Philadephia ? See if you can follow the money as it spins. If so, you may be able to follow the spin, too.

The Eagles pay Hugh Douglas to be their “ambassador,” whatever that means. Meanwhile, WIP-AM (610) pays Douglas to appear on its morning show and talk about the Eagles.

Donovan McNabb declined numerous requests to talk to reporters who cover the Eagles. But this week he is in Detroit, where his contract with Campbell’s requires him to make three media appearances: one on the NFL Network, one at a promotion for Chunky Soup, and one on ESPN.

Think about that. McNabb’s endorsement deal pays him to sit down with ESPN. Douglas is getting one check to represent the Eagles and one check to stir up callers for WIP. All of this seemed very relevant Wednesday, when Douglas went on the radio and criticized Mc-Nabb (and the rest of the Eagles, for that matter) for lacking leadership qualities, and McNabb went on ESPN and described Terrell Owens’ smear campaign against him as “black-on-black crime.”

Meanwhile, good luck getting anyone from the Eagles to sit down and answer reasonable questions from actual journalists about anything that has happened or will happen with this team.

Coach Andy Reid is available only in brief, deliberately awkward mass news conferences. McNabb doesn’t believe he’s getting a fair hearing, so he refuses to be heard. In attempting to control some of the spin, the Eagles hired a popular, recently released veteran player because of his reputation for honesty; only to be shocked – shocked! – when his honesty embarrasses the team.

What’s wrong with this picture? The better question is whether there’s anything right with this picture.

Take a step into the echo chamber.

McNabb was available to reporters at the Super Bowl on Tuesday, but only in a hurried scrum that made it nigh impossible to ask a follow-up question or pin him down. I’ve covered a few of these “availabilities” during Super Bowl week, and they are designed as photo ops, with the print reporters tolerated for a few minutes at best.

That appearance led to stories in Philadelphia newspapers about McNabb’s state of mind. Those stories led to discussion among WIP’s wacky morning team and regular paid guest Douglas.

Maybe the old-school way actually worked.

Maybe if you stand up, expose yourself to the difficult questions, and answer them as forthrightly as possible, your message will get through. And it will resonate because it wasn’t delivered by messengers with hidden agendas and multiple paychecks.

If that isn’t convincing enough, try this on for size.

Owens’ behavior toward Mc-Nabb was utterly despicable. He slimed the quarterback unfairly for reasons of pure greed and selfishness. All the football ability in the world doesn’t redeem Owens’ words and deeds. He’s contemptible.

But the reason he was able to damage McNabb and the Eagles as much as he did was that he spoke directly and clearly, and they did not. His approach made an insane message seem reasonable.

You’d like to think the Eagles learned from that. After a day in the echo chamber, you’re bound to conclude they haven’t learned a thing, a thing, a thing.