McNabb (finally) responds

[VitaminD]

The soap opera that is the Eagles' 2005 season just keeps on going.

Donovan McNabb finally broke his silence on the whole debacle that was made this year, and his relationship with Terrell Owens. Apparently, he got tired of being given the high road and keeping his mouth shut to be the bigger man.

A couple of thoughts (the interview was on ESPN, you can find the text and footage on their site if you can navigate it or if you're an Insider... that's for you, DC and Tank):

1. "black-on-black crime"? What crime was committed? Why is McNabb going there? Black-on-black crime is when a real crime happens and the victim and perpetrator are both black, like in a murder or a robbery. This? This is Me-O being himself, running his mouth and throwing his QB under the bus. He also did the same to white head coach Andy Reid and white offensive coordinator Brad Childress. Donny Mac lost huge points with this one. Bad call.

2. making the Brett Favre reference also a racial matter. McNabb listed every black QB in the NFL and said it would have been OK if Me-O said the Eagles would be a better team if any of them were playing QB. But McNabb takes offense because Owens used Favre's name, and he's white? Is it so bad to think a 3-time NFL MVP who's WON a Super Bowl and appeared in another might be a valid comparison? The black QBs McNabb would have been OK with have made 1 Super Bowl appearance (McNair) and have co-won 1 MVP award (McNair again). Would he have been insulted if Owens had said Tom Brady? John Elway? Joe Montana? They're all white, but they all won multiple Super Bowls. Achievements supersede race here, D-Mac. Would Doug Williams be the only possibly acceptable improvement, since he fulfills the dual criteria of race and achievements?

3. the willingness with which McNabb ceded the high ground. Every time Owens or his "superagent" Drew Rosenhaus opened their mouths in public, they dug their trench a little deeper. McNabb had won without opening his mouth. Now, he comes out like a whiner - the guys started forming a clique with that naughty Me-O, they didn't come to my party. Are we all 14 again? C'mon, dude!

I've been a big McNabb fan since he joined the team, but he lost a lot of respect with this interview. He's handled so many other divisive issues the right way - the draft, Rush Limbaugh - but he abandonned what's worked to whine like a baby and try to inject race (and crime?) where it need not be.

[NJTank]

Yeah McNabb balck on black crime that was a dumb comment it was nt a crime it was a comment. TO dissed him but give me a break he didnt hurt McNabb's repuation, though the whinning in that conversation may have. McNabb shoudl have kept quiet let it die, let it fade away stay above the fray.

[Squeaks4]

I know I am going to be burned at the stake for this one, but the comments on race that McNabb made are a prime example of the stuff I hear about and see everyday. I will be the first one to go against REAL racism (IE Crimes based souly on race) but I am getting really tired of hearing things like "Its because I am black that (insert bad negative situation) happened." I honestly want race to not matter in this world anymore, but when someone brings up race in a situation that has nothing to do with race, they are keeping the racism alive. I honestly hear much more "reverse racism" (Which is a term I hate btw because racism is racism. It doesnt only describe a white guy doing something bad to an African American) then the racism we are used to. For example, it is pretty much socially acceptable for a black man to say words like "White boy" "Cracker" "Honky" ECT. Yet if a Cacausin even says the word 'Black' he is labled as a racist. I am just so tired of hearing how all the different races simply want to be viewed without color when we have programs such as the NAACP and have a number of Black colleges.

[Hat Boy]

It has been a while since I saw the interview, but wasn't it Michael Irvin who brought up Brett Favre's name?

[Cujo]

It has been a while since I saw the interview, but wasn't it Michael Irvin who brought up Brett Favre's name?

I think that Irvin had stated that Owens would play better alongside Favre on NFL Countdown or one of their shows, then later in the week an ESPN reporter asked Owens if he agreed with Irvin during an interview ... something like that.

[Bleujayone]

I don't get it. Before it was only Owens openly running his mouth, McNabb didn't say a word. Not only did I think he was taking the higher road, I though he was the more professional and the more adult. At the time, I though it was about him coming to work despite his injuries and trying to do his best with an already depleted team. Now it looks like someone just had a tighter leash on him until the season ended otherwise he'd be down on Owens's level jabbing back and forth.

If he felt the need to say anything at all on this matter, he should have just said something along the lines of, "I'm real sorry Owens couldn't find a way to work with us. If he could have, we might have been able to do some great things." Period. No insults. No rants. No nonsense. McNabb would have come out smelling like a rose, and Owens would have had been dug in just a little bit deeper. Now with this garbage, I'm begining to think that maybe this freak show under the Eagles' tent wasn't being run by just one clown. If McNabb was feeding the fire too, then maybe Owens doesn't deserve all the blame for all this. And I'm the last person looking to cut Me-O a break.

[yh]

Crimes based souly on race

Please forgive me. I do not mean to make light of this rather serious discussion nor do I intend to come off as racist, but you got to admit that this misspelling could be considered the . . .

Greatest

Freudian Slip

Ever.

[Jigga]

Simple math in my simple mind:

McNabb's comments=Too little, too late

McNabb's comments=Frivilous, unfounded playing of the race card.

I like McNabb's game, but where the was all this venom when this was going on? He looks like a punk in my opinion. And the fact he purposely tried to lump all of the other comments by others with what T.O. said, makes him a punk in this situation too.

Your little ego got bruised, McNabb? Dude, where was this 6 months ago? You sound like a child. So go ask your mother for a bowl of Chunky Soup. Actually, I'm surprised she wasn't sitting right next to him during this .

I lost all respect that I had left for McNabb with the idiotic "black-on-black" crime. That term was born from gang violence in which young black kids were killing each other at alarming rates. For McNabb injecting such a term is appaling. Furthermore, I can't imagine why he would take it as a "slap-in-the face" that Brett Farve, a true all-time great, 3 time MVP, ring bearing QB was the name brought up. McNabb can't carry Farve's jock, and it has nothing to do with race. Farve is a leader, McNabb will never be...remember the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl. That's leadership (or lack thereof).

It's really a sorry sight. McNabb had already won. He had come out smelling like a rose before he launched his racially motivated tirade. However, as OutKast so eloquently put it, "Roses really smell like boo-boo." Sad, but true. Sad, but true.