The Top Five List

With the Brett Favre/Green Bay Packers divorce dominating the national sports landscape, I figured this week's Top 5 list should detail the most memorable Philly Sports Breakups. Lord knows we've suffered through our share:

5. Scott Rolen & Phils - I can't put my finger on why this break up annoyed me so much, but it did. Maybe it was how much he bad mouthed the city and the franchise on the way out of town. I also really disliked how he made a spectacle of himself when he interrupted Harry Kalas Day after his trade to the Cardinals by coming out and shaking his hand. Although, his bitching about the Phils lack of commitment was 100% true. I just don't like the way he went about things. Plus, on the bright side, the exit of Scott Rolen somehow triggered the upswing of the Phils over the past 6 years or so as management used his money to spend on Jim Thome, etc.

4. Reggie White & Norman Braman - This was another sad day for Philly phans. God may have told Reggie to go to Green Bay, but it was Norman Braman that pushed him out the door. That prick broke up the best defense in franchise history because he was such a cheap ass. The more I think about this one, the more I get pissed off. If Reggie stays in Philly, Seth, Clyde, and EA all stay in Philly also. What could have been.

3. Charles Barkley & Harold Katz - The Chuck Wagon was my all time favorite Sixer and I immediately became a Suns fan the day he was traded. Everything the Round Mound of Rebound said about Harold Katz was right. The guy was a complete fraud of an owner that couldn't manage a taco stand let alone an NBA franchise. As such, you really can't fault Charles for talking his way out of town. Plus, he likes the area so much, he has stuck around over the years and never sold his house on the Main Line.



2. Eric Lindros & Clarkie - When the GM and owner are routinely bad mouthing a player's parents in the press, you know things are bad....really bad. Although he remained Flyers property for a year after getting destroyed by Scott Stevens in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, his career in Orange and Black ended more suddenly and completely than any prominent Philly athlete that I can remember (except for maybe The Wild Thing.) The Big E should have retired a Flyer and had many more All Star caliber seasons, but there was no way Lindros and Clarkie would ever be able to work together again. Unfortunately, Lindros was never the same after leaving the Flyers as he bounced around the NHL like a journeyman over the last 5 years of his career. If you had a Pat Croce type in the front office, I really think this marriage could have been salvaged. That and the Big E would have had to grown a set and got his parents out of his every day decision making.

1. T.O. & D Mac & Joe Banner & Andy Reid - This one took the cake. I can't think of an uglier break up than this one. T.O. was like the hot, crazy chick from South Philly or the Great Northeast that you meet in a bar during an all night drinking session, bang a bunch of times and then things go bad really fast, culminating with her keying your car and putting a cinder block through your windshield. While T.O. shit all over anything and everything in order to get out of town and single handedly destroyed the 2005 season, the 2004 season was really freakin' fun mostly because of him.

If you want to compare what city has suffered through the worst break ups, I'll put our top 2 divorces against anything any other city has seen. There was more bad blood in the T.O. and Big E fiascoes, then you see in your ordinary mafia war.

Christ, you know we've been through a lot when the Curt Schilling and Allen Iverson divorces couldn't even make the list.