Eagles’ Gritty, Run-Oriented Offense

Paragraph in Bill Bradley’s column in today’s Sacramento Bee:

While the Cardinals and the Eagles have been reborn in the playoffs, there’s no changing their wings. The Cardinals, who had the NFL’s third-highest scoring offense, have become more balanced but still like to air it out. The Eagles play gritty run-oriented football.

Presumably, Bill Bradley was not in Philadelphia this fall for the non-stop torrent of every Eagles fan ever urging the team to throw the ball. But, you know, maybe he could have like looked up the Eagles to see if they were, indeed, a running team? And, hey, look! The Eagles page on NFL.com has them 6th in passing yards and 22nd in rushing yards!

But whatever: This was a major story in the NFL all season. And Andy Reid, coach of the Eagles, is famous for passing the most of any coach in NFL history. If you are paid to write about football, you should know this. You have to know this! You could not possibly be a big football fan and not know that Andy Reid likes to throw the ball.

I don’t think it’s just a typo or slip, and not just because he clarifies that the Eagles’ rushing attack is “gritty.” The column’s about how people should root for the Ravens and Cardinals if they want a high-scoring, fun, non-boring Super Bowl. Nevermind that Brian Westbrook and Donovan McNabb are known for being pretty damn exciting or that people enjoy defensive football more than people like, say, low-scoring basketball. Or that the Steelers were so exciting the last time they played in the Super Bowl they threw a wide receiver pass, the first time it had ever been done in the big game.

My question is: Why is this a column? Who to root for in the conference championships? What football fan doesn’t already have a rooting interest? Sure, I’m an Eagles fan, but I have teams I tend to enjoy because of a certain player or two, or their history or colors or they had Ickey Woods or whatever. I generally have soft spots for the Steelers and Bengals, and maybe the Lions out of pity. I guess I could root for a team so that the next time I watch football there is a chance it will be more exciting, but, I dunno, I think I’ll stick to hoping the Eagles face the Steelers in the Super Bowl because it’d be neat to have an all-Pennsylvania game, and I think it would be interesting to see if each team’s fans could actually be civil and not murder each other. (I’d actually say this is more likely than you think.)

I know it’s not a big deal. I write more than enough about stupid stuff, and “who to root for” isn’t exactly the worst thing ever. The new service journalism, telling you who to root for in athletic contests and then rendering that service moot by reporting the team with the coach that throws more than any coach in NFL history has a gritty rushing attack.

Leading Off: Want an exciting Super Bowl - or a boring one? [Sacramento Bee via FanNation]