tr1
February-5th-2007, 02:44 PM
It's about credibility...
By: JACK McCAFFERY, Journal Register News Service
02/05/2007
http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17810514&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466403&rfi=6
It is finally all over in Miami now.
All the anticipation. All the talk. All the press, scrambling, desperate for more.
It's over. All the controversy. All the mystery. All the boasts. All the excuses. All the football fans, thirsty for the next drop of news.
All of it, over.
The McNabb family has gone home.
Was that amazing, or what? Has a quarterback not playing in the game ever dominated the attention as Donovan McNabb did last week at the Super Bowl? The last time a quarterback at the pro football championship game was so heavily quoted, it was from a poolside, and it was Joe Namath, and he was guaranteeing that the Jets would win.
McNabb played in the Super Bowl two years ago in Jacksonville and hardly had as much to say. Certainly, he was not as chatty as he was in Miami, scrambling up and down Radio Row the way so many would like him to maneuver through defenses. And here's what made the whole show-within-the-show so riveting: McNabb - his family, too - only made his situation more bizarre.
The timing of McNabb's search for his shadow contributed to the spectacle. It was to be the first time since he injured his knee in November that he would accept interviews. So, there were legitimate football and health questions.
Yet there were also questions about the questions. There were questions about why he was taking questioning in Miami, when just weeks earlier, he was told by Andy Reid not to have a press conference.
"I saw nothing that would be beneficial for him to stand up,'' Reid said at the time, in an interview with WIP-AM radio. "I want him focusing in on taking care of his business and his leg, and that's all that matters right now. He doesn't need to talk to anybody.''
That's what Reid said, twice using the pronoun "I'' to indicate that it was his decision to muffle the press conference.
Yet when McNabb was pulled to a microphone as part of his endorsement agreement as a soup huckster, he offered a different view, saying, "The press conference that Andy so-called shut down - that I can't speak for myself and he was worried about me saying anything - that was completely false. It was a situation at that time where we both thought nothing good would have come out of it. I know people were asking about the injury and wanted to know how the rehab was going. At that time it was still early in the rehab and we just wanted to focus in on trying to get healthy and we felt it wouldn't be a good thing at that time.''
So either Reid decided that the press conference would not be beneficial, or, as his quarterback said, that slant was nothing less than "completely false.'' But McNabb always seems to have the most cockeyed interpretations of what other people say is happening.
For the sake of being civil, assume that Reid was being truthful. He said he didn't want the press conference. He had reasons, not necessarily pristine, but reasons. And it is plausible that he would endeavor to commandeer that level of control. McNabb, though, so often seems to have an alternate view of the universe.
Consider Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, when the Eagles forgot to run the hurry-up offense. Afterward, multiple eyewitnesses from the huddle testified that McNabb was in some measure of gastronomic distress late in the game.
Fred Mitchell chimed in with hints of McNabb's inability to annunciate the play calls, given his physical struggle. So three teammates, none of whom had any reason to do anything but try to explain something so ridiculous that it has become fodder for a documentary, all reported the same thing.
That's not what happened, though - not according to McNabb, who made his way from the soupy-sales press conference to an interview with WFAN-AM radio of New York. There, he said, "No, I didn't throw up. No, I didn't get sick in the game.''
It all may be a matter of interpretation. But why does McNabb always seem to have a unique view of any situation? Most of it is harmless. Does it matter who canceled that press conference? Either way, the fans would be shown disrespect. And must there be quibbling over the ultimate result of his intestinal issues three Super Bowls ago?
What is relevant is McNabb's approach - and, yes, the approach of his family. After insulting fans with a late-season blog suggesting that it was bittersweet for the family that the Birds were winning with Jeff Garcia and that it could result in her son being crucified, McNabb's mother made herself available, again, to the press at the Super Bowl.
Most were willing to let moms be moms and move on. But she insists on being visible. And at what point does that become counterproductive to the Eagles? Does it help McNabb become an A-list interview at a Super Bowl because he actually will play in the game again?
All right. McNabb is recuperating from severe knee trauma, and is young enough and motivated enough to return to a Super Bowl, some day, maybe even with the Eagles. He said he wants to remain in Philadelphia for the long haul, and as he did, somewhere his accountant was nodding.
If that happens - if McNabb does return to a Super Bowl as a football player and not to sell soup - he will have plenty of microphones to face and multiple opportunities to put his own spin on reality.
At least it is one frenzied drill he has proven he knows how to run.
By: JACK McCAFFERY, Journal Register News Service
02/05/2007
http://www.thereporteronline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17810514&BRD=2275&PAG=461&dept_id=466403&rfi=6
It is finally all over in Miami now.
All the anticipation. All the talk. All the press, scrambling, desperate for more.
It's over. All the controversy. All the mystery. All the boasts. All the excuses. All the football fans, thirsty for the next drop of news.
All of it, over.
The McNabb family has gone home.
Was that amazing, or what? Has a quarterback not playing in the game ever dominated the attention as Donovan McNabb did last week at the Super Bowl? The last time a quarterback at the pro football championship game was so heavily quoted, it was from a poolside, and it was Joe Namath, and he was guaranteeing that the Jets would win.
McNabb played in the Super Bowl two years ago in Jacksonville and hardly had as much to say. Certainly, he was not as chatty as he was in Miami, scrambling up and down Radio Row the way so many would like him to maneuver through defenses. And here's what made the whole show-within-the-show so riveting: McNabb - his family, too - only made his situation more bizarre.
The timing of McNabb's search for his shadow contributed to the spectacle. It was to be the first time since he injured his knee in November that he would accept interviews. So, there were legitimate football and health questions.
Yet there were also questions about the questions. There were questions about why he was taking questioning in Miami, when just weeks earlier, he was told by Andy Reid not to have a press conference.
"I saw nothing that would be beneficial for him to stand up,'' Reid said at the time, in an interview with WIP-AM radio. "I want him focusing in on taking care of his business and his leg, and that's all that matters right now. He doesn't need to talk to anybody.''
That's what Reid said, twice using the pronoun "I'' to indicate that it was his decision to muffle the press conference.
Yet when McNabb was pulled to a microphone as part of his endorsement agreement as a soup huckster, he offered a different view, saying, "The press conference that Andy so-called shut down - that I can't speak for myself and he was worried about me saying anything - that was completely false. It was a situation at that time where we both thought nothing good would have come out of it. I know people were asking about the injury and wanted to know how the rehab was going. At that time it was still early in the rehab and we just wanted to focus in on trying to get healthy and we felt it wouldn't be a good thing at that time.''
So either Reid decided that the press conference would not be beneficial, or, as his quarterback said, that slant was nothing less than "completely false.'' But McNabb always seems to have the most cockeyed interpretations of what other people say is happening.
For the sake of being civil, assume that Reid was being truthful. He said he didn't want the press conference. He had reasons, not necessarily pristine, but reasons. And it is plausible that he would endeavor to commandeer that level of control. McNabb, though, so often seems to have an alternate view of the universe.
Consider Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, when the Eagles forgot to run the hurry-up offense. Afterward, multiple eyewitnesses from the huddle testified that McNabb was in some measure of gastronomic distress late in the game.
Fred Mitchell chimed in with hints of McNabb's inability to annunciate the play calls, given his physical struggle. So three teammates, none of whom had any reason to do anything but try to explain something so ridiculous that it has become fodder for a documentary, all reported the same thing.
That's not what happened, though - not according to McNabb, who made his way from the soupy-sales press conference to an interview with WFAN-AM radio of New York. There, he said, "No, I didn't throw up. No, I didn't get sick in the game.''
It all may be a matter of interpretation. But why does McNabb always seem to have a unique view of any situation? Most of it is harmless. Does it matter who canceled that press conference? Either way, the fans would be shown disrespect. And must there be quibbling over the ultimate result of his intestinal issues three Super Bowls ago?
What is relevant is McNabb's approach - and, yes, the approach of his family. After insulting fans with a late-season blog suggesting that it was bittersweet for the family that the Birds were winning with Jeff Garcia and that it could result in her son being crucified, McNabb's mother made herself available, again, to the press at the Super Bowl.
Most were willing to let moms be moms and move on. But she insists on being visible. And at what point does that become counterproductive to the Eagles? Does it help McNabb become an A-list interview at a Super Bowl because he actually will play in the game again?
All right. McNabb is recuperating from severe knee trauma, and is young enough and motivated enough to return to a Super Bowl, some day, maybe even with the Eagles. He said he wants to remain in Philadelphia for the long haul, and as he did, somewhere his accountant was nodding.
If that happens - if McNabb does return to a Super Bowl as a football player and not to sell soup - he will have plenty of microphones to face and multiple opportunities to put his own spin on reality.
At least it is one frenzied drill he has proven he knows how to run.