Eagles' Employee Looses Job Because of Facebook Status About Brian Dawkins

Apparently employees for the Eagles cannot voice their opinions about the assanign decisions of the Eagles front office, if they want to keep their jobs.  Talk about feeling like you work for China, yeesh!

Dan Leone, who worked as a part time West Gate Chief, was like the rest of us here in Philly upset about Brian Dawkins going to the Denver Broncos and the Eagles not even offering a decent counter offer to keep him here.  Understandably upset he wrote "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver ... Dam Eagles R Retarted!!"  Apparently both the Inquirer and ESPN are reporting about this.

Kind of stinks for the 6 year employee, doesn't it?  "I apologized 20 million times. I never bad-mouthed the organization before. I made one mistake and they terminate me? And they couldn't even bring me into the office to talk to me? They had to do it over the phone? At least look me in the eye. To get done dirty like this, I can't believe it. I'm devastated."

Likely he deleted it too.  Talk about a heavy handed approach, especially to such a touchy subject. I guess the Eagles front office, marketing and PR teams just really don't get it.  They are more about control than anything else.

Mr. Leone for what it's worth, there's a lot of people who agree with your post.  It's too bad the Eagles can't stand a dissenting viewpoint from any of their employees.

Update:  To add insult to injury, MSNBC.com is reporting that Mr. Leone suffers from a disease called transverse myelitis, which causes muscle fatigue.  Nice going Eagles front office, you guys are battin' a thousand!

Comments

[Charley]

That really sucks. What's going on in Philly??????????????

[Nomad]

this is web 2.0, man, you gotta watch you back more than ever

[what once was]

I’m expecting to Eagles to be a very, very, very bad team. If they aren’t bad, then just be surprised (very).
I do however feel like I’m not as emotionally tied to this team. Do you feel the same way? The closest guy I feel I can root for is DJax, but it’s really hard when his last few twitter posts are as follows:
Head'n bac to philly had a blast this weekend in NY.... da squad did that!!!
Bout 2 hit da streetz of NY head'n 2 dinner meetn up wit my boi @dwrightway and q rich and my boi d wade.... ohhh let's do it.....
It may not mean nuthn to y'all but I want this sh!t forever maaaaaaaaan....... last name greatness first name forever..... yeaaaah we on
Eat'n some bomb food......... and we all the waaay turnt up wit the brodies!!!!!!!

that's a hard intellect to root for.
As far as the Eagles go, they are my team, i grew up right there so its a bit different for me, I identify the Eagles with not only my love of sports, but my childhood, playing in the back yard with my friends pretending to be Ron Jaworski and Randall Cunningham, I used to go watch the Eagles training camp when it was in West Chester (my home town) I met Reggie White and he actually took the time to shake my hand and ask me how I was, i was no more then 12 at the time and it left a profound impact on me.
I will forever be emotionally attached to the Eagles, some of my earliest memories are of watching Eagles games with my father or getting an Eagles Starter pullover jacket Christmas in the early 90's.
I do however fell disillusioned with the current Eagles front office, the players i felt most emotionally attached with were Dawkins, Westbrook, and McNabb. Dawkins was selected by the Eagles when i was 14 years old, I always felt closest to him and I was devastated when they released him. I remember hearing an interview on Eagles talk radio while in Philly right after Dawk was released and he had to stop the interview and leave because he was too upset and breaking into tears about leaving Philly, the team, and his fans. When i heard that i really don't remember a time when i was more upset about something that did not happen directly to me. I realized that i almost perceived Dawkins to be a member of my family, in a way he was - and it hurt me to see him mistreated in such a callous way.
I feel the same love for the Eagles as a team, as a pillar of my youth and as a staple of southeastern Pennsylvania society, but I fell a growing groundswell of malcontent for the bean counters that decide the fates of the players that i pay to watch perform and root for. I dont ever see the front office cronies out in the community visiting a sick kid or having a free autograph appearance or donating money to a school. They probably do charity related activities, but i doubt it is more then just a monetary donation to serve as a tax write-off.
Players like Dawkins, Westbrook, and McNabb were extremely active and visible in the community, a Philadelphia area that has been hard hit by the recession, a very impoverished area with high crime and low hope in many areas. These players not only performed at a high level on the field, but they served the community and went out of their way to act as role models in an area were there are far too few. Philly is an area with a huge member of single parent households, primarily with a lack of a Father figure present, kids look up to these players and wish to emulate them, there is no doubt about it. McNabb did so much in the community and was a strong family man with a huge smile, a laugh, and a hug for every kid. Westbrook was a an Ivy league educated soft spoken man with integrity and leadership qualities, often asking that his visits to sick kids not be published in the media. Dawkins was a monster in the community, winning the Walter Payton man of the year award in 2005. Each of them player cared about how they lived their lives and how they could make a difference. Each of them was an articulate, educated, and mature example for the community. Read DJax's twitter post again and tell me how the youth of today can learn and grow from that.
So yeah, i still love my Eagles, but sometimes as the song says, love hurts.