The mystery of Shawn Andrews

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The players come gasping to the sideline, remove their helmets, and sink to one knee. The sweat stings their eyes and runs hotly down their necks, and it takes a minute to even realize that one of the ubiquitous helper kids is standing there with a water bottle in one hand and three shades of sports drink - red, blue and yellow - in the other. The day appears to be abnormally bright, and everything seems to be buzzing. Training camp is supposed to be hard for all NFL players. It is particularly hard, perhaps, for the massive offensive linemen, the guys whose girth helps them hold their ground during the regular season. In July and August, however, it doesn't feel like such an advantage. "It's tough. We hit every single play. If we get up at 6 o'clock in the morning, we're hitting at 7. You have to be a man about it," guard Max Jean-Gilles said. "We get together in the huddle and just say, 'Let's go.' " Jean-Gilles has been in the huddle with the first-team offensive line at training camp because Shawn Andrews is not there. Andrews might be in South Jersey or he might be in Little Rock, Ark., or he might be riding the wild tortoises in the Galapagos. But he is not at Lehigh University with the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles. There are no explanations for the absence of the two-time Pro Bowl player. There are only rumors. There is a contract dispute. There is no contract dispute. There is a physical problem. There is no physical problem. There is a mental problem. There is no mental problem. There is a family issue. There is no family issue. Regardless, there is no Shawn Andrews. The Eagles have called it a "personal" matter, which seems sympathetic, but coach Andy Reid added that Andrews "wasn't excused," which doesn't. Andrews could be fined $15,000 for each day he misses. As of today, the potential tab is $165,000. Team president Joe Banner won't say whether the Eagles actually will assess the fines. Everyone is saying very little, actually, just waiting to see how things turn out. It is all up to Andrews. The young man with the tattoo of a smiley face inside his right wrist and the words The Big Kid, will have to decide. The guy who wears what he likes to call a "Brohawk" haircut, the player who has added other, more serious, tattoos all the way up his neck, he is the one with the ball on this play. The NFL season will not wait for him. Will he still have his starting job when he returns, if he returns? Jon Runyan, who has lined up on Andrews' right shoulder the last four seasons, shrugged. "He doesn't want his job right now," Runyan said. "He's not here." We think we know the pro athletes in our town, and it is always a bit of a shock to find we know nothing but the public face or the locker-room caricature. Darren Daulton was pegged as the solid clubhouse leader. What else could he be? Of course, now he's talking about spaceships coming to take us all away, and maybe his image has been altered. Andrews has always seemed like a sweet, guileless kid from Arkansas, the kid who went to SeaWorld and decided on the spot that he would get a pair of penguins as pets. He is the kid who bought a house in New Jersey with money from his first NFL contract and immediately jumped up and down on the bed because he never was allowed to do that back home. He is the kid who worries about his brother, Derrick, who was stationed by the Army in Afghanistan last year. He is the kid who donates toys to area children at Christmas. He is the right guard of the Philadelphia Eagles, but that doesn't mean we know him at all. It certainly doesn't mean we know why he isn't with teammates at Lehigh. They don't know, either. "Andy might be the only one that knows," Runyan said. Reid isn't saying, just as he didn't offer an explanation when Andrews skipped the last five workouts of the Organized Team Activity camp at the NovaCare Complex in June. Whatever is bothering Andrews now - whether it is simple or complicated - has been going on nearly two months. Maybe he isn't sure he wants to continue playing football. It is hot out there and playing football hurts. If he waits too long, however, the hole will close over and it will be as if he were never there. "Coaches get comfortable with the guy that's there. They get used to what he's good at," Runyan said. "You don't just have another guy show up and throw him in there and expect him to pick up where he left off. That's why we're out here for a month before the season starts." But Shawn Andrews isn't there yet. He doesn't fight for a breath of the humid air or taste the sweat. No one seems to know why, or they aren't saying. In the end, it is a reminder that we don't really know him. We only know he's not at work.