Posted on 01/19/2004 10:02:49 AM PST by Chi-townChief
PHILADELPHIA -- He always was a winner, a champion from his Mount Carmel days, making it all the more cruel and a little absurd that Donovan McNabb has become a lovable loser. Like a certain baseball team in his hometown, he is cursed and maybe doomed to a runner-up existence, which won't make his life easier in a devastated city that is reaching for razor blades and looking for bridges.
This time, it wasn't Rush Limbaugh spewing hatred. This time, it was a freak shot to the ribs, courtesy of Carolina linebacker Greg Favors, who planted his helmet into McNabb's midsection about three seconds after teammate Mike Rucker had sacked him on a blitz. Considering Rucker knocked off McNabb's shoe on the hit, the officials should have ruled him down on contact. But the play continued, allowing Favors to seize his freebie and administer the latest heartbreak to Sam and Wilma's son.
''I thought I was on the ground already. Then I took a shot I shouldn't have taken,'' McNabb said. ''It was rough.''
His separated rib cartilage rendered him woefully ineffective and forced him to the sideline, where he watched numbly in his parka, hood pulled over his head, as America's angriest fans raged and the Eagles wilted in a full-scale pummeling. While the Panthers become the latest team to prove we shouldn't be shocked by anything in the NFL -- they were 1-15 two seasons ago, giving hope to even the Bears -- the Eagles must deal with their third straight loss in an NFC Championship Game. What the 14-3 loss means is that McNabb, accomplished as he is as a quarterback and leader, is entering dubious territory in the unforgiving courtroom of sport.
''We don't want to go down in history like the Buffalo Bills, the Boston Red Sox, teams that came close but didn't win,'' he said.
But until further notice, how else do we describe McNabb and the Eagles? Fair or otherwise, franchises, quarterbacks and coaches are defined by championships and tend to be devalued by the masses when they continually fall short. Jim Kelly made the Hall of Fame, but he's still known as the quarterback who lost four Super Bowls. Dan Marino is known as one of the five best quarterbacks ever, but despite his many records, he'll never go down as the best because he didn't win a Super Bowl when Joe Montana, John Elway and Brett Favre did. Fact is, the Eagles have blown their opportunity, with the window about to slam in the offseason as Duce Staley, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor likely depart. McNabb, sad to say, may never pass this way again. ''It's funny how people get measured just by winning the Super Bowl,'' he said. ''Most of the Hall of Fame quarterbacks never won the Super Bowl. You do the math on that.''
For now, the math indicts: 0-for-3 in conference title games. ''It's a tough pill to swallow. It hurts,'' said McNabb, who completed only 10 of 22 passes for 100 yards and rushed for 10 yards. ''Not many teams have a chance to be here three times, and we've lost all three. You don't get opportunities every year. You can't keep missing.''
Typically, McNabb didn't want to be yanked late in the third quarter. He tried to talk coach Andy Reid out of his decision and wasn't happy to encounter a brick wall. Remember when McNabb played last season against Arizona with a broken ankle and somehow had a huge game? Oddly, Reid had amnesia. ''Donovan was very sore and he would have continued to play until he passed out, but I wasn't ready to go there,'' said Reid, whose reputation also will take a major blow. ''I thought he was putting himself at risk and wouldn't be efficient.''
Said McNabb, coldly: ''Even when he told me no, I wanted to be there for my team. I stood there and told him I was ready to go.''
It doesn't ease the pain that Carolina's Jake Delhomme, formerly a six-year backup whom the Bears bypassed for Kordell Stewart, is headed to Houston as the new Trent Dilfer. The Eagles need to focus on finding playmakers for McNabb, whose shoulders are broad but not so mighty to lift an entire franchise to a championship. Once the injury was diagnosed, they were a beaten team, with McNabb victimized by the poor play of his receivers. The record will show he threw three interceptions, but one was the fault of Todd Pinkston, who didn't stay with his route, and another came on a deflection off James Thrash.
Making things uglier was the fact each of the picks wound up in the hands of rookie Ricky Manning Jr., who matched the three-interception feat earlier in the day of New England's Ty Law. Last week, the Carolina cornerback ridiculed McNabb's supporting cast, saying, ''I'm definitely not impressed by their receivers.'' It prompted Pinkston to say, ''Just because we don't have the big-game guys like Terrell Owens or Randy Moss doesn't mean we can't play. He should just be happy where he's at now. It's hard to get to the NFC Championship Game as a rookie.''
In the end, it's harder for the Eagles to win the George S. Halas Trophy than it is for Manning. ''I need to do a better job. I take full responsibility,'' Reid said. ''I've got to call better plays. As I sit here now, this is wearing on me. I wanted this group to win a Super Bowl.''
Win or lose, McNabb already had made the most powerful statement of his career. He could have wobbled emotionally after Limbaugh's hideous rush to judgment in October, when the troubled commentator said McNabb is overhyped because he's black. But rather than fire back, exacerbate tensions and cause a national storm, he responded with dignity and measured words while reversing his team's fortunes. Limbaugh's hatred cut deeper for the McNabb family than he knew. His father, Sam, has been talking for days about the rude reception the McNabbs received in the early 1980s, when they became the first black family to move into an all-white neighborhood in south suburban Dolton.
''The 'welcoming committee' was not very welcoming,'' Sam McNabb told Newsday in his most searing comments. ''They broke into my house, broke several windows, urinated on the carpeting, knocked holes in the walls inside the house and spray-painted the outside. It was their show of disapproval. Now here you are, thinking we're beyond this, and all of a sudden, it comes in a different form and attacks another family member. When things are hurtful, you want to put it in your past and move forward. You can forgive, but you can't forget.''
Sam's son knew he had to bury the episode. He had a game to play, a dream to fulfill. But Donovan McNabb's destiny, apparently, is to endure a variety of pain.
And all the Chunky Soup in Philly can't make it go away.
Freepmail me if you would like on/off the Rush Pinglist!
Rush should sue for libel and make them prove it....
Nope, it's a small time loser name Jay Mariotti spewing ignorance.
Is there anyone anywhere that can read, or that listened to what Rush said?
"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well," Limbaugh said. "There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve. The defense carried this team." ....... Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh's hatred??
If that statement is hatred, then I'm the Grand Imperial Wizard of the KKK.
That criteria is dumb. There was nothing Marino could do about a complete lack of running game and defense during his 17 years in the league. Rather blame the unbelievable incompetence of the front office. Marino was probably a better pure paser than all of them.
Frnk Tarkenton - same thing. Jim Kelly ditto.
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