Hostile
The Duke
- Messages
- 119,565
- Reaction score
- 4,544
How will McNabb's long, strange Philly trip end?
By Sal Paolantonio
ESPN.com
Updated: September 21, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- Where is Lewis Carroll when you need him?
The English author and mathematician who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" would have had a field day with the social commentary and delicious irony unfolding around Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia:
Back in 2003, when the Eagles were 0-2, the conservative Mad Hatter Rush Limbaugh asserted rather wrongheadedly that the media was coddling McNabb because he is African-American.
Now, in 2007, when the Eagles are 0-2, McNabb's assertion is the polar opposite: He claims he has been overly criticized because he is African-American.
More irony: After Limbaugh's comments in 2003, McNabb said, "It's sad that you've got to go to skin color. I thought we were through that whole deal." Limbaugh, of course, was fired.
McNabb's simple twist of fate may be worse: On Sunday, when the Eagles meet the Detroit Lions at Lincoln Financial Field as part of a 75th anniversary celebration, the franchise will introduce McNabb as the greatest quarterback in team history. So on the day he should be honored, McNabb almost certainly will be greeted by full-throated disapproval. Just like the day he was drafted.
Down the rabbit hole, indeed.
For Philadelphia, the 2007 season was not supposed to be like this. Fans and the franchise were expecting a nice quiet ride to the postseason. Their quarterback had made a remarkable recovery from knee surgery, their superior offensive line was healthy and running back Brian Westbrook was rested.
Two games later, the wheels have come off. At Lambeau Field in Week 1, the Eagles seemed to forget they needed a competent punt returner. In Monday's home opener, McNabb's offense sputtered until a fourth-quarter rally that came up short when the Eagles failed to score on two plays inside the Commanders' 10-yard line.
A day later, HBO aired McNabb's interview with the redoubtable James Brown.
"There's not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra," McNabb said. At the start of Week 3, five of the 32 teams had black starting quarterbacks.
Brown pressed McNabb for an explanation. "I pass for 300 yards," McNabb said, "our team wins by seven, 'Ah, he could've made this throw, they would have scored if he did this.'"
Brown asked: "Doesn't every quarterback go through that?"
"Not everybody," McNabb replied. "Let me start by saying I love those guys, but they don't get criticized as much as we do. They don't."
The reaction in Philadelphia was fast and furious, tying up the sports talk radio lines with constant criticism of McNabb and questions about his future with the team.
On Wednesday, when McNabb discussed his remarks, he was pushed to provide specifics. But before that press briefing, he had been advised by a member of the Eagles' media staff to avoid a sound bite that could perpetuate the controversy.
"Did I expect any backlash from it? Yeah, everything I say I expect a backlash from," McNabb said. "So, for me sitting up here trying to explain it, hopefully the show shows you exactly what I was saying, and with today [Wednesday] we can end it and move on."
But McNabb didn't want to end it, telling the Philadelphia Daily News that he hoped to lead the charge among his fellow African-American quarterbacks to change the perception.
His call to arms was rejected. In Baltimore, Steve McNair started his weekly news conference Thursday with these words: "No Donovan McNabb questions, please."
In Nashville, it was worse. Vince Young basically told McNabb to quit crying.
"I really feel like myself, black or white quarterbacks, we all go through something because that is the life of a quarterback." Young said. "You have to be able to handle all the pressure and you have to be able to handle the losses and you have to be able to handle the media saying this about you … If you can't handle it, then you have to get off that position and go play something else."
Inside the Eagles' locker room, McNabb's comments were greeted with a bunch of sideways smirks. Indeed, there is a lot of private grumbling at the Eagles' practice facility that McNabb's comments were ill-advised and ill-timed -- the team has a big weekend-long gala celebration for the 75th anniversary, and the 0-2 start has left frustrated Philly fans a bit more, well, frustrated. Never mind that the interview was taped in August before the season started.
And to be fair, this is the first controversy of McNabb's own making. On draft day, there was an organized effort to boo him. Limbaugh's commentary came out of nowhere. So, did Terrell Owens' relentless attacks, ruinous behavior and ugly departure.
Before this year, McNabb has been careful with his words, rarely deviating from the organizational script. Now, he's being candid and his opinions are being greeted like the final rants of a lame duck. McNabb felt compelled to release a more passionate explanation on his blog that answers critics who said he was playing the "race card."
"I did not say that Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Carson Palmer are not criticized when they don't play well," McNabb wrote. "They have been criticized when they throw interceptions, when they throw incompletions, and when their teams don't win. They are criticized and so is every other quarterback for that matter. And that type of criticism may, in fact, be warranted. But that's not the type of criticism that we discussed.
"Black quarterbacks have to deal with different things than white quarterbacks. If you don't think that's true than you are naive. Peyton, Tom and Carson to name a few, have never been asked what it's like to be a white quarterback. They probably have not been told that they should have scrambled more. I bet Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young, Jake Plummer and Doug Flutie have never been told by a member of any racial consciousness organization that they don't play the quarterback position white enough."
That last reference is to the leader of the NAACP in Philadelphia who criticized McNabb two years ago for staying in the pocket because he did not want to be labeled as just a running quarterback. Of course, Steve Young, perhaps the greatest purveyor of the so-called West Coast offense that the Eagles run, used his legs not only to escape from the pocket, but to buy time for his receivers.
Young, of course, was a far more accurate passer than McNabb. Indeed, among the peers that he has mentioned throughout this controversy, McNabb is the least accurate. He has a career completion rate of 58.1 percent. Manning and Palmer are at 64 percent. Tom Brady is at 62.2.
In his eight years in the league, McNabb has been north of 60 percent (considered the latitude of an accurate, effective passer) only once -- the 2004 season (64 percent), which was, ironically, Owens' only full year in Philadelphia and the season the Eagles went to the Super Bowl.
That brings up another key point. McNabb does not have Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison and Chad Johnson. Right now, he's saddled with Kevin Curtis, who was brought in to be the No. 1 receiver even though he was the No. 3 slot receiver in St. Louis. And then there is the relationship with Reggie Brown.
The body language, the looks of disapproval between the two have been painfully obvious, especially on Monday night when McNabb threw high twice to Brown, and behind him once -- all three times leaving Brown vulnerable to vicious hits.
McNabb is throwing the football like Sudden Sam McDowell, all overhand delivery with very little reliance on his back (plant) leg, the one encased in a huge brace to protect his surgically repaired knee. As a result, he's become Checkdown Charlie, with Westbrook leading the team in receptions.
McNabb brought up accuracy this week when quizzed about questions he is asked that white quarterbacks are not asked. He was then asked if a question to an African-American quarterback about his accuracy was inherently off base because it had underlying bias.
"No, I didn't say that," he answered. "For instance, Vince Young, he came in and didn't throw for 300 yards or 200, he might have averaged 175 passing, but did whatever it took to win football games. … It's about winning football games here. That's what it's all about. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, red, green, yellow. It's about winning football games."
That's precisely the issue. Forget the suspect accuracy and controversial commentary. Including the Super Bowl, McNabb is 9-13 as a starter in his past three years and has lost six of his past seven starts.
By comparison, last season Jeff Garcia -- with virtually the same cast on offense -- won six of his eight starts and rallied the team to the playoffs. There is no question the ghost of Garcia still haunts McNabb. Garcia embraced the fans. McNabb keeps everybody at a distance.
Head coach Andy Reid was asked whether he thought McNabb was making it tougher on himself because he's losing the support of the fan base, especially with these latest comments. Reid shrugged off the question. But there is no question the team's brain trust is getting closer and closer to an exit strategy.
Don't forget, McNabb has failed to finish three of the past five seasons due to injury. That's why the Eagles drafted quarterback Kevin Kolb in the second round. This is the first season that McNabb is playing while his designated replacement is watching from the sideline. Perhaps McNabb is seeing the ghost of football past (Garcia) as well as the ghost of football future (Kolb).
So how many more games does McNabb have to prove he should still be the Eagles' starting quarterback?
After Sunday's game against Detroit, the Eagles face the reeling Giants in the Meadowlands before getting a bye week. If the current state of affairs does not improve dramatically by then, does Reid spend two weeks getting Kolb ready for the Jets on Oct. 14? If he does, what happens then to McNabb?
Whatever the answer, his journey in Philadelphia has already been a long, strange one -- definitely worthy of any adventure story.
Sal Paolantonio, who covers the NFL for ESPN, wrote about the Eagles for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1994-95.
By Sal PaolantonioESPN.com
Updated: September 21, 2007
PHILADELPHIA -- Where is Lewis Carroll when you need him?
The English author and mathematician who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" would have had a field day with the social commentary and delicious irony unfolding around Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia:
Back in 2003, when the Eagles were 0-2, the conservative Mad Hatter Rush Limbaugh asserted rather wrongheadedly that the media was coddling McNabb because he is African-American.
Now, in 2007, when the Eagles are 0-2, McNabb's assertion is the polar opposite: He claims he has been overly criticized because he is African-American.
More irony: After Limbaugh's comments in 2003, McNabb said, "It's sad that you've got to go to skin color. I thought we were through that whole deal." Limbaugh, of course, was fired.
McNabb's simple twist of fate may be worse: On Sunday, when the Eagles meet the Detroit Lions at Lincoln Financial Field as part of a 75th anniversary celebration, the franchise will introduce McNabb as the greatest quarterback in team history. So on the day he should be honored, McNabb almost certainly will be greeted by full-throated disapproval. Just like the day he was drafted.
Down the rabbit hole, indeed.
For Philadelphia, the 2007 season was not supposed to be like this. Fans and the franchise were expecting a nice quiet ride to the postseason. Their quarterback had made a remarkable recovery from knee surgery, their superior offensive line was healthy and running back Brian Westbrook was rested.
Two games later, the wheels have come off. At Lambeau Field in Week 1, the Eagles seemed to forget they needed a competent punt returner. In Monday's home opener, McNabb's offense sputtered until a fourth-quarter rally that came up short when the Eagles failed to score on two plays inside the Commanders' 10-yard line.
A day later, HBO aired McNabb's interview with the redoubtable James Brown.
"There's not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra," McNabb said. At the start of Week 3, five of the 32 teams had black starting quarterbacks.
Brown pressed McNabb for an explanation. "I pass for 300 yards," McNabb said, "our team wins by seven, 'Ah, he could've made this throw, they would have scored if he did this.'"
Brown asked: "Doesn't every quarterback go through that?"
"Not everybody," McNabb replied. "Let me start by saying I love those guys, but they don't get criticized as much as we do. They don't."
The reaction in Philadelphia was fast and furious, tying up the sports talk radio lines with constant criticism of McNabb and questions about his future with the team.
On Wednesday, when McNabb discussed his remarks, he was pushed to provide specifics. But before that press briefing, he had been advised by a member of the Eagles' media staff to avoid a sound bite that could perpetuate the controversy.
"Did I expect any backlash from it? Yeah, everything I say I expect a backlash from," McNabb said. "So, for me sitting up here trying to explain it, hopefully the show shows you exactly what I was saying, and with today [Wednesday] we can end it and move on."
But McNabb didn't want to end it, telling the Philadelphia Daily News that he hoped to lead the charge among his fellow African-American quarterbacks to change the perception.
His call to arms was rejected. In Baltimore, Steve McNair started his weekly news conference Thursday with these words: "No Donovan McNabb questions, please."
In Nashville, it was worse. Vince Young basically told McNabb to quit crying.
"I really feel like myself, black or white quarterbacks, we all go through something because that is the life of a quarterback." Young said. "You have to be able to handle all the pressure and you have to be able to handle the losses and you have to be able to handle the media saying this about you … If you can't handle it, then you have to get off that position and go play something else."
Inside the Eagles' locker room, McNabb's comments were greeted with a bunch of sideways smirks. Indeed, there is a lot of private grumbling at the Eagles' practice facility that McNabb's comments were ill-advised and ill-timed -- the team has a big weekend-long gala celebration for the 75th anniversary, and the 0-2 start has left frustrated Philly fans a bit more, well, frustrated. Never mind that the interview was taped in August before the season started.
And to be fair, this is the first controversy of McNabb's own making. On draft day, there was an organized effort to boo him. Limbaugh's commentary came out of nowhere. So, did Terrell Owens' relentless attacks, ruinous behavior and ugly departure.
Before this year, McNabb has been careful with his words, rarely deviating from the organizational script. Now, he's being candid and his opinions are being greeted like the final rants of a lame duck. McNabb felt compelled to release a more passionate explanation on his blog that answers critics who said he was playing the "race card."
"I did not say that Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Carson Palmer are not criticized when they don't play well," McNabb wrote. "They have been criticized when they throw interceptions, when they throw incompletions, and when their teams don't win. They are criticized and so is every other quarterback for that matter. And that type of criticism may, in fact, be warranted. But that's not the type of criticism that we discussed.
"Black quarterbacks have to deal with different things than white quarterbacks. If you don't think that's true than you are naive. Peyton, Tom and Carson to name a few, have never been asked what it's like to be a white quarterback. They probably have not been told that they should have scrambled more. I bet Fran Tarkenton, Steve Young, Jake Plummer and Doug Flutie have never been told by a member of any racial consciousness organization that they don't play the quarterback position white enough."
That last reference is to the leader of the NAACP in Philadelphia who criticized McNabb two years ago for staying in the pocket because he did not want to be labeled as just a running quarterback. Of course, Steve Young, perhaps the greatest purveyor of the so-called West Coast offense that the Eagles run, used his legs not only to escape from the pocket, but to buy time for his receivers.
Young, of course, was a far more accurate passer than McNabb. Indeed, among the peers that he has mentioned throughout this controversy, McNabb is the least accurate. He has a career completion rate of 58.1 percent. Manning and Palmer are at 64 percent. Tom Brady is at 62.2.
In his eight years in the league, McNabb has been north of 60 percent (considered the latitude of an accurate, effective passer) only once -- the 2004 season (64 percent), which was, ironically, Owens' only full year in Philadelphia and the season the Eagles went to the Super Bowl.
That brings up another key point. McNabb does not have Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison and Chad Johnson. Right now, he's saddled with Kevin Curtis, who was brought in to be the No. 1 receiver even though he was the No. 3 slot receiver in St. Louis. And then there is the relationship with Reggie Brown.
The body language, the looks of disapproval between the two have been painfully obvious, especially on Monday night when McNabb threw high twice to Brown, and behind him once -- all three times leaving Brown vulnerable to vicious hits.
McNabb is throwing the football like Sudden Sam McDowell, all overhand delivery with very little reliance on his back (plant) leg, the one encased in a huge brace to protect his surgically repaired knee. As a result, he's become Checkdown Charlie, with Westbrook leading the team in receptions.
McNabb brought up accuracy this week when quizzed about questions he is asked that white quarterbacks are not asked. He was then asked if a question to an African-American quarterback about his accuracy was inherently off base because it had underlying bias.
"No, I didn't say that," he answered. "For instance, Vince Young, he came in and didn't throw for 300 yards or 200, he might have averaged 175 passing, but did whatever it took to win football games. … It's about winning football games here. That's what it's all about. It doesn't matter if you're black, white, red, green, yellow. It's about winning football games."
That's precisely the issue. Forget the suspect accuracy and controversial commentary. Including the Super Bowl, McNabb is 9-13 as a starter in his past three years and has lost six of his past seven starts.
By comparison, last season Jeff Garcia -- with virtually the same cast on offense -- won six of his eight starts and rallied the team to the playoffs. There is no question the ghost of Garcia still haunts McNabb. Garcia embraced the fans. McNabb keeps everybody at a distance.
Head coach Andy Reid was asked whether he thought McNabb was making it tougher on himself because he's losing the support of the fan base, especially with these latest comments. Reid shrugged off the question. But there is no question the team's brain trust is getting closer and closer to an exit strategy.
Don't forget, McNabb has failed to finish three of the past five seasons due to injury. That's why the Eagles drafted quarterback Kevin Kolb in the second round. This is the first season that McNabb is playing while his designated replacement is watching from the sideline. Perhaps McNabb is seeing the ghost of football past (Garcia) as well as the ghost of football future (Kolb).
So how many more games does McNabb have to prove he should still be the Eagles' starting quarterback?
After Sunday's game against Detroit, the Eagles face the reeling Giants in the Meadowlands before getting a bye week. If the current state of affairs does not improve dramatically by then, does Reid spend two weeks getting Kolb ready for the Jets on Oct. 14? If he does, what happens then to McNabb?
Whatever the answer, his journey in Philadelphia has already been a long, strange one -- definitely worthy of any adventure story.
Sal Paolantonio, who covers the NFL for ESPN, wrote about the Eagles for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1994-95.
