Updated: Dec. 14, 2005, 9:48 PM ET
Problem isn't McNabb's race, it's Eagles' record
By
Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com
So now Donovan McNabb is answering questions from the peanut gallery about some of the same things Terrell Owens side-elbowed him on during Owens' many me-first rants over recent months -- the difference being, McNabb this time is dealing with an exclaimed racial element.
Note to self: That's no racial element. That, right there, is a bandwagon element.
What we have on our hands, let's face it, is a big fat 5-8. That is where the Eagles squat today, not even a calendar year removed from one of their finest runs to glory in franchise history. McNabb led that run with a confidence and a presence that went all the way to the Super Bowl before petering out in the face of the Patriots.
Of course, that was then. This year, with Owens suspended and McNabb struggling with his hernia injury, the bottom fell out of the bandwagon. McNabb was at 4-5, and sinking, when the injury finally ended his year. It hurts like hell when the whole unhappy crew hits the ground.
The publisher of the Philadelphia Sun, J. Whyatt "Jerry" Mondesire, has thus gone on the offensive, decrying McNabb's transition from a scrambling-type quarterback to one who spends more time in the pocket looking for downfield receivers. To Mondesire -- civil rights advocate, head of the Philadelphia NAACP, potential Congressional candidate -- the McNabb makeover amounts to the QB playing "the race card," purposely moving away from the mobile style in an effort to offset the stereotype that black quarterbacks are by nature scramblers. In support of that thesis, Mondesire offers his spin on old McNabb interviews in which the player decries blacks being referred to as "running quarterbacks."
Why McNabb would eliminate scrambling in response to that situation remains unclear, along with the question of why McNabb would do anything that he thought would actively decrease his own chance of success. Is someone seriously trying to argue that McNabb would rather be known as a pocket QB than a winning one?
But there we go again, trying to inject reason into a good old-fashioned sports/race debate. Note to self: Couldn't be more futile if we tried.
McNabb finally answered Mondesire's rant, saying he "always thought the NAACP supported African-Americans and didn't talk bad about them." With all due respect, Donovan, you missed the point entirely. The point is this: 5-8.
The point is that no one is safe when a team goes in the toilet, for whatever reason it may actually do so. Race can come into play, sure, but that's just one check mark on the laundry list. In fairness to Mr. Mondesire, after all, he also lampooned McNabb's fat salary, his completion percentage over his final five games of this season, his general leadership of the team, and the Super Bowl loss to New England ("You choked, brother.")
Now that we get down to it, that doesn't sound entirely like a racially tinged series of put-downs. That's good old-fashioned bitter-fan syndrome -- and there is plenty of it to go around, in virtually every city in which a former winner starts losing.
This is a weird one, no doubt. It isn't every day that the local NAACP leader tries to take down the quarterback of the football team by writing things like, "You played the race card and all of us fell for your hustle." At least Mondesire was self-transparent enough to acknowledge that he rarely writes about sports, and good thing. If he had looked up McNabb's statistics, he'd have learned that McNabb's rushing totals have decreased steadily from the year he became the Eagles' starter in 2000 -- in other words, that this is no sudden change. McNabb ran less in 2004 than he had in any other season as the QB, and the Eagles apparently still somehow failed themselves all the way to the NFC title.
Oh: Mondesire also compared McNabb unfavorably with Doug Williams, the former Commanders quarterback whom Mondesire remembered as having led Washington to "35 points in the fourth quarter alone" during its 1988 Super Bowl trashing of Denver. Williams and the Commanders scored 35 points not in the fourth quarter but in the second, all of them after spotting the Broncos a 10-0 lead -- but let's not get too carried away in the minutiae. The larger issue is this: The Philadelphia Eagles, in the Super Bowl not even a year ago, are a lousy, gag-inducing 5-8. Somebody is going to have to pay.
Mark Kreidler is a columnist for the Sacramento Bee and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Reach him at [email protected].
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2259245