That began his "Woe is Donovan" routine, and things have not improved in the decade since.
McNabb could have mocked himself - that would have doused the spark that had kindled into an inferno of controversy.
Instead, he again left us wondering whether he knows the difference between a can of gasoline and a bucket of water.
"Laugh at myself? No," McNabb said, when asked whether he was bothered by the way he has been ridiculed since revealing he didn't know an NFL game could end in a tie after Sunday's 13-13 draw with Cincinnati. "This is 10 years for me. I've been through the down days, the down weeks. I've been through the highs. So I don't let anything like this affect me in any way."
It was the classic, poor-old-Donovan routine.
It was McNabb again hinting that a mess of his own making was instead his detractors taking opportunistic potshots at him.
I'd hoped he wouldn't go down that road, but it didn't shock me, once he did.
What was a surprise was McNabb's putting on a layer of martyrdom for being ridiculed as clueless for the previous 3 days. Here was a whopper of positive spin to one of the most embarrassing gaffes in recent sports history.
It was McNabb's burden to suffer the slings and arrows of self-inflicted outrageous fortune so that his NFL brethren could become enlightened.
"The thing about it is that now other people are saying they didn't know it either," McNabb said. "Am I wrong for that? No. Should I have known the rule? There are a lot of coaches, officials, players that don't know.
"I think 100 percent of everybody in the league knows now. I'm kind of a trendsetter. I've kind of set a trend."
Whatever, a trend of expressed ignorance is not something I'd necessarily be proud of, but whatever floats McNabb's boat.
