 | For Eagles, Shawn Andrews wasn't worth the trouble |
 Ashley Fox
He was, when right, a phenomenal football player, and ultimately that's why the Eagles held on to Shawn Andrews for as long as they did. His talent trumped his trouble. Until yesterday.
After a bizarre two years during which the Eagles, in retrospect, held on longer than they should have, the team released Andrews yesterday, sending the 27-year-old former all-pro guard on his way to more back rehabilitation or to the recording studio or to see his son. Who knows for sure where Andrews will go? Maybe to another team? Maybe to another career? Maybe to get his Michael Phelps on?
But the Eagles' terse announcement yesterday was a jarring admission that the patience and the money and the support they had given Andrews simply wasn't worth it. The Eagles did what they could. They stuck by Andrews through so much - his weight gain and dramatic weight loss, the death of a friend, the birth of his son, his admission that he suffered from depression, and the various serious injuries, including a broken leg as a rookie and this nagging back problem that apparently led to Andrews' release. They even brought in his brother, Stacy, to play alongside him.
The Eagles weren't doing it from the bottom of their heart.
They had invested a lot in Andrews, including a first-round draft pick, a truckload of money and a lot of time. It was in their best interest to get Andrews well. They were going to move him to right tackle last year. He was, in their estimation, that good.
And now Andrews is gone because the team finally became sick of the unknown. It wasn't that Andrews' surgically repaired back had gotten worse, or had not gotten better. It was just that it was finally time to clean house and remove the Shawn Andrews drama.
The Eagles did it so that they could start fresh. The voluntary part of their off-season program begins in earnest later this month. They didn't want Andrews to be a distraction. They didn't want him to be a part of the team, singing his way through the locker room with a brightly colored Mohawk. They didn't want to be bothered, not any more, not when they could cut Andrews and save roughly $22.5 million in future salary - and not absorb a cap hit because of the uncapped year.
This wasn't about Andrews' back. It was about his behavior. The Tweeting, and the singing, and the videos, and the simple unpredictability of what he might do next.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/ashley_fox/20100318_For_Eagles__Shawn_Andrews_wasn_t_worth_the_trouble.html
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