KIRKLAND – This Monday night’s game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia represents everything that has made the NFL so darned addictive over the years.
In one corner, a team that had every reason to believe that this would be the year it got over the hump and won that elusive Super Bowl.
In the other, a team that was clinging to any thread of postseason hope.
That’s exactly what the game between the Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles will bring, only the teams are reversed.
While the 9-2 Seahawks have been one of the league’s biggest surprises, the Eagles (5-6) have gone through a tumultuous season that could leave their playoff prayers unanswered.
Welcome to the NFL’s Parity Bowl, football fans.
“This league is so balanced,” Seahawks offensive lineman Steve Hutchinson said. “With the salary cap and free agency these days, that’s how it is.
“We’ve been so close in years past to having a really good season, and then it ends up in mediocrity. There’s a fine line between the teams that are not having the season they want and the teams that are really up there.”
What makes this Monday’s game even stranger is that Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren actually has compassion for what his counterpart has had to endure. Philadelphia coach Andy Reid is a former Holmgren assistant who remains a close friend. So when Seattle’s head coach watched from afar as the Eagles suspended Terrell Owens, placed Donovan McNabb on injured reserve, and fell to the bottom of the NFC East, he couldn’t help but to feel bad.
“He’s handled it as well as any human being could,” Holmgren said this week of his former Green Bay Packers assistant. “He’s one of the quality coaches, and quality human beings. I’m honored to call him a friend of mine. I wouldn’t wish that situation on anybody.”
Reid said his way of plodding through the off-the-field distractions has been to focus all his attention on each weekend’s game. But the nonstop turmoil inevitably has something to do with his team’s sub-.500 record.
“We’ve tried not to let that be a distraction,” Reid said, referring to the much-publicized suspension of Owens. “The obvious thing that people will say on that is, ‘Well, you spent four-and-a-half hours in a courtroom (for the Owens arbitration hearing).’ That’s the reality of it; that happened. But other than that, we’ve been fairly focused in on what we’re trying to get done here.”
During his Thursday conference call with the Seattle media, Reid sounded worn out and tired, as if three months’ worth of drama had taken its toll on him.
That was the same way that Holmgren sounded at the end of the 2004 season, and yet now he’s as fresh as ever. He’s been rejuvenated by a memorable start to this season, and for the first time in a long time no one is wondering about Holmgren’s job security.
“I knew he hadn’t changed when he went to Seattle, and it was just a matter of time,” Reid said Thursday. “The time is now for him. He’s done a nice job.”
Holmgren has engineered one of the league’s biggest surprises this season. None of the so-called experts expected Seattle to win the NFC West, and yet a St. Louis loss to Washington on Sunday or a Seahawks win Monday would clinch the division crown.
“If you ask everybody in this locker room, nobody would be surprised that we are where we are,” fullback Mack Strong said. “Especially the guys who have been around the last three or four years. We’ve been building toward this.
“The last two years we just barely missed, and we just tried to build upon what we did. We’ve worked hard to get to this point.”
Boasting the best record in the NFC, Seattle hasn’t gotten a lot of national attention. Last Sunday’s nationally-televised win over the New York Giants got them some publicity, but a Monday Night Football performance will really place the Seahawks in the center of the football spotlight.
“Everybody’s going to be watching,” safety Marquand Manuel said. “It’s a chance to go out there and show everybody what we’ve got.”
While the overachieving Seahawks are trying to hang on to the top seed in the NFC playoffs, the defending conference champions are just trying to hang on to any morsel of hope.
“We’re taking them one at a time and hoping we can possibly end up at 10-6 to give us a fighting chance,” Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse said.
Notes: Seahawks receiver Joe Jurevicius was ill Thursday and did not participate in practice, but he’s expected to play Monday night. … Also missing practice but still holding out hope they will play were: defensive end Bryce Fisher (sore foot), defensive tackle Chartric Darby (knee) and linebacker D.D. Lewis (knee).
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