Donovan McNabb

[Kyyle23]

I was really surprised that this story didnt garner any attention around these parts. I figured this would be a hot-button topic.

 

This is found in the Philadelphia Sun

 

Donovan McNabb: Mediocre at best

By J. Whyatt Mondesire

 

Hey McNabb!

 

Yo--Donny! I'm calling you man.

 

Hey, soup guy, over here!

 

Donovan E. McNabb, you hear me callin' you. Will you please pay attention?

For a whole lot of years now, we've heard you crying aloud about being taken seriously as a black quarterback who can camp out in the pocket and deliver rifle shots across midfield right into the fingertips of the fleetest of wideouts and tight ends. Say, like a Doug Williams, the brilliant Grambling star quarterback of a generation ago who went on to break a Super Bowl record for touchdown passes in 1988.

 

Well....well...I've seen you Donovan E. McNabb--in your formative years as well as your mid-career development--and one thing is certain. Donovan E. McNabb you're no Doug Williams.

 

(The Grambling all-star completed 18 of 29 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns, capping it off with 35 points in the fourth quarter alone. He followed that performance with three conference championships in 2000, '01 and '02.

 

Your record is another matter entirely. In fact this whole dismal season so far has really been a testament of fallen dreams and lost opportunities most of which belongs at your feet (or should I say hands) and that of your coach, Andy Reid who has allowed you to perpetuate a fraud on the field while hiding behind excuses dripping in make-believe racial stereotypes.

 

Normally this column talks very little about sports because the games that grown men play pale in comparison to the great issues of racism, politics, social calamities, health crisis's, war and peace, etc.; which gives us plenty of fertile territory to explore and pontificate about.

 

However, this week I felt compelled to offer some personal thoughts about your horrific on-field performances this season because at their core, there is a lie you have tried to use to hide the fact that in reality you actually are not that good. In essence Donny, you are mediocre at best. And trying to disguise that fact behind some concocted reasoning that African American quarterbacks who can scramble and who can run the ball are somehow lesser field generals than one who can summon up dead-on passes at a whim, is more insulting off the field than on.

 

Your athleticism and unpredictability to sometimes run with the ball earlier in your career not only confused defenses, it also thrilled Eagles fans. At last, said many of us, now we have a multifaceted offensive threat whose talents threaten to not just dominate the NFC East Division, but maybe the whole NFL for several years. We were elated. We were in awe.

 

We celebrated the boss's giving you that huge lifetime salary deal which meant we'd have you around until it was time for you to join the other retired stars in television's broadcast booth.

 

But then you played the race card and practically all of us fell for your hustle. You scammed us man and there's no way any longer to refrain from "keepin' it real."

 

We could have remained silent too, if you had found another way to remain effective and a winner. But when your mediocre talent becomes so apparent it's time to call it out.

 

Through the first four games, you completed 110 of 174 passes (63.2 percent) for a league-leading 1,333 yards and 11 touchdowns.

 

However, in your last five games, you connected on just 101 of 183 passes (55.2 percent) for 1,174 yards and five touchdowns, while throwing six interceptions, two of which clearly were game losers.

 

The sports hernia you suffered after the team's Week 3 win over Oakland clearly is a mega factor in the latter numbers.

 

But who can forget your mind numbing fourth-quarter collapse in last year's Super Bowl against New England.

 

Andy Reid may not have seen it. Owner Jeff Lurie may have missed it on the videotaped replay. But Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder "saw" it. You choked brother.

 

The brash and bombastic Terrell Owens may have committed the unpardonable sin of going public with his put down, but was he fundamentally wrong? The pressure, the hype, the clock--they all just converged and your nerve collapsed under their combined weight. Mediocre isn't horrible in and of itself. Most of us don't live up to our dreams. It's when we fake it that most of the rest of us get irritated.

 

So, for you to continue to deny we fans (as well as yourself) one of the strongest elements of your game by claiming that "everybody expects black quarterbacks to scramble" not only amounts to a breach of faith but also belittles the real struggles of black athletes who've had to overcome real racial stereotypcasting in addition to downright segregation.

 

College football in the South didn't drop its White Only wall until 1966 four years after James Meredith, while trying to enroll at Ole Miss, which went 10-0 that year, even as its practice field was covered federal troops who had bivouacked there.

 

Earlier this month Sports Illustrated reporting pioneering black players in the vaunted SEC had to endure serious hardships, such as "Fritz Pollard, the black all-America at Brown during World War I, (who) had learned to spin on his back and thrust his cleats in the air when tackled, to protect himself from late hits; how Iowa State's Jack Trice was trampled to death during a 1923 game against Minnesota; and how in 1951, on the first play from scrimmage, an Oklahoma A&M player broke the jaw of Drake running back Johnny Bright, forcing him to abandon football and causing the school to withdraw in protest from the Missouri Valley Conference."

 

Hey Donny, see any difference yet in your trumped up racial views and those pioneers?

 

Taken together, your pretty decent arm, strong desire to win, and your instinctive ability to scramble in the backfield gave you an awesome package. Take away any one of the legs from this tripod, and whole thing falls flat as you are right now as you recuperate from the surgery that was long overdue the day you entered the hospital.

 

Finally, your failure as a team leader off the field to my mind did as much as anything to exacerbate the debacle that has become synonymous with T.O.'s full name.

 

Professional football is really more about money that sport. The fans know it. The players signs contracts for it. And, of course the owners know it, since they are first and last ones to count it when the season ends.

 

Just think how the whole media circus could have been avoided had you had the courage to offer only a tiny fraction of your bonus this year to Owens and running back, Brian Westbrook.

The gesture alone would have prompted these guys to run through walls for you. The rest of the team would have praised you. And what the heck were Lurie and team president Joe Banner going to do publicly if they objected or thought you had reach out-of-bounds. Fire you?

 

Yeah right. Let's really do "keep it real."

 

Leaders who make sacrifices are the stuff of legends. Who remembers a hoarder except for maybe Midas?

 

Hey Donny...soup guy! Pull your head out of your million-dollar Campbell's soup bowl for a moment ask which current quarterback in fact made a gesture like that for members of his squad.

 

Does the name Tom Brady ring a bell? Isn't he the guy who took home last year's Super Bowl ring while you standing in the soup line?

 

Attytood's take? There's two ways to look at it. From a pure football point of view, Mondesire scores some direct hits. Look at McNabb's stats, and you'll probably agree that he was more of an offensive weapon when he ran the ball more often. Also, the 4th quarter of last year's Super Bowl and his actions during the T.O. follies clearly show that McNabb -- while a decent man and a good role model for youth -- isn't really a team leader-type, and that has hurt the Eagles.

 

But "playing the race card"? That's taking it a little too far -- especially when, as we note in our Daily News piece -- he's never explicitly said that race motivated his on-the-field actions. Some of the "blame" for McNabb's style of play ought to be directed at Reid, who's a former QB coach, after all. And with a sports hernia, could McNabb have have run that often even if he'd wanted to?

 

The reality is that McNabb is nothing more -- and nothing less -- than a poster boy for Philly's current sports malaise, dating back to the start of the 2000s. Just like the Eagles, the Phillies, the Flyers, and at times the Sixers, he is better than 75 percent of what else is out there, and not worth getting rid of -- yet not quite good enough to win a world championship, either.

 

No wonder some fans are lashing out in frustration.

 

And McNabbs response

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2258970

[nitetrain8601]

I heard about this. Donovan McNabb = class act. Philadelphia rep of NAACP = complete utter dumbass.

[Kyyle23]

I heard about this. Donovan McNabb = class act. Philadelphia rep of NAACP = complete utter dumbass.

 

Its just amazing to me that this guy can call on McNabb to give up his money, just like that. What Tom Brady did was without a doubt generous. However, it should not be expected for all QBs to take the same route. Peyton Manning took the max contract, as did Vick, and I dont hear Wyatt complaining about those two QBs not giving their money back to the team to redistribute among players. And the thing that gets me the most about the whole situation is that Brian Westbrook was the player to complain. He was the one without a contract, yet T.O. is the one with all the facetime and b****es and complaints. T.O. was already getting paid pretty well, and now this asshat from the NAACP thinks that it isnt enough and that McNabb is being greedy.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Yet, Mondesire feels the need to be divisive among colored people who have made good with their lives, because one is getting paid more than the other. What a hyprocritical piece of s*** that this article is.

[nitetrain8601]

Its just amazing to me that this guy can call on McNabb to give up his money, just like that.  What Tom Brady did was without a doubt generous.  However, it should not be expected for all QBs to take the same route.  Peyton Manning took the max contract, as did Vick, and I dont hear Wyatt complaining about those two QBs not giving their money back to the team to redistribute among players.  And the thing that gets me the most about the whole situation is that Brian Westbrook was the player to complain.  He was the one without a contract, yet T.O. is the one with all the facetime and b****es and complaints.  T.O. was already getting paid pretty well, and now this asshat from the NAACP thinks that it isnt enough and that McNabb is being greedy.

 

Correct me if I am wrong, but NAACP stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  Yet, Mondesire feels the need to be divisive among colored people who have made good with their lives, because one is getting paid more than the other.  What a hyprocritical piece of s*** that this article is.

 

Tell me about it. How did this guy get his position?

[Kyyle23]

Tell me about it. How did this guy get his position?

 

on ESPN radio it was reported that the president of the NAACP was not very happy with this article. More news to come

[WHarris1]

I got so much respect for McNabb God damn this guy goes through so much s***.

[Kyyle23]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2260096

 

I sense a bigtime retraction in our near future. I think we need to set up a pool, everyone gets to choose an hour within the next 2 days, if the retraction is sent out within your hour, you get an internet cookie

[Kyyle23]

I got so much respect for McNabb God damn this guy goes through so much s***.

 

And he doesnt drop as low as the person who attacks him, ever. I think that is the most respectable thing about him.

[whitesoxfan101]

Yet another case of pathetic black leadership with no clue. It's amazing in sports, as an athlete your either too black or "not black enough". It's really sad and a no win situation. Donovan is a class guy (from Chicago no less) and a great teammate and player, and this is just a joke.