McMullen: Eagles Leave Some Fans Behind

PHILADELPHIA (973espn.com) — Comedian turned political commentator Jon Stewart, a champion of the so-called progressive movement has warned his like-minded in the past.

"No matter how woke you are, everybody sleeps sometimes."

The Eagles fell asleep on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Lurie is passionate about autism research and when the Eagles announced their 2019 training camp schedule on Tuesday there was a couple of significant changes for the have-nots of his fan base.

Typically, two open practices at Lincoln Financial Field was scaled back to one and instead of being free to all, it's going to cost $10 to get in, $12 per person with service fees, with all the proceeds going to the Eagles Autism Challenge.

It's certainly a good cause and a cheap price for a typical NFL product but the ironic part is that so many who count themselves on the progressive side of the political aisle forgot about the constituency that can't afford to just hand over money to charity.

The woke turned into the privileged in the blink of the eye, unable to understand how some families in the Philadelphia area who maybe like to see their favorite team once a year are finally officially priced out of the product.

Every other session in training camp which opens on July 25 will be at the NovaCare Complex and open only to invited guests, which generally includes only the "haves" of the fan base -- select season-ticket holders and corporate partners.

The Eagles, like most of the NFL, had scaled back open practices to fans dramatically since taking training camp off the road from Lehigh University back to South Philadelphia in 2013. At that point team president Don Smolenski remarked “we never would have done this without the ability to have ... open practices for our fans that are free to all the public."

For only six years evidently.

Stewart is not only funny, he's also prophetic.

-John McMullen covers the Eagles and the NFL for 973espn.com. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen