Mcnabb could be injured all season

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Posted on Sun, Sep. 25, 2005






Phil Sheridan | McNabb takes his shots, but no needle

Very big deal here. The Eagles with an injured Mcnabb are just not the same.

By Phil Sheridan

Inquirer Sports Columnist


Donovan McNabb embraced the pain. Eagles fans are going to have to do the same.

This is how it's going to be, for now and maybe for the rest of this season. McNabb is going to play through the mysterious injury that limits his mobility and affects his passing, and the injury probably is going to linger as long as he plays.

It's a groin injury. Or an abdominal strain. Or a sports hernia. Or little gremlins in the quarterback's tummy.

It's fitting that McNabb may have a sports hernia. The online definitions refer to it as "vague." In that spirit, the Eagles were suitably vague about McNabb's injury.

McNabb wasn't even on coach Andy Reid's standard news conference-opening injury report.

"He was a little tight in the pelvis area," Reid said Sunday afternoon, providing a straight line that can't be fully exploited in a family newspaper.

But is it a sports hernia?

"There's a strain there in the abdominal area," Reid said. "That's what it is right now."

"I've heard a lot of things," McNabb offered. He confirmed that he was getting outside medical advice as well as consulting with the Eagles' staff.

In terms that are neither too technical nor too icky, a sports hernia is a tear in the abdominal wall that is caused by sudden movements or twisting motions common in sports. It affects the same area as a normal, couch potato-type of hernia, but may not show up on standard tests.

OK, one icky point that should be made so we can understand the gravity of what McNabb may be facing. According to WebMD.com, "abdominal contents" (read: guts) can poke through the tear in the abdominal wall.

Shudder.

Now maybe you can understand why McNabb looked older than Brett Favre trying to move around and throw yesterday. It hurt. A lot.

"I was rushing things," McNabb said. "I was trying to get the ball out quicker, using all upper body. I wasn't using my legs at all... . The ball was in my hands, but I couldn't get it to where I wanted it to go."

McNabb took a couple of hits that left him in obvious pain. When he tried to run, the field suddenly was all uphill. Koy Detmer warmed up at one point, and Reid acknowledged that he came close to making the switch.

He didn't, which brings us to the code that governs Reid and his players. If McNabb can play, he plays. Period.

"You have coaches trusting players and players trusting coaches," Detmer said. "Donovan's one of the toughest competitors I've ever been around, maybe the toughest."

McNabb has played on a broken ankle. He played through torn rib cartilage in the NFC championship loss to Carolina until it was physically impossible. He played through that nagging thumb injury a couple of years ago.

"You've got to communicate with him," Reid said. "He's pretty straightforward. Certain guys you can talk to about those things and they will tell you... if they can go or not."

This is all great rah-rah, macho stuff. Football is a tough sport and it is doubtless inspiring to other players when they see a QB playing hurt. It rallies his offensive linemen and cranks his defensive teammates' intensity up a notch.

But there is another issue here. If taking a few weeks off to rest would allow McNabb to heal and be more effective later in the year, including the postseason, then that's just the smart move. Making this thing worse week after week until he's severely hampered or needs surgery? That's not so smart.

"Time should help," Reid said, "but there's not a lot of time."

"It's hard to weigh it," McNabb said. "If it's a possibility [to play without making it worse], then I'll be out there on the field. If I can damage it worse, you would have to think about your decision."

And there it is. He wouldn't sit. He'd merely have to think about it.

"I just love the game," McNabb said. "I love being out there with those guys."

So he went out in the second half determined to run and to throw with his full motion, no matter how much it hurt.

Second half: McNabb completed 19 of 28 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. And he ran the drive that ended with David Akers' dramatic winning field goal.

And no, he didn't get a shot to numb the pain. He embraced the pain.

"I don't personally believe in shots," McNabb said. "If I have to chew on nails, I think my teeth are strong enough where I can chew on some nails."

There's no doubting McNabb has a lot of guts. You just hope they stay where they belong, behind that abdominal wall.


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Post a question or comment for Phil Sheridan at http://go.philly.com/asksheridan. Or by email: [email protected].
 
Here's to hoping McNabb takes a few weeks off to heal. No need in hurting himself permanently. It's just a game.

If it happens that we can take advantage of a McNabb-less Philly team, then so be it.
 
Didn't Mcnabb have an injury similar to this a few years ago. I remember how bad he looked that season.
 
One good shot from anyone on our line should take him out...if we could ever get any pressure. Big if...
 
Yeagermeister said:
A Ware and Spears sandwich should do the trick :D

Phoenix Talon should be making his "rounds" shortly and give his peaches and cream diagnosis. Everything is always optomistic with this guy..... :cool:
 
Its easy to be positive when you've dominated your division for the last few years.
 
Well if it happen in Texas Stadium we would owe it to him to give him a Michael Irvin welcome to Philadelphia salute, you know boo him on the gurney on the way out, no true Cowboy fan will ever forget the Eglets, there's a debt here, we need to settle up..
 
Well, I don't beleive in cheap shots or cheering injured players...

But I do beleive in KNOCKING the CRAP out of them within the rules of the game...

That should be our focus every week on D...

How many teams 2nd stringer could be effective?
 
abdominal strain, they thought it was a sports hernia and he would need surgery. He is going to play through it. already has the bad groin and chest. I would much rather see a furgeson-spears sandwich. I think that would do the trick.
 
I hear TO is pretty banged up as well and have to luv their kicker hurting with a hammy. Though it' football and the great ones play through their injuries.
 
TonyS said:
Its easy to be positive when you've dominated your division for the last few years.

Except when you barely beat the Raiders on your home field.
 
Yeagermeister said:
A Ware and Spears sandwich should do the trick :D

Or maybe a Roy williams horse collar by the jersey only of course.
 
Roy Williams and Keith Davis on a blitz could do the trick, or Demarcus Ware and Roy Williams...
Either blitz with Roy Williams could do the trick..
 
I don't know, it seems like the last few times that the eagles backups have looked all-world against us. It might be better to have a 70% McNabb back there if it's limiting his accuracy and mobility. They can keep playing with Akers too... I'm pretty sure that it's in their best interest to sign a kicker though... that could have easily cost them the game yesterday.
 
I am no Donovan McNabb fan....but I watched that game...

Pain or no....he still threw over 300 yds...Had 2TDs....which could have been 4TDs....Had it not been for fumbles...etc...

Kev
 
It wasn't a hernia he had a couple years ago when he looked so horrible, it was a damaged thumb.

This, in some ways, is worse, because not only is it affecting his trajectory on his passes, it is dampening his mobility.
 
That guy is a major class act. I absolutely hate that he's an Eagle, but it's easier to stomach having lost to that team because he's so legit.

If the Eagles are smart, they'll sit him for a while.
 
vagisil should take care of it...
madden curse strikes again...
igglets always have a preformulated excuse
I sure hope we can finally beat them...
 
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