Donovan McNabb to Retire As An Eagle, Be Booed One More Time
Although he had a messy exit from Philadelphia in 2010, Donovan McNabb said Monday he intends to retire as an Eagle in September.
“I will retire as an Eagle and I look forward to that opportunity and that day,” the quarterback told ESPN Radio 97.7 FM in Syracuse.
He later said on his NBC Sports Radio show that the team has suggested he return to Philadelphia to make his retirement announcement on Sept. 19 when his former coach, Andy Reid, leads the Kansas City Chiefs against the Eagles in a Thursday night game.
Reports of a September retirement ceremony for Donovan McNabb have yet to be confirmed, and already 94 WIP’s Angelo Cataldi is calling for fans to boo him.
“We should make sure we’ll boo McNabb one last time!” the sports talker said on his morning show. “We’ll never have a chance again!”
Cataldi infamously bused a gaggle of fans dubbed “The Dirty 30” to the NFL Draft in New York in 1999, where they lustily booed the announcement of the Eagles’ top pick.
See, this is why Philly sports fans have a reputation for being superlatively mean and stupid: It’s not just that you booed Santa Claus once, folks. It’s that outside of Donovan McNabb, only one quarterback—Ron Jaworski—has gotten you within sniffing distance of an NFL championship in the last 40 years … and yet so many people still want to take a crap on him. Could McNabb have, say, not gotten a nauseous stomach at the Super Bowl? Sure. But jeepers, folks, you act like four straight NFC championship games is your birthright or something. Here’s the truth: It’ll probably never happen again.
What can I say: I spent a good chunk of my life in the Kansas City era. Before Marty Schottenheimer arrived in the late 1980s, the Chiefs had spent nearly two decades in the playoff wilderness. He brought winning teams to town, but never quite won the Big One. People got tired of it, he left. You know what happened to the Chiefs over the decade since then, right? They got bad enough, consistently enough, that they just hired the Eagles’ old coach. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same thing happened here: Creating a consistent winner is tough in the NFL. But even if the Birds go 2-14 for the next five seasons, one thing seems for certain: Angelo Cataldi and his band of ingrates will boo Donovan McNabb the whole time, and be delighted with themselves for doing so. Weak.
