McNabb - Idiot or Savvy like a fox?

McNabb is either a giant idiot, or the smartest guy in town.

Here's my case for the latter:

McNabb has had two terrible seasons in the last two years. He ripped his groin apart after dealing with the TO situation that not only ripped his locker room, but his city, apart. Then he comes back TO free and starts out well, plays okay but the team can't win, then tears his ACL on a non-contact run out of bounds. Karma, much?

He comes back this year, swears he's healthy when it's obvious he's not - and the team knew he wasn't when they held him out of camp and most of the preseason - and in week TWO is already bitching about how nobody loves him and the Philly fans are all racist. Week two? I don't care if James Brown was doing the interview and you guys are boys. Hell, I don't care if they dug up the body of the Godfather of Soul to do the interview, you don't take a shot like he did unless you want out.

His argument has no validity outside of his city. No other black QB, not counting Michael Vick, really gets any public or media scorn. No quarterback in the league is more scrutinized than the guy who just won the Super Bowl. Until he won that game, Peyton Manning was the most scrutinized player in the history of the position.

Here are the black QBs in the league (not including third stringers and people who will never play like Troy Smith). Tell me if any of them get more crap than Rex Grossman does.

Starters/High Profile Guys
McNabb - Eagles
Steve McNair - Baltimore
Vince Young - Tenn
Jason Campbell - Wash
Byron Leftwich - Now with Atlanta
JaMarcus Russell - Raiders
Daunte Culpepper - Raiders
David Garrard - Jacksonville
Mike Vick - State Pen
Tavaris Jackson - Minnesota

Backups
Seneca Wallace - Seattle
Cleo Lemon - Miami
DJ Shockley - Atl (IR)
Anthony Wright - NYG
Charlie Batch - Pitt
Quinn Gray - Jacksonville
Kellen Clemens - Oh...wait

Are there enough black qbs in the league? No. And coaches are always trying to turn them into wide receivers. But sometimes it works. Antwaan Randle-El is in the league because he can play other positions. So are Hines Ward and Arnaz Battle and Wallace may soon be a WR. Good white college QBs - safe Matt Jones - don't become WRs or DBs to keep their spot on an NFL roster. Just ask Eric Crouch.

Sure, Vick has his troubles, and Leftwich got dumped (for another black qb) and now finds himself in Atlanta. Culpepper brought his situation on himself by firing his agent and trying to do it himself. The year after he did that, he lost a battle for a new contract in Minny, tore up his knee, signed a deal with Miami and came back too early and is now a backup for one of the worst offenses in the league.

Look at the others. Everyone loves Vince. He's on the freakin' cover of Madden. And Campbell is a budding young star after beating, ironically, McNabb, on national TV. Steve McNair stinks, and probably was the reason Baltimore didn't make it to the AFC title game last year and nobody kills him, ever.

So let's look back at McNabb. He wants out of Philly, but is savvy enough to play the sympathy card and let all his friends in the media say he "deserves" to get out of Philly. Seriously, we are notoriously hard fans on our stars. Mike Schmidt is the best third baseman ever and people booed him all the time, just because they didn't like him. McNabb is an affable character, and would lose his marketability if he lashes out at the city directly. He can't come out and say he hates Philly because we'd bury him alive under the I95 overpass. So instead, he makes sweeping generalizations about being a black quarterback and lets the sports talk debate carry it to where he wants - getting him out of Philly.

He'll spend the next six months doing interviews about how he thinks the Eagles can win, and how he wants to be the leader of that team. He'll show us how great a guy he is, even if he's no longer as great a player as he once was. And he'll let everyone else do the work for him, making sure he's out of town by next year, without turning fans in his current city against him - and making sure he moves to his new city with any baggage.

Now, where does McNabb want to go? Hmm....maybe his hometown of Chicago. Chicago is a tough town, albeit not as tough as Philly. But if he can sign his figurative moving papers early this season, he can shop himself around behind the scenes for the rest of the year. Fans in Chicago can start a groundswell of support for McNabb, and force the hand of the Bears to dump Grossman and bring in Donovan. Bears fans would be happy because they'd have a hometown boy and legit star quarterback in their mix. Philly fans would be happy because the circus McNabb has created, and perpetuated, during the last three years will be over.



Note: As I'm finishing this, Mike and Mike are already talking about getting him out of town and finding him a spot on a contender next year. Ah, and Greeny just mentioned the Bears. Let the national campaign begin.