Birds' Brown painted in a corner

April 21, 2:55 AMPhiladelphia Eagles ExaminerGordie Jones

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Sheldon Brown (Sports Weekly photo)

This just in: It’s always about the money.

You’re shocked, I’m sure.

Now it’s veteran cornerback Sheldon Brown who is seeking a trade, because the Eagles won’t give him a new contract. He told ESPN’s intrepid Sal Paolantonio Monday that he has tried to get his deal reworked over the past year or so, to no avail, since there are four years remaining on it.

“I feel like it’s been a total lack of respect,” Brown, the team's starting right corner the last five years, told Sal Pal.

Respect in the form of another zero or two on his paycheck, of course.

The Eagles, in an unprecedented move, issued a news release Monday in which they said how discontented they were that Brown expressed his discontent. There will be no renegotiation, the release said. There will be no trade. Heck, Brown might have trouble getting a parking space at the NovaCare Bunker, once Joe Banner and Andy Reid are through with him.

Brown has little choice but to be the good soldier -- something he has always prided himself in being, by the way. A holdout does him no good. He might get a new deal in, say, 2011, when he has two years left on his current contract. Or he might get his wish and be dealt by then, since he will be 32 and Eagles of that age tend to be endangered species.

The only way he might get any satisfaction before then is if a young corner like Jack Ikegwuonu develops, and the Birds decide to go in a new direction.

Translation: The team holds all the cards.

You might recall that almost exactly a year ago the Eagles signed free agent Asante Samuel to a six-year, $57 million contract and announced that he would be the starting left cornerback, ahead of holdover Lito Sheppard, Brown’s good friend.

Sheppard made it known that he wanted out, and the Birds reportedly tried to satisfy that request, without success. The team then attempted to paint a happy face on the situation by saying that Sheppard would be on the field as much as 70 percent of the time once the season began, as the nickel corner. But that wasn’t even close to the truth, and as time went on, Joselio Hanson began getting the snaps Sheppard had been getting. Sheppard was finally traded after the season, to the Jets.

But this is a little different. The team is prepared to play hardball; hence the news release. And if Brown sulks – which, given his track record, seems unlikely (not to mention counterproductive) – there’s always Hanson, upon whom the Eagles bestowed a six-year extension last month.

There would appear to be little possibility that Brown will get immediate gratification, little chance at present he will find the, ahem, respect he is seeking.