ASHBURN, Va. — It was kind of like seeing an old girlfriendwho unceremoniously dumped you out in public for the first time. Worse, there
she was with arm around your best friend.
Make that your former best friend.
Yes, the Redskins introduced their new starting quarterback, Donovan McNabb, to
the D.C. sporting press at the creatively named Redskin Park on Tuesday
afternoon at a press conference that could aptly be described as tense or
standoffish. Oh sure, there were attempts to put on a happy face and to say the
right thing to placate those left behind and those waiting there with outspread
arms for a giant, bear-like hug, but the animosity was as thick as the swampy,
humid D.C. air.
If there were any doubts they are gone now – it’s so over!
How’s this for it being so over: the Redskins’ public relations staff informed
a few of the folks in the Philly press that McNabb would be unavailable for
side interviews with them. Oh, it was cool if the D.C. scribes chatted up the
new Redskins quarterback, but the gang from Philadelphia was treated as if they
were little rats that escaped from the maze. If not confined they could infest
the joint and then what?
No, it’s better to keep them in a windowless room with shaky internet access
and no beverages.
That was the least of where the tension was most palpable. After all, no one
cares about how the media is treated… least of all, the media.[1] Instead,
McNabb, like Mark McGwire once said during an interview in Washington, was not
there to talk about the past. Besides, he said, it wasn’t about him when he was
playing for the Eagles. Football is a team game with 11 players on each side of
the ball, he explained. The quarterback is just one of those 11 guys, he told
us.
But in the next breath he told us how great the Eagles became when they smartly
took him with the No. 2 pick in the 1999 draft.
“I came to a team that was 3-13 and we went 5-11 (his rookie year) and then
average nine of 10 wins a year and made it to five NFC Championship Games and a
Super Bowl, and not many teams can say that,” McNabb said. “Yes, we didn't win
it, but it was a good ride. Every time the Eagles stepped on the field,
everybody felt confident we could win that one, and I want to bring that here.”
Or, more succinctly: you’re welcome, Eagles. It was me that made you guys look
better, he seemed to be saying.
That’s debatable, of course, and surely the folks in Philly will dive into that
fray for as long as the Eagles continue their championship drought that is now
in its 50th year. But what is not debatable is the idea that McNabb wanted to
stay in Philadelphia. Why wouldn’t he? He was comfortable there and he knew his
way around. He knew where all the good restaurants were and where he could go
and not be bothered. Most of all, there appears to be a correlation to the
specific greatness of a quarterback if he makes it through a career on just one
team. Elway did that. So did Marino, Aikman, Staubach and Bradshaw, to name a
few Hall-of-Famers whose career stats match up with McNabb’s.
“I've always believed in finishing where you start,” McNabb said during the
main presser (not the side one with the D.C. guys). “There’s a lot to be said
for that. Not a lot of quarterbacks are able to do that these days. But
sometimes change is better. Sometimes you're forced into change.”
Ah yes. Change. Apparently that was what everyone was looking for when McNabb
was dealt away to the Redskins on Easter Sunday night, a mere 16 hours before
the Phillies were to open the season in Washington. Sure, McNabb says, he
really wanted to finish his career with the Eagles and try to win that elusive
championship for the “gold standard” of franchises. But things are different
now. The Eagles are going in a different direction. Nothing lasts forever.
McNabb says he knew his days with the Eagles were likely numbered when Brian
Dawkins was allowed to leave. Sure, coach Andy Reid told anyone who would
listen that he saw McNabb quarterbacking his team for the foreseeable future,
but McNabb knew otherwise. Reid was creating an oil slick on the surface to try
and create a diversion of sorts.
“We knew it was going on from the beginning,” McNabb said about the trade talks
by the Eagles.
Gone are Brian Westbrook, Kevin Curtis, Shawn Andrews, Sheldon Brown and, of
course, Dawkins.
“For you not to bring Brian Dawkins back, that (says) we're all
replaceable," McNabb said. “I'm a part of it this year. They’re
rebuilding, and they're going young. I never knew 33 was old, but I guess I'm
old.”
Old news for sure. Yes, McNabb is with someone new – someone we know all too
well. Worse, he’s telling us how great things are going to be now that we’re
finally gone.
It doesn’t hurt as much as it makes you mad.
“You guys from Philly don’t know much about the running game,” he said with one
of those grins that makes it seem like a joke, but it’s really a dig. “We will
run the ball here.”
Yeah, well, good luck with that.
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[1] But it is funny. Go ahead and admit
that it’s funny. Who doesn’t love to hear press types whine about their jobs?
“Oh my goodness they are making me travel to new places and to see new things
to write and report about sports. Can you believe that? And they have the nerve
to pay me for it.” Yes that was sarcasm, and yes it would have been easier to
just to write, “Hey guys, stop whining. If you don’t like traveling around to
report on sports, I hear they’re hiring at the post office ”
