Bad Thumb, No Heart

The anti-McNabb clamor has only gotten louder since AJ Feeley’s impressive showing against the Patriots last week (notwithstanding 3 interceptions). But the McNabb criticism has taken a strange turn if the emails and phone calls I’ve been getting from friends in the hate-5 crowd are any indication.

 

As we await Reid’s decision on who will start on Sunday (my guess – Feeley), the anti-McNabb crowd is working themselves into a bloodlust hoping not that the New England savior will play but that McNabb will get the call – if only so that they can boo him and chant Feeley’s name. It’s simply amazing to me that we’ve reached a point where supposed Eagles fans are actively hoping that their quarterback plays poorly.

 

Anyway, since McNabb didn’t practice yesterday and consistent with their wish that McNabb will play (so that they can boo him and he can be replaced by Feeley in front of the home fans) the newest McNabb criticism is that he doesn’t have any heart.

 

As it was explained to me by a McNabb-hater, McNabb’s ankle and thumb aren’t hurt that serious and he could play if he wanted but he is keeping himself out. McNabb, my friend says, “has no heart. No guts.” Of course, making this charge against a player who threw 4 TDs on a broken ankle, who played half a season with a torn abdomen muscle, and half of an NFC championship game with separated ribs is ludicrous, but it is merely the latest example of the irrationality McNabb generates in his detractors.

 

And we’ve seen how poorly McNabb has played before with an injury to his throwing thumb. Just look at the beginning of the 2003 season when the Eagles coincidentally lost to the Patriots and started the season 2-3.

 

At that time, there was a big mystery about the injury and there was a lot of clamoring to sit McNabb and let his thumb heal. We’ve since come full circle, where the #5-bashers want McNabb to play with the bad thumb, play poorly, and replace him with AJ Feeley. Once again, McNabb is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.