Injured Lewis Is Just a Spectator

Tight end Chad Lewis sat a few yards away from Terrell Owens at Tuesday’s media day at Alltel Stadium. Lewis had no choice. He had to sit. He’s in a wheelchair.

While Owens entertained a media mob, assuring one and all that his ailing ankle will have healed sufficiently by Sunday to allow him to play in Super Bowl XXXIX against the New England Patriots, Lewis talked to a handful of reporters about the harsh fact that he won’t be playing, that his injured left ankle will remain encased in a soft cast Sunday after surgery for a severely sprained ligament.

It would have been understandable if Lewis had not come here this week. No one would have complained if he had chosen not to set foot in Alltel Stadium, considering the fact that one foot is all he can set down.

It’s painful, his inability to play Sunday more so than the foot.

Lewis suffered the injury while scoring the clinching touchdown in Philadelphia’s 27-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game Jan 23.

Even as Lewis realized his team was going to the Super Bowl after three consecutive losses in the NFC title game, he knew he would not be playing in pro football’s biggest show. As he came off the field, Lewis told his coach, Andy Reid, he thought the ankle was broken.

Lewis has played seven seasons with the Eagles, broken up by a short stint with the St. Louis Rams. He was with Philadelphia for all three crushing losses in the NFC championship game.

Lewis was with the 1999 Rams, a team headed for a Super Bowl victory, but was released halfway through the season.

Now again he has been on the roster of a Super Bowl-bound team but won’t make it himself.

Still, within 24 hours after his season ended jarringly, he was on the phone with Jeff Thomason, seeing if the former Philadelphia tight end would be interested in coming back for the Super Bowl. The Eagles signed Thomason the next day.

And there was Lewis on media day -- an event many players would love to avoid -- patiently answering questions, his No. 89 jersey on his back, a smile on his face.

“I love being here,” he said, truly acting as if he meant it. “I’ll have the best seat in the house for the game. I’ve got an [injured] leg. What can you do?”

The 33-year-old Lewis says his attitude springs from his 62-year-old father, Roger.

“My father had a massive stroke in 1990,” Lewis said. “One side was affected so he has had to learn to put his shoes on with one hand, basically to live with one hand. But I have never heard him complain.”

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The more conventional view of media day was expressed by quarterback Donovan McNabb when the Alltel Stadium scoreboard clock struck zero. He raised both hands in triumph and announced, “It’s over.”

He hopes to do the same thing Sunday at the end of the game, but Tuesday he was celebrating the end of the hour-long media session that was counted down on the clock.

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What would media day be without a few outrageous participants who somehow managed to talk somebody into giving them a credential?

Tuesday’s most outlandish figure was a masked man in a superhero outfit with the letter P on his chest who goes by the name Pick Boy.

Microphone in hand, he was representing a radio station.

Why Pick Boy?

Does it matter?