Okay, this is kind of a strange story.

Nigel Bradham, as you well know, has not played this preseason while rehabbing a toe injury. He is not listed on the Eagles’ injury report and is expected to be fine for Sunday’s season opener.

However, a story from Jeff McLane at the Inquirer reveals that Bradham essentially ghosted the Eagles last week, skipping out on the Jets game while the rest of the starters joined the team in North Jersey.

The story is titled “Eagles thought Nigel Bradham went AWOL after missing the preseason finale. He said he was sick,” and reads in part:

The coaches were livid when they realized he was absent and had considered him AWOL, according to sources close to the situation.

When someone from the team finally contacted Bradham, he told them he was sick. The team still offered to send a car to Philadelphia to pick him up and drive him north. But Bradham declined because he said he didn’t want to make the 1 1/2-hour drive with an upset stomach.

“Initially, the plan was for me to come up, but I obviously wasn’t playing,” Bradham said Wednesday during an interview with The Inquirer. “I was just going to do a little workout, a little running, stuff I’ve been doing. I wasn’t going to be playing in the game or anything. I was just under the weather, so I decided to stay home.”

…

The Eagles, though, received no prior indication from Bradham that he wasn’t feeling well. There was speculation that he had flown down to his hometown Miami, and a team official checked flight reservations, a source said. There was no record of Bradham departing Wednesday or Thursday.

He had attended meetings and the walk-through earlier Wednesday. But he said when he got home that day, during a break before team buses were to leave for a Newark, N.J., hotel from the practice facility, he started to feel ill.

Bradham goes on to explain that he was nauseous and had thrown up, and admitted that he needed to communicate better with the Eagles coaching staff. Doug Pederson called the situation an “internal” issue that had been handled.

Today, 94 WIP midday host and former Eagle Jon Ritchie didn’t seem to be buying any of that, and even called for Bradham to be benched on Sunday as a necessary form of discipline.

Said Ritchie:

This is unbelievable, and I’m telling you right now; this is a pivotal moment for the Eagles for the inception of this season. They need to take action here. Nigel Bradham, what he did, essentially, he decided to – he was above the rest of the guys on that team. What he did, he decided he was going to stay home from the final preseason game. Here’s a quote from him. ‘Initially the plan was for me to come up, but I obviously wasn’t playing. I was going to do a little workout, a little running stuff, I wasn’t going to be playing in the game or anything. I was just under the weather so I decided to stay home.‘ The team thought Nigel Bradham was AWOL. The team had no idea. He did not communicate to them he was sick. He just didn’t show up for the bus. This right here is a pivotal moment in terms of where this team goes this year, because we’ve seen the results of lackadaisical discipline with the Phillies, with (Gabe) Kapler deciding not to bench, not to take action, being soft on the guys. We’ve seen how that plays out.

….

Nigel Bradham needs to be sat. Nigel Bradham should not play against the Washington Redskins. That’s the only answer to the quandary the Eagles are in.

He needs to be benched. First of all, don’t you think it’s unusual that this is even in the news? I’m telling you from experience, this kind of thing can be brushed under the rug by the Eagles if they so desire. This is an inner-workings type thing.

Joe DeCamara: It’s obviously leaked.

Ritchie: Yes.

Hmm.. I’m not sure how I feel. Of course I get where Ritchie is coming from; if Bradham is allowed to skip out on a game with no repercussion, then what kind of message does that send to the  rest of the team? But what if it really truly was a miscommunication and Doug Pederson is cool with what happened? Bradham is your best linebacker and has been incredibly consistent over these past few years.

He does, of course, have a brief history of off field incidents. Bradham brought a loaded gun to an airport and clocked a cabana boy in the face. I don’t know if you can extrapolate those incidents into something like this and call it a “pattern,” but that’s for you to decide.

Anyway, you can listen to Ritchie and Joe DeCamara discuss the situation here, around the 3:45 mark: