Nick Foles a Victim of Facial Prejudice

      Many moons ago a wise man said that the most popular Philadelphia Eagle is the backup quarterback.  That seemed like a truism when, after two sub-par outings by starter Nick Foles, Eagles fans were showing the mouth-breathing side of their collective personality and clamoring for backup Mark Sanchez.

   

      The sane among us wonder, how can this be?  How, after a historic season in QB rating (119.2), Touchdown-to-interception ratio (27-2), highlighted by a seven SEVEN touchdown performance against the Raiders, and a strong playoff game (23-33, 2 TD’S, 0 INT), was The Stork no longer good enough to start here and Sanchez is?  By the way, this vocal throng of Eagles fans were/are basing their opinion on Foles on their “gut” and the f@#$%&* PRESEASON!!!  Preseason: see also, small ass vanilla sample that can in no possible way be used to develop any type of informed opinion, other than the regular season will begin soon.

     There is clearly only one reason that The Stork’s competence as the starting QB has been under siege…  facial aesthetics.  Why else would Eagles fans think that Sanchez, with his CAREER 55% completion percentage, 68 TD’s to 69 INT’s for his career (lowest INT total for a season, 13), and the “butt-fumble,” be thought of as the player to lead the Birds to a higher elevation of success than what Foles can potentially do?

     The face card is often played with more subtlety than the race card but it applies here.  Let’s look at the two QB’s side-by-side.

     The Stork’s face suggests a nice guy, which it’s well know the handsome-challenged have to be to compensate for a lack of natural beauty.  Meanwhile, look at Sanchez.  Those dreamy eyes, strong cheek bones, the dark curly hair… Don’t look too long because you will get hypnotized. 

     Sure the Stork is not everything that you dream of when you think of your team’s starting QB, but he’s nice, respectful, he holds the door for us, and he’s good with kids.  On weekends in the off season, he will be perfectly happy renting a movie and making dinner.  The Stork is dependable.

     Sanchez on the other hand, seems like the type to party hard on a Wednesday and thus, late to work on Thursday.  When at the club, his eye will be wondering all over the place except for who he came with.  Which is ironic since he stares down receivers.  If you believe in him, he will hurt your feelings.  One shouldn't get caught up in his glamorous looks, or his decent PRESEASON performance.  Sanchez is not dependable.

     Eagles fans need to learn how to appreciate a stable relationship or they are always going to be looking.

HERE'S THE AFOREMENTIONED SANCHEZ BUTT FUMBLE:

     At the press conference of every big fight you see the steely-eyed tough guy stare down between the fighters.  UFC Light Heavyweight champ Jon Jones went a little extra with the tactic at the press conference for their upcoming fight when approached challenger Daniel Cormier, and proceeded to rub his forehead against Cormier's in a way that one can either describe as uncomfortable or downright homoerotic.

     A brief scrum ensued with the two combatants having to be separated, and the fight was officially promoted.  Jones curiously described the moment of doing the face-to-face on ESPN today as "intimate" and "passionate." That description caused a Dr. Spock like raise of my eyebrow as Cormier began to giggle.

(VIDEO OF JONES-CORMIER EXCHANGE YESTERDAY ON ESPN)

     What's interesting is that Jones seems to be trying to get into Cormier's head, talking trash as we've never seen him.  It's possible that Jones has taken notice of Cormier's resume.  Big wins over bigger opponents. The portly former Olympian grabbed my attention when he squared off Antonia "Bigfoot" Silva in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. Silva, who seems much larger than the 6'4" he's listed at (same as Jones) towered over Cormier... and Cormier commenced to lay waste to Silva getting inside and ROCKING him with punches.  The final result was a TKO victory for Cormier in route to winning the title.

(CLICK THE VIDEO BELOW TO SEE FINISH OF CORMIER vs. SILVA.)

     But back to Jones.  All of a sudden from his actions the other day, which he then followed up by goading Cormier into an exchange of barbs on Twitter, to that flight watch-list type beard of his he is attempting to intimidate or irritate Cormier.  Think about it, the champion does not walk up to the challenger, it goes the other way around.  Is it possible that Jones is the one feeling intimidation or worry at what happens on September 27, at UFC 178.  Or... the whole thing could have been staged which makes today's blog worthless.

     At any rate the shenanigans at the press conference was extremely reminiscent of when Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis turned their press conference into an appetizer for their fight.  Thankfully Monday had no threats to by anyone to "f*** someone in the a** in front of everybody", etc.  And back then, it was the challenger who started melees.

(CLICK THE VIDEO TO SEE FINISH OFF THE PRESS CONFERENCE WITH "FLAIR")