Monday, September 24, 2007

Get out those erasers, haters ...

The Kevin Kolb era has officially been postponed. Check back in two years.

You may have heard in a prominent sports outlet or two that Donovan McNabb had a rough couple of games to start the season. I could list them -- two quick searches yielded a dozen browser tabs' worth -- but what's the point in pointing fingers? It would be revisionist and petty to recall the suggestions that his career was over at 30 because he can't run anymore, the hasty gravedancing from idiot homers writers who let a 2-0 record go to their head, the fact that he outplayed Our Lord and Savior Brett Favre in the first of those losses, the fact that he came a dropped pass away from coming back to tie the second. Two bad games, and scribes are prepping his obituaries. Two bad games, and half of Eagle Nation is calling for some scrub rookie out of Houston who will never be a regular starter in the NFL. All of which, naturally -- of course! -- was the same exact treatment a white quarterback in his situation would have gotten. How dare he suggest otherwise by answering a question HBO asked him during a long interview that was supposed to be about his career. In August.

Today he came out and put up this line:

21-26, 381 yds, 4 TD, 0 INT, 158.3 QB rating.

If you don't consider garbage time, he was 21-23. At one point he completed 19 consecutive passes. Andy Reid decided to run the ball 50 percent of the time, and all of a sudden play-action worked and the line could protect him. The Eagles demolished a 2-0 NFC team and put up the most points they've scored since those heinous blue-and-yellow jerseys weren't throwbacks.

Imagine that.

Not too shabby for a guy nine months removed from major reconstructive knee surgery. A guy who's supposedly so inaccurate, despite those 19 straight today, and despite holding the NFL record for the most consecutive passes completed. A guy whose days in green and white (or yellow and blue, as the case may be) are supposedly numbered.

So enough already. Stop the booing, Philly. Stop the gravedancing and race-baiting, sports media. Everybody stop mentioning Jeff Garcia, and for the love of all that's holy, let's shut the fuck up about that alliterative nobody, Kevin Kolb. If you run the ball a decent amount and give him adequate protection, Donovan McNabb will consistently be one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He's proven that for years, and nothing is any different now.

I don't want to hear this same overblown shit every time he has a couple of bad games, because you know what? That treatment really doesn't happen to white quarterbacks. Our Fearless Leader Brett Favre was the 7th- and 4th-worst quarterback, statistically, in the last two respective seasons. That's not two bad games -- that's two horrible seasons. And yet he wins three games and not only is all forgiven, he's somehow a "dynamic force" and -- unlike the 30-year-old McNabb, whose career is over if he can't run, but Simmons didn't mean that in a racial way, of course -- is also ageless. You hear all about his tying Marino for the all-time touchdown record, and nothing about the fact that he's also, oh, two picks away from the all-time INT record. Maybe instead of daring to mention obvious racial issues, McNabb should have just gotten hooked on Vicodin. Then all would be forgiven, since white and black quarterbacks are treated exactly the same.

The Eagles still might not make the playoffs. It's anybody's guess which Andy Reid will show up on any given week, or which Kevin Curtis, for that matter. But one thing should be abundantly clear at this point: McNabb doesn't just give them their best shot at the playoffs and an eventual Lombardi -- he gives them their only shot.

I've got a whole lot more on this McNabb/race thing -- especially as it relates to fans, as opposed to the media -- but that'll have to wait for another post.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sleazy and McFatty, kissing in the tree...

So congrats on beating the Lions. I guess it shows where your season is when you get that excited over a win against the Lions. They're not the unstoppable force that is, let's the say, the 0-3 Rams, who you picked to win the West, but I guess it's a start.

Btw, you need to stop fantasizing about the Lombardi trophy. Unless bin Laden crashes something into the Pats sports complex, this fucking season is over. I guess it just goes to show how good a team can be when they get a dominant wr and know how to use him.

D. Suave

Anonymous said...

I certainly appreciated Donny Mac's 35 fantasy points this week. I can't shake the feeling, though, that if he were a white quarterback, the same results would have earned him 50.
Damned racist computers.

Oh, and someone should tell the Jets, Giants, Bears, and Cardinals fans that white quarterbacks are immune to criticism, jeez! I'll just post a memo on Horrible White Racism Weekly.

You're welcome.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, C, because Matt Leinart, Eli Manning, Rex Grossman, and Chad Pennington are the same caliber as McNabb. They're all five-time Pro Bowlers and future Hall of Famers.

Nice take.

Anonymous said...

Jesus, Sleazy, can you come up with some smack worth posting? "McFatty"? You sound like a Giants fan.

You're right, I was probably wrong about the Rams winning the west. My 49ers are clearly the class of that division.

b said...

What racist attitude towards black quarterbacks?

Charlie Batch was a god in Detroit!

Glad the Lions could soothe you in difficult times, Pepe, just like ND did for mine last week. I'd be more upset except for the fact that I watched the Lions-Vikes game last week and couldn't have been less surprised at the outcome this week.