The first round of cuts were announced by the Eagles on Saturday…but by early Sunday morning, it was not 10, but 11…and it was the 11th guy that got all the buzz.
Something went down between rookie cornerback Cliff Harris and the organization. We may never know the whole story. But for what is probably a variety of reasons, the talented football player with the bad boy rep was waived.
I’m going to miss his big plays (like the ones he made for Oregon)…so may the Eagles some day…but Cliff Harris has left the building.
The rest of the first batch of cuts were neither controversial nor conspiracy-theoried:
[Courtesy of Dave Zangaro of CSNPhilly.com on Twitter]—The Eagles have waived 10 players to reduce their roster to 80. All NFL teams must reduce their rosters to 75 players by 4 p.m. on Monday and must have the roster down to 53 by 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 31.Here are the 10 players the team cut on Saturday:
S Tom Nelson (injured)
Nelson had a good camp and even took some second-team safety reps in front of Jaiquawn Jarrett a few weeks ago. But Nelson injured his ankle against the Patriots and was inactive on Friday. Nelson was acquired as a free agent in 2011. He played in four games for the Eagles in 2011, after playing in 20 games over the previous two seasons with the Bengals.
CB Kevin Thomas
Thomas was the corner who came over in the training camp trade with the Colts. He was the return for Moise Fokou and Greg Lloyd.
WR Tiger Jones
Jones was the wideout who left the Philadelphia Soul to follow his dream of playing in the NFL. The 30-year-old joined the roster for the start of training camp and missed the Soul’s playoff run, which ended in the championship game.
WR Elvis Akpla
Akpla was signed as a rookie free agent out of Montana State. He had 2,107 receiving yards in college, a school record.
S Wade Bonner
Bonner was a rookie free agent from Mississippi State. He entered college as a running back but switched to safety during his sophomore year.
DE Xavier Brown
Brown previously played for the Chicago Rush and New Orleans VooDoo of the Arena Football League.
WR Brian Hernandez (injured)
The Eagles signed Hernandez on Aug. 11. He was last with the Redskins.
WR McKay Jacobson
Not a lot of room at wide receiver. Jacobson was a rookie free agent from BYU.
G Alfred McCullough
McCullough was a rookie free agent from Alabama, where he played both guard and tackle.
OT Thomas Welch
Welch was acquired off of waivers from St. Louis. He played in eight games last season — split with the Patriots and Rams.
No doubt the release of Harris will be a hot topic among fans and talking heads in Philly today. I won’t speculate on the circumstances of his waiver since I don’t have genuine inside info on the event yet. All I will say for now is Harris certainly passed the eyeball test on the practice field.
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The “Dutch Rubb Think Tank” Question of the Day: Does Pro Football Need To Be Made Safer by Legislation?
Thanks to our fave Mennonite correspondent for providing us a provocative football issue that’s brewing beneath the surface of this 2012 season. Some congressmen and senators are piling onto the recent waves of concussion research and disability/fatality liability lawsuits being filed by former players and their families…and declaring Pro Football needs to be legislated into a safer sport.
As the famous columnist George Will has pointed out, however, this is nothing new.
“After 18 people died playing football in 1905, even President Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and gore generally, flinched and forced some rules changes. Today, however, the problem is not the rules; it is the fiction that football can be fixed and still resemble the game fans relish.”
Interesting debate over this hot potato is provided by Dutch Rubb in the following links he supplied us:
http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1504457
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/08/06/the_end_of_football_fast_approaches
I think I’ll educate myself by hitting on these links. I’ll order that Colt McCoy sandwich later…
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