Despite rumors involving presumably half the teams in the league, Donovan McNabb is still an Eagle. Not that it especially matters whether he's traded now or in two weeks, but the haters are presumably getting impatient.
A couple of notes on this:
- First of all, it's worth avoiding WIP (and 950 too, I suppose) these days. There's only one host on either station- fill-in guy GCobb- who's making the slightest bit of sense. He went on for a while about how many Eagles fans were excited about Bobby Hoying in the '90s, based on a whole lot more than Kevin Kolb has shown, and it ended in disaster.
- That's the thing- people following the Eagles for the last ten years have forgotten what it's like to have a REALLY awful quarterback. Not "awful" in the sense that he loses multiple championship games. "Awful" in the sense that you go 3-13 and don't make the playoffs. if McNabb is the quarterback in 2010, there's no chance of a 3-13 season. If it's Kevin Kolb, there is such a chance.
- Might want to avoid Mike Florio too. He's spread about 500 McNabb rumors in the past year, and as you may have guessed, they were all wrong.
- The On the DL guys did a whole show on this Wednesday, which I felt like responding to. The general gist- the national media argues that McNabb has always been treated unfairly, but the local guys know better, mostly because they're used to seeing McNabb choking in big games, saying the wrong thing in press conferences, smiling at the wrong time, etc.
First of all, there are two sides to this. The fans, and the team. Have the fans mistreated McNabb over the years? I believe they have. He's been one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and the best in franchise history, and a large percentage of the fan base for all of that time has treated him like he sucks. They have treated him ridiculously unfairly, insulted him viciously and personally and yes, race has a lot to do with it- good for On the DL's Nick for pointing that out- and there's absolutely no denying that.
But is the team "treating McNabb unfairly" by possibly getting rid of him? I wouldn't quite say that. If I ran the Eagles I'd keep him and trade Kolb, but I can understand wanting to get value for Donovan, and deciding its time for a change. And besides, the Eagles have an almost unblemished record of getting rid of guys at the exact right time. The only people who believe the "treating McNabb unfairly" line are Stephen A. Smith and the sort of fan who thinks the Eagles should have kept Brian Westbrook around just to spare his feelings.
- For what it's worth, by the way, a whole lot of people in the Minnesota media are wholeheartedly embracing the Mcnabb-to-the-Vikings-in-2011 idea.