With a pair of his former players - Eagles
quarterback Nick Foles and Saints quarterback
Drew Brees - squaring off in an NFC wild-card
game at the Linc, Long wants to see a shootout.
never in his wildest dreams did Long think he
would ever have the chance to see them go at it
in an NFL playoff game.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Long said. "I asked my
wife, 'Who am I supposed to cheer for?' "
"I hope both of these defensive coordinators get a
lot more gray hair after this game," said Long,
the former football coach at Austin Westlake
High, where Foles and Brees played in high
school. "The ideal game for me is if both Nick
and Drew threw for seven touchdowns. I just
want the quarterbacks to have great games."
Long believes Foles'
best football days are ahead of him.
"He's basically still a rookie. He's still figuring all
this out," Long said. "He's just on the lip of his
career. He's the type of guy that I see moving on
like Drew. He'll continue to get better as he
adjusts to the speed of the game and the
athleticism of the people he's playing against."
Brees told a conference call
with Philadelphia-area
reporters yesterday, "I've followed (Foles) from
afar, just because, you know, he was breaking all
my records" at Westlake High in Austin, Texas.
"I've been really impressed with what he's
accomplished so far in the NFL," said Brees
Brees called Foles' 27 touchdown passes and just
two interceptions this season "amazing . . .
extremely impressive. Those are pretty
unprecedented numbers, especially for a guy
who's in his first year as a starter. I'm very
happy for his success. Not just the fact that
we're from the same high school and I kind of
know the road he's traveled, but . . .
you can see by the way he plays,
he's mature beyond his years."
A shirtless Keenan Lewis, CB for the Saints (formerly of the Steelers before this year) stretches in the freezing cold before the playoff game against the Eagles