Well, it looks like I wasn’t the only one who was sick on Sunday.
WIP was abuzz today over comments made by Hank Fraley and John Runyon on Angelo Cataldi’s Comcast sports show. Apparently, the reason that the Eagles had no hurry-up offense on Sunday is that Donovan McNabb could barely speak in the huddle, and nearly puked on the field. Freddie Mitchell called at least one of the plays on the final drive after watching Donovan make hand signals.
We don’t know the full story yet, but various theories are floating around:
1. Donovan suffered a concussion from the hits he took early in the game.
2. Donovan battled a cold earlier in the week; he might have been battling the flu on Sunday.
3. He was poorly conditioned, and just didn’t have what it took to finish the game.
4. He had a failure of nerve on the game’s biggest stage.
Of course, it’s number four that is the most frightening.
As various hosts have discussed on the air today, Donovan has thrown up on the field before (once during a bowl game at Syracuse; once before at Jacksonville; and one other time that I didn’t catch).
There is no stopping this story now. I just don’t understand why Fraley and Runyon talked about this. I’ve heard the tape, and I don’t think that they meant to call Donovan out–in fact, I think they were trying to defend him. Maybe they’re just stupid. Why Donovan was betrayed by his center—-his center, of all people!—-is beyond me.
Andy Reid, like it or not, has always protected his players, and he tried to protect them again after the game by taking the blame for the loss. I wish the Eagles had left it at that. Reid can take it.
Glenn Macnow, my favorite WIP host, asked a good question tonight: if you’re going to rip Donovan, who would you rather have? Peyton Manning? What has he shown in the playoffs? Michael Vick? Please. Donovan is our best hope, and we accomplish nothing by tearing him down.
2 Comments on "Stand By Your Man"
Martin:
WFAN guys Mike and the Mad Dog fielded a call about this, and rejected the theory out of hand, mainly citing why you wouldn’t see something like that in a game with 10,000 cameras in place to capture it all. Maybe so, but anyway it was a pretty knee-jerk, on-the-fly response. In the same breath they also gave Reid props for not putting DMac under the bus, when he had ample opportunity to (”Reid didn’t say anything about that, he just said he had no explanation for the breakdown,” “Yeah but he was taking on the blame there, not pushing it onto his players, good for him,” something like that).
Matt:
Reid is famously tight-lipped, and he never, ever calls out his players in the press. That is why his players are very loyal to him. By and large, his “let’s handle the family business behind closed doors” approach extended to the entire team. Even though Freddie Mitchell acted like a jackass all week, for example, the Eagles who were asked about him came up with some version of “well, that’s just Freddie.”
What bothers me is that I see signs of an internal clubhouse collapse here. Maybe “collapse” is too strong a word, but I’m starting to worry a bit about the cohesiveness of this team…stories like this have a way of turning players against one another.
I don’t like the fact that Donovan is away in Hawaii now, leaving his center to try to explain things. The man has to stand up and put this story to bed. He is, as he pointed out, the captain of this ship.
p.s. I love the fact that I can get both WIP and WFAN here in Philly (but only in my car). WFAN usually does a better job of analyzing games, but WIP is like a stent that goes right into the heart of Philly.
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