Getting close not enough for McNabb (BARRRFFFF!!!!!)

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.

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.

So who's the fifth? Unitas? This is the second time in the past year, I've seen a sportswriter mention "the five best quarterbacks ever," while only naming four. I wonder if the other time was the same guy, or this guy's just a copy cat. And the lists usually list only guys who played in the past 20 years, which is a giveaway, as to the writer's age.

I never see mention of the late Otto Graham on these lists. Although I never saw Graham play, even on old footage, based on the record and his stats, a case can be made that he was the greatest of them all: "led Cleveland Browns to 7 league titles in 10 years, winning 4 AAFC championships (1946-49) and 3 NFL (1950,54-55); 5-time All-Pro; 2-time NFL MVP (1953,55)." And he still has the record for the most yards per attempt.

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Graham won seven pro titles

Associated Press

CLEVELAND -- For 10 seasons, Otto Graham personified perfection, the Cleveland Browns and greatness. No quarterback has done it better.

The Hall of Famer, who led the Browns to 10 championship games in the 10 seasons he played for them, died Wednesday of an aneurysm to the heart. He was 82.

Graham died in Sarasota, Fla., team spokesman Todd Stewart said. Graham was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital earlier in the day with a tear in his aorta, said his son Duey.

Before Johnny Unitas, Joe Namath or Joe Montana, Graham set the bar for all NFL quarterbacks by winning more consistently than anyone else.

"The test of a quarterback is where his team finishes," said Paul Brown, Graham's coach in Cleveland. "By that standard, Otto Graham was the best of all time."

Graham helped the Browns become a football dynasty -- first in the All-America Football Conference and later in the NFL. He quarterbacked Cleveland teams in the 1940s and '50s that included Hall of Famers such as Marion Motley, Dante Lavelli, Lou Groza and Bill Willis.

"He was as great of a quarterback as there ever was," said longtime friend George Steinbrenner, who grew up in Cleveland. "He was a god in Cleveland."

"Automatic Otto" never missed a game as a pro while passing for 23,584 yards and 174 touchdowns. Graham finished his career with an astounding 105-17-4 regular-season record.

He took Brown's teams to the title game in each season from 1946 to 1955.

"That's hard to beat," said Sammy Baugh, a contemporary of Graham's and also a Hall of Famer.

With Graham as their quarterback, the Browns won four championships in the AAFC and three NFL titles. He was MVP of the AAFC three times.

Graham, who wore uniform numbers 14 and 60, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. In 1994, Graham was picked for the NFL's 75th anniversary team, joining quarterbacks Baugh, Unitas and Montana.

"Otto Graham was the superstar of the 1950s, when the NFL was gaining stability and growing in popularity," NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Wednesday night. "He helped glamorize the sport by winning championships and elevating the role of quarterback as the NFL entered the television era.

"He also played a major role in building the tradition of the Cleveland Browns."

After dominating the AAFC with an innovative offense that was ahead of its time, Graham and the Browns moved into the more-established NFL in 1950.

They opened in Philadelphia against the defending champion Eagles, and Graham's first pass in the NFL went for a touchdown as the Browns stunned the sports world with a 35-10 win.

Cleveland went 12-2 during the regular season, then defeated the Los Angeles Rams, who had defected from Cleveland after winning the 1945 title.

The Browns lost in the NFL title game the next three years before winning the 1954 championship behind Graham, who ran for three TDs and threw three more in Cleveland's 56-10 rout of Detroit.

After the game, Graham announced he was retiring. But he was talked into making a comeback on the eve of the 1955 season opener and led the Browns to yet another title.

In his final game, 33-year-old Graham threw two TD passes and ran for two more as the Browns beat the Rams 38-14.

"I liked all his quarterback skills," Baugh told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I thought he was one of the better quarterbacks in the league. He had a smart head and a good arm."

Graham later coached the Washington Redskins from 1966 to 1968 -- he compiled a 17-22-3 record and was replaced by Vince Lombardi in 1969. Coaching the Redskins was just a lark, according to the team's quarterback, Sonny Jurgensen.

"He said he was not cut out to coach professional football, but he did it for [Redskins owner] Edward Bennett Williams," said Jurgensen, also a Hall of Famer.

Graham, who also made history as the first player to wear a face mask, took great pride in his many career records -- and that they all came with his beloved Browns.

"How many players stay with the same team for 10 years these days? It's a different time, a different game," he said on a visit to Browns Stadium in 2002.

Otto Everett Graham Jr. began setting records on the first day of his life in Waukegan, Ill. He weighed a state record 14 pounds, 12 ounces at birth.

Graham went to Northwestern on a basketball scholarship and played intramural football, leading his team to a fraternity championship. Wildcats football coach Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf noticed the freshman and invited him to a spring tryout.

He was an All-American in both basketball and football in 1943 and finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting won by Notre Dame's Angelo Bertelli.

In 1959, on the recommendation of Steinbrenner, Graham became athletic director and football coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He left the Coast Guard to become general manager and coach of the Redskins in 1966.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Beverly; three children: Duey, Sandy and Dave; two foster daughters; 16 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

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