Busted
A neighbor asked me the other night, what was the deal with the Eagles signing that quarterback guy whose contract was immediately invalidated by the league? I had heard a little about it but the story had come and gone while I was focused the Redskins. That is when the neighbor we call Tony Almeida said, that's the point, I can't find anything on this story, it's like it was buried.
So I went home and checked it out, here is what happened:
On Monday 10 August Eagles second string quarterback Kevin Kolb suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. With only Donovan McNabb and AJ Feeley on the roster, teams are never without three quarterbacks in preseason and often have four the better to keep things greased, the Eagles signed former University of Delaware and Arena Football League quarterback Matt Nagy to a contract the same day.
It was a great story, lifetime Eagles fan Matt Nagy, who coincidentally also happened to be the Eagles coaching intern, part of the coaching staff, fulfulling the dream. The signing was even reported locally in eastern Pennsylvania, Matt went to high school in Manheim Pennsylvania, about 90 minutes west of Philadelphia, to make perfect sense since, you know, as a coach Matt had a good feeling for the system.
Less than twenty-four hours later on Tuesday 11 August though, the league office had invalidated Matt's contract and the team announced they would not be re signing him. The team made no other comment. Hunh.
Later in the afternoon Pro Football Talk reported that it looked like the league was disallowing the signing based on the fact that Matt is on the coaching staff and would have access to the playbook and system that a player off the street would not. Why, if this type of signing was permitted then what would stop the Eagles from hiring a coaching intern at every player position?
PFT then posted an update (op. cit.) saying that the ubiquitous league source had told them the contract disapproval was somewhow related to Matt's contract with the AFL. And neither I nor Mike Florio can understand how a guy's contract with defunct football league with no ties to the NFL could inhibit or prohibit his signing with an NFL team.
So that begs the next question, if the Eagles were caught trying to create a new taxi squad of non roster players then why was it not reported as such? Perhaps because the rules are clear and the Eagles proceeded in a way they knew or should have known was against the rules? Seems to me the league would want to use this as an opportunity to clarify for the viewing audience exactly the rules pertaining to stockpiling players off book.
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The same day the Nagy contract was invalidated Philadelphia signed former Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele, a guy that looks like he is still in high school, he became the camp arm. As Temple's quarterback Adam played all his home games at Eagles Stadium.
Then two days after that, on Thursday 13 August, the Eagles signed Michael Vick to a two year contract.
I think someone needs to test the Eagles braintrust for prion disease, they seem to have lost their ability to follow the rules or make good decisions at the quarterback position.
Former Eagles quarterback Matt Nagy: uncredited image from here.
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