McNabb To Start Thursday

Hey, all this? Right, of course: Forget about it, kind of, at least. Because Andy Reid has obviously decided to start McNabb at quarterback on Thursday night against the Cardinals.

Donovan McNabb will be the starting quarterback on Thursday night against Arizona, coach Andy Reid announced.

“Donovan is the quarterback for this football team,” Reid said toward the end of his Monday news conference. “I don’t want to leave here until you understand that.”

Then Reid got up and abruptly left the NovaCare auditorium.

So, ah, the media understood, I assume? That Daily News blog post also helpfully notes that the Fox pregame show “was before McNabb was pulled.”

McNabb to start at QB [Eagletarian]

Donovan’s End?

The list of players who didn’t win a championship in Philadelphia used to be an important one. Now that the Phillies have won a title, who cares!

Nobody, in a way. But it’s still a list worth updating. And yesterday’s 36-7 loss to the Ravens may not only have ended the Eagles season (figuratively), it also might’ve ended the Philadelphia career of Donovan McNabb (literally). It’s a shame.

A lot of people don’t like McNabb, never liked McNabb, but he’s been a hell of a quarterback for the Eagles. He won a bunch of division titles, won a ton of playoff games and got the Eagles to a Super Bowl.

And yet. He threw four three picks in that Super Bowl, he had some bad games in the playoffs, he says dumb things at press conferences. (I don’t care about that last one.) And he joins Allen Iverson, Eric Lindros, and so on, as another Philadelphia superstar who didn’t add “champion” to his resume.

Eagles coach Andy Reid benched McNabb at halftime, with the Eagles trailing 10-7. (If we learned anything yesterday about the Eagles, it’s that they’re just as bad with another quarterback under center. They might be worse.) With the Eagles at 5-5-1, they might back it in and start Kolb the rest of the year.

Kevin Kolb did drive the Eagles down to the Ravens inch-yard line in the fourth quarter, but ended up throwing an interception to Ed Reed, who returned it 108 yards for a score. That play epitomized the Eagles season. Not because the Eagles didn’t try to run it in from the one-foot line. (What were they going to do, run?) No, that play was special because no less than five Eagles (Kolb, Westbrook, Herremans, Celek, L.J. Smith) had a chance to tackle Reed and none did. It seemed like Eagles were coming off the sidelines to miss the tackle.

The Eagles are fun to watch when they’re bad. Bad football can be kind of funny, and the Eagles are so snakebitten hilarious bad things happen to them almost every game. An NFL-record interception return? Sure! Only one missed field goal by opponents all year? Of course.

They are not, though, fun to read about, as people (and, increasingly, a media hungry for pageviews) in this city can’t write anything coherent about the Birds when they’re not above .500. So let’s lay back, put our feet up and enjoy the rest of the season. Let’s hope Donovan McNabb can do the same.

Stars Will Be Out For WS Game 3

Move over, Backstreet Boys! Check out who will be at Citizens Bank Park when the World Series comes to Philadelphia:

Actor/singer Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster, is among those expected at the World Series games at Citizens Bank Park. Donovan McNabb, Simon Gagne, NBC News president Steve Capus, and Sixers forward Donyell Marshall, should all be in attendance as well[.]

The Steve Capus?! Oh, man, we are so lucky. But, what, no news anchors will be taking in the game as well?

Eddie Munster, McNabb to attend World Series [Phillygossip]

Up With The V! Dot The I!

Well, that was a fun sports weekend, wasn’t it? The Eagles didn’t exactly play like world-beaters, but they fought past the Steelers, 15-6. And the Phillies fell out of first on Friday night, but rallied to win the next two games to go up 1 1/2 in the division; they’re 98 percent playoff bound.

Okay, so Brian Westbrook is hurt. So is McNabb, though he came back. And L.J. Smith might as well be a statue and the Phillies bullpen can’t possibly carry them through the playoffs with how often they’ve pitched this year. Eh, whatever. Let’s just think good thoughts for now.

McNabb Not Just A Chunky Soup Pitchman

Take it away, Keith Russell, with our lead of the week:

June 18, 2008 (WPVI) — Donovan McNabb is always focused on football, but today he was focused on hypertension.

Did McNabb take his focus away from football to focus on hypertension yesterday? That slacker!

McNabb focuses on high-blood pressure [6 ABC]

Getting Ready For Eagles Season

Here’s McNabb as a high school basketball player, via Iggles Blog:

He was a blue chip hoops prospect, but those chest passes just kept hitting people’s feet. (Rimshot.)

Meanwhile, Bleeding Green Nation posts a photo showing us the Eagles cheerleaders went to Iraq all dressed like Lara Croft:

Donovan McNabb Is 15 Years Old

The always good (and thorough!) Bounty Bowl points out (with censored vulgarity!) over the weekend Donovan McNabb was wearing a one-liner t-shirt. And not just any kind of one-liner t-shirt: An inspirational one-liner t-shirt. (He’s also wearing a WWJD bracelet, which means not only is he 15 year old, he’s 15 years old in 1997. Like me!)

The blog also helpfully transcribed the shirt for us, since, yeah, I wasn’t going to read all of that:

“If you prepare to be the best in everything you do in life, you will receive great results. But if you are just satisfied with mediocrity, that’s what you will be.”

Gah. Gah. GAH! Donovan. You’re in your 30s. I stopped wearing one-liner shirts sometime before freshman year. (Yes, I have a t-shirt with a bracket on it that has the #16 seed me over the #1 seed you, but I bought it to support my friend’s website.)

McNabb actually seemed to figure out that inspirational slogan t-shirts — even worse than “funny” shirts — were bad, as he stopped wearing them after showing up in 2006 with one. But now… ugh. Ugh. But please: If you’re going to wear an inspirational slogan t-shirt, at least make it a little better than that? That’s clumsier than my dancing.

Sweet f*cking Chr*st, he’s wearing T-shirts with slogans again [Bounty Bowl]

Donovan McNabb To Celebrate 7 Or 8-Win Season By Going To Disney World

Want to boo Donovan McNabb in person? Well, you can apparently meet the Eagles QB with the Amish beard at this creepy-sounding event where you get to see pro athletes and ESPN personalities. Ooh, I want to shake Scott van Pelt’s hand! Anyway, Donovan McNabb stops a parade for some lady and then talks to Mickey Mouse. This is almost as good as a Super Bowl win.

William Penn Leads Eagles To Easy Win

Despite the Phillies still being only a half-game back in the Wild Card, all the talk today will be about the Eagles’ ridiculous 56-21 victory over the Lions yesterday. Donovan McNabb’s had the greatest first-half performance by a black quarterback in NFL history, the Eagles’ defense had nine sacks and Kevin Curtis and Brian Westbrook each had three touchdowns.

But the real story, of course, were those fantastic blue and yellow Ikea jerseys, which the Birds should clearly wear every week. And, wouldn’t you know, according to Fox sideline reporter Jennifer Hammond, who shed some light on how the 1933 Eagles chose those jerseys for their first season

If you don’t have audio, here’s the relevant quote: “They look like the Swedish colors and they are. Swedes settled the area, and William Penn decided that the team that came here would wear these.” Who knew William Penn was such a Nostradamus and knew a new sport of American football would appear hundreds of years later?

Eagles Cruise Past Lions, 56-21 [Comcast SportsNet]

And Speaking Of The Onion

Eagles Fans Give McNabb Three-Week Deadline To Win Super Bowl