To many of the folks of the same generation as yours truly (i.e., old enough to be considered old by the young people but young enough to be considered young by the old people), the name “Whipple” still conjures images of the dude who admonished his customers for fondling packages of toilet paper.

In the NFL, the name “Whipple” was missing in 2007; after not being hired for the Boston College job and not receiving an invitation to remain with the Steelers’ staff after Bill Cowher left, Whipple couldn’t find a landing spot last year at this time.

But former Steelers quarterbacks coach Mark Whipple is now back in the game, hired as an “offensive assistant” with the Eagles.

“I’ve kind of followed Mark’s career,” head coach Andy Reid said.  “He started off at New Haven, went to Brown University where he kind of brought football back to Brown and then went to the University of Massachusetts and goes in there and wins a National Championship.  Bill Cowher and I talked about him last year when I thought maybe I would lose [quarterbacks coach] Pat [Shurmur] about maybe coming in and working with the quarterbacks and Bill told me that, when he came back [to the NFL to be a head coach], that would be the first guy that he would hire.

“I said, ‘Wow, I’ve got to really look at this guy.’”

Before we go any farther, we supposed the headline of this item could have been “Coach Chin definitely coming back, some day.”

It’d be interesting to know more about Whipple’s contract with the Eagles.  If he signed only a one-year deal, it could be that Whipple wants to be available when the Chin Man comes calling.  If Whipple has signed a multi-year deal, would Reid let Whipple walk for a job on Cowher’s staff?