So where is the national presence in all of this? To find out I emailed a friend who just so happens to be an executive with an NFL team. Here's his take on the discussion about McNabb in Philadelphia: ∙ Just the idea that Jeff Garcia should be the Eagles' starting quarterback in 2007 instead of Donovan McNabb should disqualify people from watching any NFL games, ever. In other words, people think the whole thing is just silly.
Apparently, Donovan McNabb's press conference for Chunky Soup was a really big deal. Actually, it made all the papers – in Philadelphia. Nationally, it doesn't look as if the so-called "controversy" caused much of a ripple. In a quick search of Google News for stories written about the McNabb press conference, only one paper outside of the Philadelphia area had an original story written by a staff writer. And that writer was from Newark, N.J., which really isn't that far from Philly. Additionally, there was one original story on a national web site, but aside from that, the latest McNabb controversy du jour is strictly local.