DiMichele: The Eagles' Lou Gehrig?

The story of Wally Pipp dated several decades before I was born and is now the stuff of legends.
Pipp held down the first base position pretty well for the Yankees in the early 1920s until he had a "headache" on June 2, 1925 and gave way for what was supposed to be one game to a youngster fresh out of Columbia University.
That youngster turned out to be Lou Gehrig. The game turned into a couple of thousand.
I'm not hoping Donovan McNabb and A.J. Feeley go down in the Eagles' tomorrow night exhibition opener but, if they do, I'm convinced another kid out of a hometown school, Adam DiMichele (pronounced DEE-MIKEALL), would hit a home run in relief.
I know it.

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Technically, DiMichele is replacing backup Kevin Kolb who went down with an injury earlier this week but, given an opportunity to get on the field, the sky is the limit for this remarkable young man.
I got a lot of grief on this site last year when I wrote that, in my mind, Adam DiMichele is a better quarterback than Donovan McNabb.
By my mind, I meant for my team.

We're talking about a young quarterback with a fresh set of legs and a world of moxie against an old quarterback with tired legs and questionable moxie

I had more confidence in DiMichele getting the job done in a big spot for my primary team (Owls) than I had McNabb getting the job done in a big spot for my secondary team (Eagles).
That's based on close observations of both over the last three years.
Is the 22-year-old DiMichele better than the 32-year-old McNabb?
No, we're not saying that, but we are saying that getting DiMichele on the field won't hurt the Eagles at all in tomorrow's pre-season game at Lincoln Financial Field.
We're talking about a young quarterback with a fresh set of legs and a world of moxie against an old quarterback with tired legs and questionable moxie.
You can say that Reid did this out of a professional courtesy to the local team, but DiMichele showed Reid enough at mini-camp for him to place the phone call yesterday.
The Eagles will find out a few things about my favorite quarterback if they give him just three or four offensive series tomorrow night:

• He can make throws on the run;
  
• He won't throw balls at the feet of receivers;
  
• He can still scramble;
  
• He has a knack of making the big play at the big time;
  
• He can throw an accurate deep ball;
  
• He doesn't wear a flak jacket that limits his mobility in the open field;
  
• He won't throw up on the field like a certain other quarterback has done twice at crunch time.
  

My admiration for this tough-as-nails young man is well-documented here.
I wish he would have had the opportunity, for example, to go up against Penn State for four full quarters, that game would have been a lot closer than a 42-point spread, I really believe.
Maybe 10-15 tops.
Maybe Adam could have made enough plays to keep them in the game to the end.
There are 22 guys on a football field at any given time but, for Temple, it's been a long time since one man has made such a difference.
That man was (I have to use was now, unfortunately) Adam DiMichele.
Football is a funny game.

The Eagles have had one quarterback who has mostly infuriated me for the last three years. They now have another who has never let me down

Had ADM been fully healthy for the last two seasons, I have no doubt that the Owls would be going for their third-straight winning season.
No doubt.
Adam now has a blog on Owlsports.com and he's shown a nice ability to express himself on paper. Heck, I even like his blog better than McNabb's.
The Eagles have had one quarterback who has mostly infuriated me for the last three years. They now have another who has never let me down.
All he has to do is be himself and Andy Reid will love him. So will Eagles' fans.