Around the NFL: OTA Addition

With just over three months before the start of the 2013 NFL season, HighPhive.com takes a look around the NFL to survey the competition.

Starting in New England, TE Rob Gronkowski will have his fourth surgery of this offseason to repair a broken forearm, and may face an additional surgery to replace a possible herniated disc in his spinal column. Gronkowski is New England’s best offensive weapon not named Tom Brady. While Gronk is expected to recover in time for camp, his recent medical history indicates that nothing is set in stone for the fourth year tight end.

Staying in the AFC East, recent reports more bad news from the New York Jets as recently signed …

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SI Gets Played With its “Special Report on Penn State Football”

I read this week SI article “Do Athletics Still Have Too Much Power at Penn State?” with my usual cynicism. Frankly if athletics-specifically football-have too much power at PSU there are at least fifty other colleges where that is true. Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@SportsChatChuck) know that I have always set forth my position on the events at PSU during the past two years and not backed down. That view can be summed up as follows: PSU stands for Pennsylvania State University, not Paterno State University.

Unfortunately the SI article in the May 20, 2013 issue reflects that there are still those involved with Penn State football (And make no mistake-this article is about football) who will go to pretty much …

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Can Chip Kelly Take the Eagles & the Fanbase Into the Next Era?

Having gone to Eagles games since 1978, I can say with full confidence that this is the most exciting off-season since Hurricane Buddy blew into town. Chip Kelly has a rather large task in front of him. He has to change the mindset of a fan base that has been beaten into submission by the Andy Reid Era. For 14 seasons we were subjected to a weekly demonstration of trying to fit Square Pegs into Round Holes.

Since taking over in January, Chip, and his offense that he employed at Oregon, has been scrutinized, and put under the microscope by every analyst, talk show host, columnist, and bar patron in Eagles Nation. ‘How can he …

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A Statistical Look Back At The Flyers Forwards

With the regular season being over, we will take a look back at the last season from a statistical point of view to see how the forwards on this roster performed. Now I know that stats are not everything but it is the best way to judge productivity after the games have been played. Each forward will have four subsections under his name:

2012-13 Stats: These are the actual stats for each player this season with games played (GP) , goals (G) , assists (A) and overall points (Pts).

2012-13 Full Season Projections: Here I just extrapolated the average goals and assists and points for each player based on their number listed …

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North Broad to the NFL: Interview with Martin Wallace

After enrolling at Temple University as a transfer student from Northeastern University, Martin Wallace quickly made a name for himself on North Broad street. In his second year on the team, he had established himself as the anchor of the offensive line and a leader on the offense. Here is his story about his journey thus far to the NFL.

Q: First of all Martin, thank you very much for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself. Before we get into your journey to the NFL, I wanted to touch a little on your career at Temple University. You obviously had a tremendous career at Temple but looking back over your career, is there a …

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The Science Behind The Use of Music by Chip Kelly

I was one of many Eagles’ fans following the Twitter updates during the team’s OTA Monday. And I was probably one of the many getting annoyed by the flood of tweets regarding Chip Kelly’s music playlist (more football please!). But as seems to be the case more often than not with Coach Kelly, there is a reason for everything. Afterwards, Kelly was asked about including various rock and pop anthems on the practice field. He answered, “There’s some science behind it…” He didn’t have the time to elaborate, but there are indeed football and non-football reasons for it, and I think they go hand-in-hand.

First, let me preface this by saying that my …

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Former Cowboy Joins the Birds; How Will Felix Jones Contribute?

Change has been the theme of the off-season for the Philadelphia Eagles, be it new coaches, new players, new systems, or new practice policies, the 2013 NFL season will have a vastly different feel in 2013.

Announced this week was the singing of former Cowboys’ first round selection, Felix Jones who will complement LeSean McCoy and Bryce Brown nicely in Chip Kelly‘s expected run-heavy offense. Jones signed a one year contract with the Eagles, and is likely to play a role in the Eagles rushing attack, though we do not know what that exact …

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Phillies beat an Ohio team, win 6-2

The 18-21 Phillies are continuing their attempt to get back to .500, they hosted the 21-16 Indians last night to start the end of their weird “4-game-split-up-into-2-away-and-2-home-games -over-a-three-week-time-period” series. Game 1 (or 3) put the unbeatable rookie Jonathan Pettibone on the mound against Scott Kazmir who has been looking more and more like the old Scott Kazmir recently.

Charlie Manuel Decided to give Chase Utley a 2 day break, and decided to start Kevin Frandsen at 2nd base; this decision did not take long to pay off as Frandsen hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 1st inning to put the Phillies up …

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Donovan McNabb to Retire as an Eagle, Time to Retire the Hate

Can we get one thing straight…I want to see a Super Bowl Victory as much if not more than anyone. I have been to almost every Eagles home game since 1979. I have seen great players and teams, and some of the worst football ever played or coached. From Dick Vermeil, to Andy Reid and everything in between. With that said I can’t figure out one thing, Why is there still so much hate for Donovan McNabb?

Since the time he was drafted 2nd overall, and the pick was infamously booed, …

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Chip Kelly Philadelphia’s ‘Hero’? Too Early to Tell; But Getting a ‘Good Feeling’

As NFL rookie camps concluded over the weekend, we now look ahead to the next item on the NFL’s offseason agenda. The penultimate of offseason workout events, the first Offseason Team Activites, or OTA’s, kicked off Monday morning and had a new, distinctive, feel compared to the mini-camps run by Andy Reid for over a decade. The players took the field at the NovaCare complex in South Philadelphia to the sounds of Chip Kelly’s playlist, including such gems as “Turn Me On” by David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj, “Hero” by Nas, and “Good Feeling” by Flo-Rida. While the self-proclaimed “Harajuku Barbie’s” vocalization may seem out of place, the players seem to like …