COMMENTARY
McNabb is too good for Philly
The Philadelphia Eagles said Monday that quarterback Donovan McNabb will return next season. He has two years left on his contract, so they have no reason to get rid of him.
But I wish they would. Philadelphia doesn’t deserve him.
Since arriving in the NFL in 1999, McNabb has been one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. But I don’t know of any professional athlete who is less appreciated in the city he plays for.
He owns virtually every meaningful franchise passing record and has won more games than any Eagles quarterback before him. Only Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have better regular-season winning percentages among active quarterbacks with at least 100 starts. McNabb also has taken the Eagles to the playoffs seven times in 10 years.
But that hasn’t been good enough to satisfy Eagles fans and some members of the media.
That’s the way it has always been for McNabb, whose love-hate relationship with Philadelphia goes back to when the team drafted him over the objection of fans who wanted Ricky Williams.
Quarterbacks usually get much of the credit for wins and a lot of criticism when their team loses. It comes with the territory, especially in Philadelphia, a passionate yet unforgiving sports town where athletes are revered one day and reviled the next. But McNabb takes more shots than most.
A lot of folks said he was washed up after the Eagles’ 5-5-1 start this season. Such talk quieted when McNabb got hot and got the team into the playoffs.
Then came Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. A reporter friend from Philadelphia told me afterward that McNabb would take most of the heat for the loss to the Arizona Cardinals. It was the fourth time McNabb came up short in five trips to the conference final.
But to put that loss at McNabb’s feet is just ridiculous.
That’s not to say McNabb should go blameless. He missed several open receivers, especially in the first half, and failed to finish promising drives.
But McNabb also was the reason the Eagles were in the game until the end. He put the team on his back in the second half, finishing with 375 yards and three touchdown passes while bringing the Eagles back from a 24-6 deficit.
It’s not McNabb’s fault the Eagles’ highly regarded defense, which got torched by Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald most of the day, gave up a 14-play, 72- yard drive that ate up nearly eight minutes and ended with a game-winning touchdown.
Should McNabb be blamed for normally reliable place-kicker David Akers missing a field goal and an extra point attempt that forced the Eagles to go for two points — which failed — after scoring the go-ahead touchdown?
Did you see McNabb getting out-coached like Andy Reid was by Arizona’s second-year head man Ken Whisenhunt?
Critics will say that even after the Cardinals scored, McNabb got the ball back with 2:53 left and couldn’t engineer a touchdown drive to tie the game. Yes, he threw four straight incompletions to end the drive and the Eagles complained that receiver Kevin Curtis was interfered with on the last play. But penalty or not, Curtis has to make that catch. McNabb put the ball right in his hands.
Word is the 32-year-old McNabb wants his contract reworked into a long-term extension, a stance that has created speculation that Philadelphia may rethink its decision and send him packing.
Some Eagles fans would like that. So would I. McNabb has never been treated with enough respect in Philadelphia anyway, so he should leave.
He deserves better.
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