Paul Domowitch from the Daily News has a great article on Philly.com.  New York Giants’ defensive end Osi Umenyiora was quoted talking about the Brian Westbrook negotiations (assuming there are any).  Here’s what he had to say.

“To be completely honest with you,” Umenyiora said, “if Philadelphia really understood his value to that team, they would never even have allowed him to get upset with his contract. You take Westbrook off that team and nobody would fear them. I don’t think they truly understand that.

“You’ve got to game-plan against him. You’ve got to know where he is every play. As a defensive end, the things that we do change when he’s in the football game. When you’ve got a player on your team like that, you have to take care of him.

PHOTO CAPTION:  If Philadelphia wants what Osi’s got, then Westbrook needs to be paid.

“He should be one of the highest-paid players in the league. Period. I’m not saying this as a friend of his. I don’t even know the guy that well. I’m just saying it because it’s the truth.”

Bottom line, Brian Westbrook needs to get paid.  He deserves every penny the Eagles can afford to pay him.  And as an Eagles’ fan I’m sick of all the distractions year after year with this organization (I understand that some are media driven).  The last enjoyable training camp/preseason was the year T.O. came to town.  There was a buzz in the air that hasn’t been matched since. 

Andy, take care of your star players.  If you understood how important that was, T.O. would still be catching TD passes from Donovan McNabb and Philadelphia wouldn’t have to rely on Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul to win the city a championship.