Giants Miss Playoffs Despite Win

Ray Rhodes walked briskly into the Philadelphia locker room, shaking hands with a few people he's gotten to know since he was hired as the Eagles' coach in 1995.

"All right, all right. It's been real," Rhodes said after the Eagles' 20-10 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday gave them the first 13-loss season in franchise history.

Rhodes, who acknowledged two weeks ago he'd be gone after the season, gave yet another concession and farewell speech after the game. But owner Jeffrey Lurie said all this talk about a new coach was "premature."

"Ray is our coach," Lurie said. "... I want a chance to sit down with all the coaches, sit down with Ray and see what everybody wants to do."

Only the Eagles (3-13) could have a coach who thinks he's been fired and an owner who disagrees.

Lost in the confusion was the end of an inconsistent season for the Giants (8-8), who were eliminated from NFC wild-card contention before the game even started by Tampa Bay's 35-0 victory over Cincinnati.

"We were watching the game and saw it was 28-0," said Giants receiver Chris Calloway, who caught two touchdown passes from Kent Graham. "We were kind of down in the first half."

It was also Irving Fryar's final game in the NFL. The Eagles receiver, retiring after 15 seasons, had three catches for 36 yards but fell 17 yards short of becoming the eighth player in NFL history with 12,000 receiving yards.

"I felt pretty calm," Fryar said. "It was pretty scary, though. It felt like a funeral. It was nice to have all my family and friends from home here to support me."

Gary Brown and the Giants left the Eagles in the dust. (AP)

The Eagles finished with their worst record since going 2-11-1 in 1972. After going 20-12 and making the playoffs in his first two seasons, Rhodes was 9-22-1.

"When you get a chance to be around a place for four years, and you go in and talk to your players for the last time, you get emotional," Rhodes said. "It's part of the business.

"I wanted to encourage the guys, and tell them, `Next year when you come back here, be ready to turn this thing around. Stick together.'"

Rhodes and Lurie agreed on one thing. They will meet Monday morning before what Rhodes -- and almost everyone else -- calls his final news conference as the team's coach.

"I felt pretty proud of hiring the coach of the year in his first year," Lurie said. "In year two, the feeling was about the same. But at some point in the third season, things started heading downhill. This was the culmination of a very poor season."

Asked if he wanted to fulfill the final year of his contract, Rhodes said, "Right now, that question you're asking is pretty moot."

Once the Giants learned their fate, only personal goals were left. Graham was 15-for-26 for 133 yards and Gary Brown carried 25 times for 112 yards, pushing him over 1,000 yards for the second time in his career.

Calloway had five catches for 56 yards, giving him a reception in a team-record 47 straight games. Wide open at the goal line, he dropped a sure TD pass from Graham late in the third. But he grabbed a 5-yard TD pass deflected by Ike Hilliard that provided the final margin in the fourth.

"You get 1,000 yards, but you can't get in the playoffs," Brown said. "It's disappointing. But we finished strong, and it's going to be a positive for next season."

Eagles fans jeered as the team ran off the field and into the tunnel, but the loss assured Philadelphia the No. 2 pick in the upcoming draft.

The 50-yard line sign at Veterans Stadium read, "How do we spell relief? R-I-C-K-E-Y." It was another blemish on the season, because Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams doesn't spell his name that way.

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