Derek Bodner’s Blog

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” The popular (shortened) adage coined by Major Edward A. Murphy, JR in the United States Air Force in 1949. Even Murphy could not have predicted this much turmoil in the Eagles season. The full text of Murphy’s Law is as follows:

1. Nothing is as easy as it looks.
2. Everything takes longer than you think.
3. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
4. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. Corollary: If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
5. If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
6. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
7. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
8. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
9. Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
10. Mother nature is a bitch.
11. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
12. Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
13. Every solution breeds new problems.

#3 on the list is obvious and well known. The other bolded items are of particular interest with the way this season has unfolded.

Let’s take a look at the season in retrospect, from the end of the super bowl up through the brutal (yet oh-so fitting) end on January 1st, 2006.

• Controversy over the last 2 minutes of the Super Bowl, and McNabb getting sick.
• JR Reid has a career threatening injury jumping over a fence.
• Corey Simon and Brian Westbrook hold out of training camp due to contract disputes.
• Jerome McDougle gets shot.
• Corey Simon gets released from the team, no compensation.
• McNabb gets injured in the first half of the first game.
• The Eagles injured reserve: Correll Buckhalter, Hank Fraley, Donovan McNabb, Todd Pinkston, Lito Sheppard, Tra Thomas, Brian Westbrook. Counting TO, that’s 5 former Pro Bowlers not on the active roster.

And that doesn’t include ANY of the TO fiasco.

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Looking at the other components of Murphy’s Law:

Nothing is as easy as it looks.

The Eagles had won the NFC east 5 straight times, compiling a record of 59-21 during that span, either increasing or keeping even with their win total of the prior year every time. They had gone to the NFC Championship game 4 straight years, getting there last year. In 2004 the Eagles won the NFC East by 7 games, going 6-0 in the division, sending 9 players to the Pro Bowl.

Never as easy as it looks. It is very hard to sustain excellence the way that the Eagles did for 5 seasons in todays NFL with revenue sharing and a salary cap. The talent differential, while there, just cannot maintain that disparity. It truly is amazing that the Eagles were able to dominate in the manner that they did. But a fall was inevitable (although the length of the fall is yet to be determined and does not necessitate a long fall).

And the fall finally happened. By contrast this year the Eagles went 0-6 in the NFC East, finishing in last place, and sent 1 player to the Pro Bowl (Jeremiah Trotter). And it wasn’t just the improvement of the NFC East, which in my opinion has been vastly overstated. The Giants, Cowboys and Redskins are all mediocre. The Eagles also went 6-6 in non-division games, showing that it was the Eagles who came down to everyone elses level, not the other way around.

If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

Could anyone predict JR Reid getting injured jumping a fence? Jerome McDougle being shot? Not that either of these were the true reason the season turned out this way, but it certainly shows the sheer magnitude of everything going wrong.

Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

This, to me, is the most interesting, and the most telling. It didn’t take Nostradamus to figure out that once Terrell Owens felt disrespected (by both McNabb and his contract), things were going to go sour. Heck, TO came straight out and told you it would. At that point you need to make a decision on what way you’re going to go, either get rid of TO or make him happy. Ignoring the situation should not have been an option. But it was the way the Eagles decided to go, and it cost them dearly. Everything from McNabb’s stance that TO and himself did not need to be friends off the court to the Front Office’s unwillingness to budge on the contract was wrong.

I’m not advocating caving in to the demands of a lunatic. Far from it. But every now and then, remind Terrell how important he is. Yes, Donovan needs to say he still has confidence in the team when TO goes down. But also make sure to mention the mans greatness, how important he is to the team. Wrong? Maybe. But you knew how TO was before you signed him, you knew you were making a deal with the devil.

Should the Front Office have given TO all the money he wanted? Of course not. But shutting off all communications was not produent either. Who knows, maybe you guys can find a middle ground. But shutting TO out was not going to lead to anything but trouble, and the Front Office should have seen that long before it happened.

All in all, thank god that year’s over. Now lets concentrate on getting this thing back to respectability. Hopefully everybody involved has learned their lesson in this matter, because it would be criminal for anyone here to believe they weren’t in the wrong.