http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15275994.htm
Sam Donnellon | McNabb reheats the Supe Quarterback sees a return to championship form
Ashley Fox: McNabb says 'We are a Super Bowl team.'
BETHLEHEM - In almost any other place, with almost any other team, it would pass as a footnote. But in Eagles camp, where hyperbole trickles out in small doses, what Donovan McNabb said yesterday
constitutes earthshaking news.
"This is a Super Bowl team," McNabb said between practices at Lehigh.
It was a direct answer to a direct question, given without hesitation and with plenty of chutzpah. As McNabb would say later, in response to a question about leadership, "When the lights are on, some people back up. When the lights are on, some people step forward.
"And I am one of the guys who steps forward."
Health permitting - and McNabb said he feels "100 percent" - that is what we should find out, once and for all this season. As Ron Jaworski said the other day, this is the season when McNabb's knowledge and talents should merge and he should, once and for all, shake the doubts that his uneven response to pressure - including last year's surreal, injury-plagued season - have cast upon him.
Otherwise - and anything less than a surprise run at that Super Bowl might constitute "otherwise" - the national debate about his true worth and mettle will continue. Backers will argue that he once played on a broken fibula and tried last year to play through an excruciatingly painful abdominal injury. Detractors will continue to ask about those last 2 minutes of
Super Bowl XXXIX, and question what really happened.
The three losses in the NFC Championship Game get mixed in there as well. It all goes under the heading, fairly or not, of
leadership. McNabb drew a wry smile yesterday when it was relayed that one of his teammates had called him a natural-born leader.
"That's great," he said. "Especially from when my leadership got questioned to now all of a sudden I am a natural-born leader. That's something else, too, but I've been a leader ever since I have been playing sports or even if I wasn't playing sports.
I think people are born to play sports. You can't ask or just pick one person out to be a leader because some people can't handle it."
Said right tackle Jon Runyan: "Aw, everyone has put too much on that leadership thing. Leadership is important when you have a bunch of jackasses in your locker room."
Or one rather large one.
The good news for McNabb, and the Eagles, is that the lights that beamed so brightly on this place last summer are focused elsewhere. Ben Roethlisberger's face-plant, the Giants' high hopes and, of course, Terrell Owens' latest address change have made this summer's camp a football-only affair.
The good news, too, is that nobody outside of McNabb, his coaches and his teammates see the Eagles as Super Bowl contenders. That has not only dimmed the glare of last summer, it has given this summer a certain sense of purpose.
"We have to prove ourselves all over again," safety Michael Lewis said.
"I think when they say you're only going to win four games," Runyan said, "it only [upsets you incredibly immensely]."
In the early parts of two preseason games, both sides of the ball have looked sharp. Daily
observers say the hitting has been intense.
"I'm seeing good things," coach Andy Reid said, in a rare gush of enthusiasm. "It's been a good camp for these guys. We are kind of winding it down here at Lehigh, but they pushed through. They have had plenty of heat and plenty of hitting, and they must be living right because they caught a couple of days here where it's been nice. But, they've done a heck of a job this camp."
Enough to warrant Super Bowl hype in August? The Eagles have answered some questions this summer with their new faces, even as the durability and depth of their running and passing games
remain a concern.
What we don't know, and won't know for a while, is whether McNabb's knowledge and talent have in fact merged, and whether the bright lights finally, consistently, make him perform at his peak.
"It's obviously on me to make sure the guys are in the right place and I put the ball in the right position so that they can make plays," he said.
"We need to play well together. I think we have been doing that so far. So I think the sky is the limit for us."
