I never thought I would be in a position where I’m actually blogging about blogging, but here I am, knee deep in the blogosphere, only to be self-obsessed enough to dare blog on the very subject itself. Since being self-referential went out of style with John Cusack in High Fidelity, I will draw attention not to my own blog, but to a blog with many thousands more hits per day: The Philadelphia Eagles Training Camp Practice Blog.
If you’ve been reading my entries, you might have noticed that thus far the closest I’ve come to sports commentary is mentioning Olympic swimmers in speedos swirling in 50 meter pools listening to Loudon Wainwright. There is a special place in my heart for the Philadelphia Eagles and not because I like horrible public transportation systems, trashy Jersey Shore weekends, or the zesty cheerleaders who accompany these titans on their Sunday conquests.
My passion for the birds comes out of fraternal love for my brother, Michael Frazier, a statistician for this illustrious team. Having a brother who is a coach on a professional sports team is reason enough to blog, but just this past week at training camp my celebrity brother had a run in with the charismatic QB for the team, Donovan McNabb. Michael has mentioned self-deprecatingly several times that he has spoken with the soup-endorsing hometown hero on several occasions, but this recent blog post seems to indicate that the two of them are quite cheeky, so to speak:
“9:41 AM – McNabb bringing laughs again. As he switches fields, he spanks statistical analysis coordinator Mike Frazier while yelling, “WOO!” Took most people by surprise.”
While I’m incredibly proud of my brother, who works more than overtime for his team, I’ve never really been jealous of his job: until now. Donovan’s bold move certainly took me by surprise, though I suppose these sorts of “atta boy” towel-slapping hijinks are common in the male-dominated arena. McNabb is known for being quite the comedian, as the blog further enumerates:
“8:59 AM: Funny moment from who else but Donovan McNabb. As he crosses the field to work with the running backs, McNabb intentionally runs through a wide receiver drill. ‘Hey, stay outside the hash marks!’ David Culley yells. “I AM! I AM!” McNabb shouts back, despite running between them.”
I wish I knew why this was funny, but perhaps it was a “you had to be there moment.” My brother’s entry, on the contrary, really seemed to capture the mood of frivolity with McNabb’s “WOO!” On the phone, Mike maintained that he remained professional, despite an unexpected shot to the fanny.
Now these brethren bloggers for the Eagles are doing an outstanding job chronicling every last detail of the action on the field, refusing to leave out moments some might call banal like, “Practice looked like it was going to get relocated in doors but the weather is holding up. Everyone is out on the field and warming up…stay tuned.” I waited with baited breath, refreshing my page, hoping that everything stayed on schedule despite the impending rain. Tomorrow, I think I might try live-blogging myself:
10:37 am: Wake-up dreaming of Eagles, turn on computer.
10:55 am: Log on to Eagles’ Practice Blog
11:01 am: Second practice of the day begins, no sign of Donovan.
11:06 am: Refresh page.
11:07am: Attempt internet chatting with my favorite Eagles Cheerleader in new browser
11:08 am: Refresh page. Donovan arrives; search for slapping incident #2 commences.
At this point I imagine I will entirely abandon my own site for the superior Eagles coverage, with high hopes for further coverage of any and all hilarity from Donovan. In fact, why are you even reading this? Shouldn’t you be finding out what happens next? Fly Eagles Fly!
