If you missed it, Bynum, the $16-million ghost in the Sixers lineup who should be rehabbing from knee surgery on two twigs that kept him out of the lineup all season, was caught on tape flamenco dancing in Spain.

The blogosphere and talk radio exploded with venom toward the enigma that is Bynum. On the surface, you can understand why Sixers fans who pi$$ed away their hard-earned money on a team that lost a roster-shakeup gamble that made the Charles Barkley deal look like a royal flush would be taken aback by Bynum dancing.

The man with a heart made for Derrick Coleman and Shawn Bradley’s lovechild needs to be in the gym rehabbing. That is the crime here. Flamenco dancing isn’t the issue.

Look at the video. Honestly, the guy isn’t doing more than walking in a circle and occasionally bending and thrusting. He is likely engaging in workouts far more strenuous during his rehab. He should be, anyway. The fact that he is in Spain and not in a gym here is what should tick us off more than the video.

Injured players shouldn’t be holed up in their houses. They are human and have a life. How many of us have been injured during weekend warrior activities and then gone out clubbing or dancing or swimming in the ocean? No, we’re not millionaires who get paid for our athletic prowess. Still, athletes need an outlet.

The real issue that was glossed over is the fact that Bynum is in Madrid, Spain, instead of back home rehabbing with physical therapists. For someone who has had “procedures” on both knees a couple of times in the last nine months and is a free agent to be on vacation just weeks after surgery is asinine.

Andrew Bynum looking paranoid that five-o is going to haul him in for theft.

Does anyone think Kobe Bryant will be touring Europe this year for fun when he has an Achilles injury to come back from this offseason? Does anyone foresee Russell Westbrook going on a cruise this summer instead of hitting the gym at home? Did Tom Brady travel the world when he hurt his knee a few years back?

Those guys are champions who care about being the best in their profession.

Bynum? Dude could get plowed by work ethic while crossing the street and would still lack a clue or a heart. He needs to be on American soil living in a gym.

Cliched? For sure. Reality in this mini-season of the NHL? Absolutely.

Luckily for the Flyers, Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the rival Penguins was nothing more than the first game of the year. Would they rather come out with a win? Yes. Is this in reality a four-point swing in a season with just 48 games? You know it.

Still, it’s one game.

The Flyers didn’t start the season as all in South Philly had hoped.

The good news from the game came in the form of Claude Giroux netting his first goal of the year.

Now the Flyers take on the Sabres in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon. The Sabres of course sat at home resting on Saturday. Ah, the journey of back-to-back games that is the 2013 season is underway.

For Audubon, NJ, native and Ravens QB Joe Flacco, the time has come to decide who he’ll be compared to by the end of his career.

Will it be McNabb, who got to five NFC Championship games, losing four of them? Or, will it be Manning who is inconsistent but is known for his postseason prowess that includes two Super Bowl rings?

For whatever it’s worth, Flacco has put up nice numbers during his career, yet he gets no love. People question if he is an elite signal caller in a league with Tom Brady, the Mannings, Brees and Aaron Rodgers.

Through five seasons, Flacco has thrown for 102 TDs and 56 picks. He’s amassed 17,633 yards through the air. He’s never had a QB rating lower than 80.3 nor higher than 93.6.

Joe Flacco, seen here with his family, faces the Patriots on Sunday.

Eli Manning had 98 TDs and 74 INTs with about 15,000 yards through his first five years. The numbers are very comparable, and until he won a Super Bowl, people questioned whether or not he was a top-of-the-line signal caller.

McNabb had 87 TDs and just 49 INTs with more than 13,000 yards passing in his first five seasons. McNabb was seen as a stud in his prime, but not remembered as such now. He never won a ring. Flopped in his lone Super Bowl and countless NFC Championship games.

Why is the time now for Flacco? Why when he is just 28, having celebrated a birthday this week? The answer is simple: Upcoming retirements.

Ray Lewis announced this is his last rodeo. Safety Ed Reed isn’t far behind, having considered hanging up the cleats the last few seasons.

Tom Brady won Super Bowls with a much better defense than he has on his sideline now. Eli won his Super Bowls with attacking defenses and some lucky bounces of the ball (David Tyree and Mario Manningham). McNabb was studly when he had Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter and Hugh Douglas. When Dawkins left for Denver, McNabb’s perceived value took a hit.

Ray Lewis is to the Ravens what Brian Dawkins was to the Eagles, and that’s probably a gross understatement. Take him off the roster and the Ravens aren’t the same as we saw when he was out during the regular season.

Sunday marks the Ravens third trip to the AFC Title game in Flacco’s five seasons. A win this week pushes him closer to the elite status he seemingly deserves. A Super Bowl ring pushes him over the edge. Of course, that can’t happen without a win in Foxboro on Sunday.

Joe, the time is now.

The Flyers-Penguins heated rivalry seems on the verge of picking up right where it left off eight months ago in the playoffs. A lockout couldn’t put a damper on the intense loathing feeling each side has for one another.

Scott Hartnell and the Flyers are primed to continue their rivalry with Baby Crosby and the Penguins.

The two teams are slated to kick off the 2013 NHL mini-season at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday and Hartnell had no issues explaining to Philly.com his feelings toward his colleagues on the other side of the Keystone State.

“Coming here and seeing Sidney Crosby run the show and do what he does, you learn to not like him fast. And I think that goes for all Philadelphians and guys that put on a Flyers jersey.”

Well said, Hartnell. Well said. You get this city and we have your back, starting today at the Well.

The scene depicted the prototypical “prove your one of us” seen in a ton of movies over the years.

Hey, Chip, if you want to prove you’re one of us, here’s what you’ll do tomorrow. You’ll saunter up to the podium at the NovaCare Complex and introduce yourself to the Philly media and fans by saying:

“My first move as coach was to cut Casey Matthews. Time’s Yours.”

Matthews was the only player from your BCS Championship Game roster drafted two years ago. He sucks as an NFL guy. We know it, Howie Roseman knows it and you better know it. Dude had a whole 11 tackles in 2012. Awesome for a 2011 fourth round pick, right?

He was your guy. End his time in Philly showing us you know NFL talent, and we’ll be eating out of your hand until your first loss.

What a move by the Eagles to hire offensive minded coach Chip Kelly from Oregon!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 17, 2013

If Ervin is happy about this move, then we should be. Right? Yeah, sure.

Magic Johnson is supportive of the Eagles coaching hire.

New Eagles head coach better learn from others’ mistakes, notably those of Greg Schiano, the former Rutgers coach who now leads the Tampa Bay Bucs. Schiano laned the job last year, ironically after Kelly accepted the job then changed his mind.

Schiano brought in some college guys and, while early returns were favorable, the team unraveled after giving Andy Reid his last win as Eagles coach.

Kelly has never coached in the NFL. Besides Oregon, the man has never coached for a program anyone gave a hoot about. New Hampshire? Johns Hopkins? Not exactly football powerhouses.

Still, while Kelly’s descriptors include words such as “brilliant” and “innovator,” he just doesn’t have an NFL track record. While Bill Belichek and Tony Dungy endorse Kelly’s football acumen, he just doesn’t have any NFL experience.

For every Jimmy Johnson, there are five Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier and Bobby Petrinos. College guys without an NFL track record haven’t succeeded very often for whatever reason.

New eagles head coach Chip Kelly needs to look for experienced NFL guys to add to his staff.

Hiring a staff of assistants to help him learn the pro game is essential. Part of being a top-notch leader or CEO in any industry is putting good people around you and letting them do their jobs. The President does it with his Cabinet. Steve Jobs did it at Apple. The leader has a vision; he relies upon others to help him achieve it.

Part of the reason Andy Reid was successful is because of the staff he had around him. Jim Johnson, Brad Childress, Pat Shurmur, Steve Spagnuola, John Harbaugh and Ron Rivera were all on his staff. Reid had help and people want to say “he wasn’t good without Johnson.” The fact is, he was smart enough to hire a great staff.

Kelly has to do the same. Of course, the first rumored hire is an NCAA defensive guru in Georgia coordinator Todd Grantham.

The plus side is that Grantham is someone Kelly obviously admires and trusts. Also, Grantham is a guy with nearly a decade of NFL experience, primarily as a defensive line coach with the Colts, Texans and Cowboys. He also was a coordinator under Romeo Crennel in Cleveland.

Kelly could do worse than Grantham, but he needs to make sure he gets guys who were in the NFL over the last year or two as well. The assistants he puts in place will play a major role in how successful the Kelly era is in South Philly. If he leans too much on college guys, the quote from the Bucs player might be muttered by someone at the NovaCare Complex by October.

Growing up surrounded by frontrunnin’, bandwagon jumpin’ Cowboys and 49ers fans who obviously had little quality parenting, the days in the scholarly hallways of Audubon, NJ, were far from fun during fall Mondays in the mid 1980s to-mid 1990s.

Reid changed that. He created a generation of Eagles fans who expect the best and don’t understand or tolerate average, let alone bad, football. He united a family of hundreds of thousands in the region by building a tradition of pride and excellence only two or three other franchises matched or exceeded over the last decade-plus.

Consider the fact that a child who was five years old during Reid’s first season in 1999 is now 19. This is only the second double-digit losing season this century, and the first not to follow a Super Bowl appearance.

Imagine being 19 or 20 and this is the first truly putrid season in your memory. That is a blessed childhood in these parts and Reid delivered that gift like a fat man in a red suit.

No sane person can argue against Reid’s body of work as a whole.

The fan base can lament the lack of the running game. Time management experts can use game tapes as case studies of clock misuse. The repetition of “time’s yours” and “do a better job” stick in our heads like annoying song hooks from Justin Bieber.

However, when distance takes the stink off of Reid’s last two years, we will pine for these days.

Andy Reid provided Philly fans with some incredible moments. Before Reid, if you were told the Eagles would make the playoffs four times in eight years, fans might have settled for that. Reid raised expectations although he failed to deliver a Super Bowl.

We’ll remember the frigid January days spent in the 700 Level of the Vet and upper reaches of The Linc losing our voices on the road to playoff wins.

We’ll recall the January rite of passage that was the NFC Championship Game being held in South Philly annually and the weekend-long party/tailgate that went with it.

We’ll revel in the visions and euphoria of Brain Dawkins lifting the George Halas Trophy in the middle of the Linc the day after a snowstorm en route to the Super Bowl in Janaury 2005.

We’ll teach the next generation what it means to be an Eagles fan and speak of Reid, Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, Donovan McNabb, Jon Runyan and Brian Westbrook the way our fathers and grandfathers schooled us on Chuck Bednarik, Tommy McDonald, Tom Brookshier, Dick Vermeil, Wilbert Montgomery, Ron Jaworski and Bill Bergey.

Under Reid’s direction, the Eagles evolved from laughingstock to the Liberty Bell version of the Gold Standard. The team transformed into the center of our second family, this “thing of ours.” Social calendars revolved around Eagles games and Christenings were scheduled during bye weeks.

Booking an annual road trip with our green brethren became en vogue. Eagle Nation, comprised of the “geeked up fans” Reid covertly admired and loved, seized control of cities during fall weekends under Reid.

In 2004, Eagles faithful traveled to Chicago to watch the Birds beat down the Bears in the new “million dollar abomination” the locals called the refurbished Solider Field.

In the bar of local icon Harry Caray’s restaurant, a Bears fan walked in on Saturday night, was greeted with a chant usually reserved for opposing fans in South Philly, turned around and walked out. Harold Carmichael heard the fans chanting his name from the street, walked in, took a look around, said “you all are crazy,” and left.

At the Braves-Cubs game earlier that day, impromptu E-A-G-L-E-S chants broke out across Sheffield Avenue between a group of fans in the Bleachers and a guy in an Eagles jersey among the few people on the rooftops. Eagle Nation took over Wrigley Field!

That provides but one instance of midnight green infiltrating cities around the NFL during Big Red’s tenure. There are plenty more examples from Washington and New York, to New Orleans and Pittsburgh, to the Super Bowl in Jacksonville.

Reid created this culture of winning and pride. Sure, others have had successful runs. Dick Vermeil took the team to the Super Bowl. Buddy Ryan got the team to the playoffs. Rich Kotite and Ray Rhodes won playoff games.

Nobody in the history of the franchise – and few in the annals of the NFL – have had a run that parallels Reid’s 14-year career in Philly. Reid built a tradition of pride and excellence.

As Andy Dufresne said in The Shawshank Redemption, “there are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside… that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.”

Nothing will ever rob us of the memories Reid gifted us through the years. Nothing can snatch us out of the midnight green sea Reid pulled us into together.

Eagle Nation, we’re lucky we got to surf those waves with Andy.

Editor’s Note: This was originally written as a submission for possible inclusion in an area newspaper. However, it didn’t make the cut, hence we are running it now in a seemingly untimely manner.

The track record of guys without NFL experience in the NFL is below average at best. The fact is, Kelly is the great unkown in all of this. He’s taken Oregon from relative obscurity to BCS bowls without top talent.

For all of the questions, one guy who thinks Kelly can do what Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, Steve Spurrier and others couldn’t is former Bucs and Colts coach Tony Dungy. The Super Bowl winning coach tweeted your DailyPhiladelphian a response tonight regarding Kelly’s NFL prospects.

“@tdphiladelphian: @tonydungy Can Chip Kelley succeed in NFL?” I hope he doesn’t leave Oregon but yea he will be successful. He is good!

— Tony Dungy (@TonyDungy) January 1, 2013

Chip Kelly has at least one supporter who says he can do the job at the NFL level — former coach Tony Dungy.

This pretty much backs up what Peter King said on TV on Sunday Night in which he mentioned that Dungy’s son plays for Kelly and Dungy is a Kelly supporter.

In four years as Oregon’s top guy, he has compiled a 45-7 record, including a Rose Bowl win last season, a Rose Bowl appearance in 2009, a BCS title appearance in 2010 and a Fiesta Bowl date with Kansas State on Thursday.

The fact is, Reid has run the gauntlet in Philly and was able to survive longer than any man coaching in front of a title-starved fan base ever. He failed to deliver a Super Bowl parade. Having said that, the best coach in Eagles history took this franchise from the doldrums of the NFL to the Silver Standard of teams.

For years, friends would ponder the hypothetical proposition of whether to would trade ten losing seasons for one Super Bowl title, or have a decade of elite football and no title.

At this point, most Eagles fans want to title and that is understandable. Of course, the reason fans would sacrifice ten NFL seasons for one title is because Reid just took us on a tour of a decade among the best in the NFL. With the exceptions of the Patriots, Colts and Steelers, name one franchise better than the Eagles during Reid’s time standing along the Eagle’s sideline.

For those saying they would still be standing by Reid had he won that one title, they lie. Charlie Manual is thisclose to being run out of town just four years after ending a 25-year drought in the City of Brotherly Love.

Andy Reid’s legacy won’t be measured in wins and losses. Instead, it’s the generation of Eagles fans he leaves behind.

The fact of the matter is we have a generation of Eagles fans who are truly suffering their first losing season of NFL football ever. In 2005, the Eagles went 6-10 but had just come off their second Super Bowl appearance ever. Disappointed? Yep. Suffering? No way.

Other than that, the Eagles have not posted double-digit losses since 1999. Fans born that year are now 13. Fans who were likely just learning what football was at that point are now embarking legally on bar crawls for the first time.

Seriously, fans 20 and under don’t know putrid football. Their quarterback carousel is Donovan McNabb, Kevin Kolb, Michael Vick and Nick Foles. That’s not exactly Ty Detmer, Rodney Peete and Bobby Hoying.

The fan base says “Fire Andy!” The time has come and there can be no debate about that. Anyone who wants to argue that point either has the surname “Reid” or lists “NRA Spokesperson” on his resume.

The issue revolves around how Reid will be remembered. The older generations know what Reid has done and understand the franchise could continue to go backwards without Reid.

The 20-and-under crowd assumes a new coach will keep the franchise from enduring 10-loss seasons. They likely assume the new coach will automatically return NFC Championship games to Lincoln Financial Field. They likely assume Foles or whomever is under center will play at a Pro Bowl level and win games simply because McNabb, Kolb, Vick and even Koy Detmer did that the last 14 years.

The reason an entire generation assumes those points is because of the genius of Reid. No matter what, Andy Reid created base of Eagles fans who are loyal and expect to win.

That has to be Reid’s legacy. His winning brand of football captivated the region and even helped overcome bad parenting in the region. There are Eagles fans being raised in Cowboy households.

Without the last 14 years of football in South Philly, that doesn’t happen. Without Reid, the talk radio airwaves and Internet sites are loaded with Cowboys and Giants fans.

Thanks, Andy. Here’s to hoping for one more Brian Westbrook or DeSean Jackson moment in The Meadowlands.

However, regardless of the outcome today, your legacy is safe. You secured a generation of lifelong Eagles fans in a way few have.
EagleNation wouldn’t trade the last 14 seasons as a whole for anything outside of Foxboro or Pittsburgh.