Super Bowl huddle, to have publicly pouted on the sideline during a loss against Pittsburgh that year.
He's a good soldier one minute, the lone gunman hiding in the grassy knoll the next - issuing messages through camouflage, which is apparently what is happening this week.
Get me free-agent help or trade me. Did he issue an ultimatum, as a source told ESPN this week? A source that some believe was his agent, Fletcher Smith?
He won't tell. Smith won't tell. That alone is so infantile for a 10-year pro who some have argued is building a resume worthy of the Hall of Fame. The suggestion is now out there, though: McNabb won't sign an extension to an Eagles contract that has 2 years remaining until he sees what weapons the Eagles, with all their cap room, present him with.
It's aggravating the way he does things. It makes it hard to side with him, even when you want to. He should get weapons - most Eagles fans seem to agree on that. He should know what he will have to work with if he's going to sign an extension and spend the rest of his career as the team's quarterback.
In some ways, he reminds me of my days covering Mike Tyson. The big difference is that Tyson wanted you to ultimately hate him, because he hated himself. He went out of his way to push away even those with altruistic motives, went out of his way to be, ultimately, alone.
McNabb wants to be loved, no question. And there is a lot there to admire. His stubborn insistence to remain a quarterback as people at each level tried to change that. His pain tolerance, his philanthropy and the class he has displayed during the embittering episodes involving draft day, Terrell Owens and Rush Limbaugh. But, man, does he make it hard to root for him. Man, does he make it hard to see him as a good guy, even when there's a body of evidence out there - his charity work, his husbandry - that suggests that he really, truly is.
