02/16/05
02/16/05
Donovan McNabb is the most successful Eagles Quarterback since Norm van Brocklin. If his steady improvement continues, Norm van Brocklin will not warrant a comparison. There are three great Quarterbacks in the game today – Brady, Manning, and McNabb. Since the Eagles are attempting to improve their Running and Passing Game, McNabb will once again be an even better Quarterback than the year before.
There was a time when there were many who thought that McNabb could never be a QB and that African-Americans in general did not make good Quarterbacks. He strived to prove them wrong. Of course, it is ludicrous to suggest that anyone who is critical of McNabb must be of that perspective because of a racist agenda. But racism is an experience that McNabb as a QB and all African-American Football Players of my youth were forced to confront. Their voices are echoed today when McNabb is referred to as a “running QB” which implies that he is not a “real” QB. He is still motivated to prove them wrong.
After leading his team consistently to NFC Championship Games and then to the Super Bowl, it still does not seem to be enough to satisfy the critics. What will it take to silence these voices and to prove them wrong? Will one Super Bowl victory be enough? Will it take two Super Bowl victories? Maybe three? The truth is that none are required. McNabb has accomplished more than enough. He does not owe anything to anyone except to himself and his family. He has already represented the Eagles and Philadelphia superbly.
When he was first drafted, I was one of the many who had hoped that the Eagles would draft Ricky Williams. It was that April day in 1999 when I realized that McNabb was something special. In one of the biggest days of his life, he was met with a vociferous chorus of unrelenting boos from a large contingent of self-appointed Eagles Football GMs who had made the trip from Philadelphia to Madison Square Garden for the event. Once again, the voices of those who claimed that he did not have a right to be there were heard. The young man from Syracuse looked straight ahead, faced down this jeering ensemble of boisterous malcontents and, with the broad smile that we have come to know, gave the thumbs-up.