Donovan McNabb has led the Philadelphia Eagles to five NFC Championship Games and one Super Bowl appearance, and this is how the franchise is treating him?
McNabb has been not a good, but great, quarterback for the Eagles. He has done almost everything the team has asked of him. And now, with the Eagles offense looking like one of the best in the NFL, it is all-but-inevitable that the team will trade him. According to reports, the leading candidate to land McNabb is none other than arguably the worst franchise in the league, the Oakland Raiders. That doesn't seem fair to McNabb. But when you look closer, McNabb has never been treated fairly by this organization.
From the day he was drafted, Eagles fans haven't respected McNabb, going so far as to boo him as he was announced as the Eagles draft pick by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Through it all, McNabb has been as graceful as possible, never calling out Eagles fans for being the jerks that they are.
McNabb has broken every Philadelphia passing record of note, and should go down as the greatest quarterback ever to don a Eagles jersey. At 33 years old, McNabb is a franchise quarterback in the prime of his athletic career, and the Eagles are looking to trade him. How does that make sense?
Yes, McNabb never has been able to win a Super Bowl, but not that many quarterbacks have. To lead a team to five Conference Championship games is quite an achievement, one that Eagles fans should appreciate. Instead, the general consensus is that McNabb is a bum, and the team must trade him immediately if it ever wants to win a Super Bowl. The problem is that there is no guarantee that the team will get better if McNabb is traded.
Nearly everyone in the Eagles organization believes that Kevin Kolb is the future of the Eagles franchise, and I have no problem with that thinking. When McNabb went down with a rib injury last season, Kolb looked excellent in two starts against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively. He threw for 391 yards and two touchdowns against the Saints, and proceeded to throw for 327 yards and two touchdowns against the Chiefs. Just 25 years old, Kolb certainly would appear to be the future. But two games worth of film isn't enough to prove that he will be better than McNabb; McNabb has 11 years worth of statistics that show he is one of the league's best.
All throughout his career, McNabb has never had great pieces around him offensively. Things have now changed, with DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Brent Celek and LeSean McCoy forming a young nucleus that has the chance to do some great things for the Eagles. The time to win is now, and McNabb provides the team with the best opportunity to do that.
Instead, the Eagles believe it is time to cut ties with McNabb. A number of teams reportedly want McNabb, as they should. After all, everyone but the Eagles seems to believe this guy can still get it done. With so many teams reportedly interested, the Eagles should be demanding the world for him, right? Wrong. He's available for a high second round pick, according to multiple outlets. Multiple outlets are also reporting that McNabb would prefer to stay in Philadelphia and does not want to play for Oakland, but that doesn't matter to the Eagles. After all he has given to this organization, they are willing to send him to Al Davis' insane asylum, against his wishes.
When McNabb was benched at halftime of a game against the Baltimore Ravens two years ago, Andy Reid seemed to permanently damage the relationship between coach and quarterback. How could Reid have benched McNabb in a game the Eagles were still in? McNabb deserves better than Reid, who like the rest of the city doesn't seem to appreciate all McNabb has done for this franchise. Without McNabb, Reid likely would have been fired years ago.
For Donovan's sake, I hope he gets traded. He has always been an excellent quarterback for the Eagles, and deserves to go to a place where his talents are respected and celebrated. He may not love the idea of going to Oakland -- who would -- but Raiders fans would love and adore him in the Silver and Black. He deserves to go to a city can logically look at the game of football and realize that it takes more than a good quarterback to win a championship. Should he end up on a team in the NFC, I hope he comes back to torment the Eagles and make them regret the day they traded away a franchise quarterback in his prime.
Should McNabb win a championship with another team, justice will have been served. He deserves it.
