If the Eagles run the table here, even if they become the first team to ever miss the playoffs at 10-5-1, I don't see how Joe Banner and Andy Reid can comfortably make that switch. Equally relevant, though, is McNabb's thinking on the subject.
A lot of people were surprised at the end of last season, when McNabb spoke so fervently of wanting to continue to play in a city that he very much believes has treated him unfairly. The benching and its attendant hoopla has brought those lack-of-appreciation feelings to the surface. After the Arizona game and again Monday night, McNabb made pointed comments to network postgame shows. On Thanksgiving, among other things, he spoke of needing to have a postseason conversation with Eagles management. Monday night, again egged on by postgame panelists' declarations of his greatness and the lack of due respect he has received in Philadelphia, McNabb went all Joni Mitchell on us.
"When you've been in one place for 10 years, people get tired of seeing you and they say they want something new," McNabb said, after Steve Young burbled that McNabb could play another 10 years, at age 32. "Until you're gone, they don't realize what they have."
McNabb also talked about his continuing unhappiness over the decision to bench him - despite clear evidence from teammates' words and their performances that benching the franchise quarterback galvanized the team. McNabb asked, "Why use me as a scapegoat?"
Because you're getting paid to be the face of the Eagles, and you'd just turned the ball over seven times in seven quarters while playing the worst back-to-back games of your life?
