for every fan - multiply that by 44,000 or so 660,000 hot dogs - get the mustard and ketchup ready Phillies fans! On top of this new promotion we can also pencil in $1 draft nights. Pat Gillick can use the $200,000 dollars he saved by screwing Cole Hamels to beef up secruity at the Bank for all the drunks. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the fans need to run this organization. 

Eagles Strike Big . . . or so they think

Within the first few days of free agency, the Philadelphia Eagles made two aggressive moves in the free agency pool. Asante Samuel, who's first and only visit to any other team outside of Foxboro was Philly, signed a lucrative 6 year deal worth around the ballpark of $57 million. One can assume Asante felt welcomed right away in Philadelphia as he jotted down his John Hancock (or Herbie Hancock. I miss Chris Farley.) only 17 hours after being a free agent. According to the Eagles, the pro-bowl corner was the top commodity in the free agent market for the NFL this year, and they landed him.

Now, what are we really going to be getting from Asante in the Eagles' secondary? Of course, no one has more interceptions than him in the past two seasons. But, if we fail to bring Lito Sheppard back into the mix, are we not just compensating for the loss of Lito Sheppard to our defense? Really, is Asante THAT much better than Lito to the point that we actually believe we have "upgraded" with Asante but without Lito?

When you look at their respective stats, Lito and Asante are almost identical with the one major difference being health:

Asante Samuel
- 16 interceptions in two seasons (best in NFL)
- 22 interceptions in 75 games (no sacks/fumble recoveries)
- 232 tackles, 208 solo in 75 games

Lito Sheppard
- 17 interceptions in 77 games (2 sack/1 fumble recovery)
- 232 tackles, 205 solo in 77 games

Of course, Asante is two years younger than Lito but, the major difference as I have just mentioned is health. Lito has had knee/MCL problems for the past year now, while Asante has been relatively "superman-esk" with hardly any injuries. So, in my eyes, if the Eagles want to get the most out of signing the top Free Agent in the market then they need to keep Lito in their secondary to compliment Asante and vice versa. Consequently, this could be a potential hell-ish nightmare for any offensive coordinator who would have to face our impenetrable secondary.

In another potential "big impact" signing, the Philadelphia Eagles signed a solid defensive end in Chris Clemons who was signed to a 5 year deal (monetary information was disclosed). Clemons story is real interesting considering his position changes within the NFL, which for bigger and heavier defensive players is rare in the NFL.

Clemons was a linebacker at the University of Georgia, where the Bulldogs ran around that gridiron as if they were chasing Michael Vick for abuse (too soon? Nah. Sorry Michael.) Early in his NFL career, with the Washington Redskins, Clemons stayed at linebacker but soon moved to defensive end where he has flourished ever since. Last year, Clemons had a total of eight sacks for the Oakland Raiders, which we all know had to be one hell of a job to do on a team like the Raiders. With the addition of Clemons, that bolsters our already solid defensive line and replaces the release of Javon Kearse, the supposed "freak" (I believe that the term "freak" can only be applied to how many "freakish" injuries he has accumulated throughout his career.)

Both of these signings are huge for our defense. It helps our overall takeaway ratio, where we finished last in the NFL last season with a measly 18 takeaways. Also, it helps to make our defense moderately young again, with the exception of Brian Dawkins who is about a few more monster tackles away from breaking his spine and having his bones literally turn to dust.

Now, what's next?

Well, according to the Eagles' website, Donovan McNabb is stated as saying, "Stay tuned", leaving the die-hard Eagles fans wondering what's coming; sitting on the edge of their seats, with their eyes glued onto the "boob-tube" watching ESPN for any new updates which seems almost imminent. Possibly a #1 wide out? Which (in my opinion) we haven't had since McNabb has been at the helm. T.O. doesn't count in my book.

Be on the look-out Eagles fans. Another potentially huge move could be anytime now.