One Brian Dawkins fan is out of a job thanks to Facebook.

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You might have thought the Eagles would be busy this offseason trying to fill the hole left by Brian Dawkins' departure to Denver. Maybe they'd be swamped trying to find someone to share the load being carried by Brian Westbrook, or that they'd be scouring the draft board, looking for the best OTs.

Well, you might be right, but apparently the organization is also spending a great deal of time combing through its employees' Facebook pages. In a column in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, John Gonzalez tells the story of Dan Leone -- a lifelong Eagles fan and former gameday employee who lost his cyber-cool after Philly and the aforementioned Dawkins parted ways during the offseason.

Gonzalez writes:

Like a lot of Philadelphians, Leone was upset when Dawkins became a Bronco. So he did what a 32-year-old does these days: He vented on Facebook. "Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver. . .Dam Eagles R Retarted!!"

It was a rash, stupid thing to do, and Leone regretted it almost instantly.

"I shouldn't have put it up there," Leone said. "I was ticked off, and I let my emotions go, but I didn't offend any one person or target a specific individual. I was just upset that we lost such a great guy. Dawkins was one of my favorite players. I made a mistake."

Less than two days after posting the Dawkins remarks, Leone said, he was contacted by Leonard Bonacci, the team's director of event operations. According to Leone, Bonacci said they needed to talk about Leone's Facebook page, and Leone agreed. Leone - who deleted the comment - figured that the two would sit down and that he could apologize to Bonacci in person. But Leone said Bonacci never got back to him after that.

Two days later, Leone said, he received a call from Rachel Vitagliano, the team's guest services manager. Leone said she fired him over the phone. The conversation lasted less than 10 minutes.

According to Gonzalez, Leone begged for his job and promised that nothing like what had happened would happen again. Still, he writes:

Leone said Vitagliano didn't want to hear it. He said that she told him he couldn't be trusted, that the post made the team look bad, and that the only way to resolve the situation was to fire him.

Indeed, Vitagliano is right; what Leone wrote may have made the Eagles look bad. It may have made literally tens of Leone's Facebook friends think that the team had made a mistake. It may have made a handful of people think about a signing they wouldn't have otherwise considered.

But if the Eagles were truly looking to save face -- if they were really concerned with avoiding a P.R. nightmare -- they wouldn't have fired Leone, who apparently took his case straight to the media. Certainly Leone made a mistake venting about his employer's personnel moves in a public forum, but Leone is no Andy Reid. No one at Lincoln Financial Field is looking to the west gate chief -- Leone's former job title -- for opinions on the team.

Setting aside for a moment the fact that someone with the Eagles was apparently scouring Facebook looking for what the team's employees were saying about the club, it's worth noting that, almost regardless of the circumstances, this seems like a situation where a simple apology and promise to not let it happen again should have sufficed.

What Leone did was stupid -- a point he's more than willing to concede -- but what the Eagles did in response is almost mindboggling. Although he wasn't a full-time employee, Leone had worked for the team for six seasons, and almost certainly deserved better.

In any event, the situation should be a learning experience for everyone. In the age of Twitter and Facebook, quick thoughts and spontaneous bursts of emotion have repercussions, especially in Philadelphia, where the Eagles are watching.

Cold Eagles sure are thin-skinned [Philadelphia Inquirer]