Phil Sheridan

PHILADELPHIA — Andy Reid’s spirited defense of DeSean Jackson on Friday makes a lot more sense when you realize it wasn’t really a defense of the childish wide receiver at all. It was really Reid’s defending Reid against the growing perception that he has lost control of his football team.

In the span of four days, the Eagles lost two ugly games amid some strange sideline goings-on. During Sunday’s beat down by the Patriots, two assistant coaches embarrassed themselves, their boss, and their players by getting into a spat. Thursday night, while there was plenty more evidence his team just doesn’t care very much, the NFL Network focused on Jackson’s apparent misbehavior.

The bicoastal debacle came just three weeks after Reid himself suspended Jackson for a must-win game that turned into a loss against Arizona. And a few weeks before that, veteran cornerback Asante Samuel publicly mocked the front office for playing "fantasy football" with owner Jeff Lurie’s money.

PHILADELPHIA -- Your breath isn't quite as bated. Anticipation has yielded ground to trepidation.

The week they are scheduled to come north, the Phillies' fortunes seem to be headed due south. The summer of the aces has been preceded, maybe preempted, by the spring of the aches.

Chase Utley's knee, Brad Lidge's shoulder, Placido Polanco's elbow. When that line drive dropped Roy Oswalt last week, it knocked all of Philadelphia down. What a pain in the neck.

PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Vick got to thinking about what might have been the other day.

PHILADELPHIA -- It is quite the phenomenon, the willful self-deception in which our local sports franchises seem to specialize.