February 02, 2006

Donovan Strikes Back

Donovan McNabb has broken his long silence on the matter of his feud with Terrell Owens and the Eagles' disastrous 2005 season- blaming the incidents on Owens' horrible behavior and compared his Brett Favre comments to "black-on-black crime"- and the Philly sports fan base couldn't be more pissed off at him.

It makes me shake my head, really. Not only has McNabb broken the monotony of an especially boring Super Bowl week, but he's finally spoken out against a psychotic former teammate who was clearly in the wrong all along. But what's the reaction been in Philly? "He's not a leader!" "He should just forget about this and move on!" "He's the one who choked last year!," even though he played hurt for half the year. And there's always some shot taken at the Chunky Soup commercials, which really is the last refuge of scoundrels. As Inquirer columnist Phil Sheridan pointed out last week,

That's the fatal flaw in the McNabb bashers' argument...The fact that people have to twist facts, omit whole seasons and certain performances and narrowly define "big game" to shoot down McNabb simply serves to prove how weak their argument is. As I've said roughly 15 million times, it is perfectly reasonable to critique and analyze McNabb's performance. But to dismiss the positive out of some strange need to belittle the guy is just ridiculous. It's sad. Put another way: If someone mentions his Campbell's soup endorsement deal, he doesn't have a clue.
There's a lot of hatred for Donovan around here, and all of it is more or less equally irrational. There are white fans who, consciously or not, will never trust McNabb because they can't trust a black quarterback. There are black fans who dislike McNabb because they think he's an Uncle Tom. There are those who think McNabb can't be trusted because he runs too much, and others who dislike him because he doesn't run as much as he used to. I'm not seeing these groups represent all or even most Eagles fans, but they do represent way too many of them.

Then there are those ripping McNabb for "holding old grudges," which is amusing considering many of these talk-show callers rip McNabb, during the same call, for screwing up the Tampa Bay game three years ago. Please. Holding old grudges is what Philly fans do.

The fans in this town should be down on their knees thanking Donovan McNabb for all of the glory that he's brought a franchise that was completely, unequivocally in the shitter prior to his arrival. But instead, they've ripped him, for no reason, literally since the moment he was drafted. McNabb seems destined to join Mike Schmidt, Charles Barkley, Randall Cunningham, and countless other great Philly athletes whose careers in this city were marred by irrational fan hatred.

Posted by Stephen Silver at February 2, 2006 08:09 AM
Comments

Donovan and Daunte should get together on this.

Unlike any other position in all of sports - a QB will always be most responsibile for W-L.

- A great pitcher loses because of poor run support.
- KG has no wingman "shooter"
- And soccer just sucks.

Posted by: Jeff S at February 2, 2006 10:45 PM
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