The McNabb Effect

Rich Hoffman mentioned Donovan McNabb's polarizing effect on the fan base (for the record, I am a 100% McNabb booster). I touched on this in an earlier post comparing McNabb to Elway.

Here's the opinion of a journalist friend of mine about the fan perception and media coverage of McNabb:

No player in the history of Philly sports has had it as bad as McNabb. He makes Richie Allen, Mike Schmidt and Jaws look like they had it easy.

The sub-standard level of people that this organization has put around him would have driven any other QB into free agency 5-6 years ago. He has tolerated this shit for years.

And yet he's treated like it's all his fault.

In large part, this is because the entire team's fate, for most of his career, has been placed entirely on his shoulders. So, when they do lose, it IS in fact his fault, because he couldn't perform at super-human levels.

You, your brother, and I are probably the biggest Donovan fans as they are. I think this is largely because we're down here, away from the daily noise. We are able to look at the situation from a distance. We're able to watch the disastrous situation that exists here in DC and gain some level of perspective about how special Donovan is.

Of the '97-09 era of QBs, only Brady, Manning and Favre can claim to be above Donovan. And those are 3 of the 10 greatest QBs of all time.