Michael Vick is in town, and he has all the media attention.  That’s a very good thing for #5.  In fact, it’s the best thing to happen to him at this point of his career.  Usually the Philly media is making stories about how he blinked during a news conference or something to try and stay relevant, or whatever it is they try to do by reporting some of the dumbest things you can imagine during the slow football off season.  He has his “financial apology” from the Eagles, and he seems satisfied with not having an extension of his contract.  The coming year will reveal a lot about Donovan McNabb in my eyes.  He’s always gotten the short end of the stick from the most vocal of the Philly fans.  You know the ones; they call themselves “passionate”.  They take after the so-called “Dirty Thirty” that booed him when he was drafted.  Yeah, they seemed to have started a trend long before he threw his first bad pass into the ground at an open receiver’s feet.  Every word he says, every facial expression he makes, even his haircuts are scrutinized by Philly media on a microscopic level.  It made no sense in the beginning, it makes no sense now.  He can’t catch a break in this town even though he’s putting a lot of bread on the tables of journalists and talk show hosts who skewer him every chance they get whether it’s legit or not.

I’m a huge fan of the Eagles, and a huge fan of #5.  I remember the years between Randall Cunningham and the drafting of McNabb.  They weren’t good years, they weren’t happy years at all.  The Eagles were the joke of the division during those years.  Then along came Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb.  We started winning, we won so much that we took it for granted and simply winning wasn’t enough.  We wanted more, we wanted a Superbowl trophy.  The Eagles owed it to us.  Donovan McNabb owes it to us.  It seems he has only 2 more seasons to deliver.  I hope he does, but he’ll have to be like Elway to pull this off.  He’ll have to pass, run, catch, and whatever else it takes to win.

Since McNabb has been in town, he’s shouldered most of the burden for winning or losing in this town.  Mostly he takes the blame for losing.  His first few receivers are all but forgotten by most people.  In fact, the receivers he’s had (with the exception of T.O. and the new crop he has now) have never inspired great confidence.  That showed in his game and in his selection of who to pass to.  Chad Lewis and Brian Westbrook have always been his favorite targets.  This year, he has a nice group of receivers who have potential to dominate.  Last year he showed faith in a rookie named DeSean Jackson, and that faith has grown this off-season and will be more apparent as Jackson becomes the go-to receiver on this team.  McNabb, this is your time to prove you can win the big one.  You have the weapons you asked for, and an X-factor in Vick.  You have no more excuses.  This is your Elway moment.

I believe defense wins championships, but offense has to put the points on the board to allow defenses to run wild and take chances by going after the opposing quarterback.  I’ve never believed in having a “clutch” quarterback, because that means the defense hasn’t been dominating the game as they should.  McNabb has never been a clutch quarterback, whether it’s because he can’t do it or because in this system the head coach likes to control every detail of a game down to calling the plays in a two-minute drill.  McNabb had a chance to shed that label in the NFC championship game against Arizona by capping off the improbable come-back he lead with a last minute scoring drive.  The drive stalled, he failed to complete a pass, and succeeded in creating a month-long blame fest on talk show radio.  To be successful, he must forget about all that, forget being clutch, forget being a pure passer, and use what made him special. Use what earned him his Probowl selections, and that’s his unpredictable game.  Defenses used to have to game plan, and spy on him, leaving more options open for him to pass to.  In recent years, they just don’t have to anymore because he refused to run.

Moving forward, McNabb needs to learn to completely be himself.  He needs to play to his strengths and make sure he leaves everything on the field.  Because he felt he was being stereotyped as a “running” quarterback, he chose to prove people wrong and become mainly a pocket passer.  All he accomplished by doing that was bring more criticism on himself because he took away a valuable weapon of his that kept defenses honest and fans on the edge of their seats.  I don’t care how he wins as long as he wins.  His career so far is eerily identical to John Elway’s career in Denver. Toward the end of his career, Elway played with more offensive weapons than ever.  He won 2 championships in a row with those weapons.  But the key thing he did in my opinion was to leave no weapon in his arsenal unused.  He ran, he threw, he did everything to win.  McNabb must put his own pride aside and just win.  I’m not saying McNabb’s career will be over in two years because he has many more years left if he stays healthy.  This could however be his last 2 years as an Eagle.  Personally, I don’t want him to go somewhere else and win.  I don’t care if he wins for the Philly fans or in spite of the Philly fans.  Just win, and win to shut all the talking heads up once and for all.

McNabb should stop trying to please anyone at this point in his career but himself and his team.  I think he took steps toward doing that by publicly demanding more weapons offensively and by lobbying to bring in Mike Vick.  It shows that he wants to win at all costs.  It shows he’s trying to please himself and his team.  He tried to be everything to everyone in his organization and fan base.  He can’t do that, it’s impossible.  He is who he is, and his game is what it is.  McNabb still has one of the strongest arms in the game and can throw the deep ball with more accuracy than the short passes.  I don’t care what the coach wants to do at this point, he needs to take more command of the game.  This is his Elway moment.  Andy Reid groomed one of the loosest canons in football (Favre), so he better understand when McNabb decides to do things his way on the field.  And McNabb better take advantage of his strengths.  I hope Reid is putting in a lot more run plays to help his QB.  I hope that he finally accepts that his project to make McNabb a pure passer is a failure.  McNabb has done a lot better than expected as a pure passer.  His numbers are always very good, and in my opinion only Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees are better options at QB.  He’s not as good a passer, but I’m sure you ask them and they’d say they would love to do some of the things he can do with the ball in his hands.

Let’s face it.  McNabb can’t win over his critics, and he won’t.  He’s even been classified as highly overrated by a pill popping, blow hard, no-nothing, tub of lard named Rush Limbaugh.  How’s that for a slap in the face?  A man who needs Gatorade, and a time out after walking to his mailbox called him overrated.  He survived that, and he’s survived Bernard Hopkins dissing him every chance he gets because McNabb didn’t come over to him asking for an autograph when he visited the Eagles training facility, and he survived the NAACP whining about him not being a good enough player.  The NAACP!  I didn’t know they were done with the business of helping to lessen inequality in the world and could take on football.  Did you know that?  Anyway, these are the kinds of people that taking full advantage of his Elway moment will help shut up.  Yes, the Phillies won a championship last year and could do it again, but the burden is on you, Donovan, to bring home a shiny silver trophy.  Your legend would be cemented as the first QB to bring Lombardi to Philly.  In a city that doesn’t appreciate class acts and great talents who aren’t “in your face” until they leave, McNabb has a chance to prove nice guys don’t always finish last.

Will he rise to the occasion and use everything at his disposal to win and shed the label of choke artist who can’t win the big one?  Or will he keep doing the same old thing and throwing inaccurate short passes when he can gain the yards himself or act like he’ll run, pulling the defenses up and launch a more accurate deep pass?  Will he prove that humility doesn’t equal weakness?  Will he accept the fact that nobody will be held accountable in a lot of fans eyes but him for every loss even if the defense doesn’t show up for a game?  The sooner he accepts it, the sooner his Elway moment will be realized and he can tell all his critics to shove it if he wants.