Ready for some football?

Interesting quote from Jevon Kearse in this story from The Associated Press:

PHILADELPHIA - The helicopters are grounded. The stakeouts have ended.

The surreal circus that was the Philadelphia Eagles training camp is now behind them and not a moment too soon. The Eagles are ready to forget the daily bickering between Terrell Owens, Donovan McNabb and management and get down to business, get back to a normal schedule and get ready to defend their NFC championship.

"There's no better way to put the distractions behind you then to let everyone know where you stand and get that first game out of the way," said defensive end Jevon Kearse. "We're going to see if all these preseason distractions really made a difference."

The Eagles will get their first chance to find out next Monday night at Atlanta, the team Philadelphia beat in last year's NFC title game and the city Owens fled to after coach Andy Reid kicked him out of training camp for a week.

More on the offseason from tight end L.J. Smith:

"I'd just turn on "SportsCenter" every day and be like, 'Wow, this is crazy,'" said tight end L.J. Smith. "It's all about us all the time. From the Super Bowl all the way to now, it's been all Eagles. It's just been a lot of attention on us."

"I'm happy I'm on this Philadelphia Eagles ride."