Rich Hofmann: McNabb's Eagles era has a surprise ending

AND SO, THE career of Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia, always so fraught with contention, ends with one final helping. It is the perfect circle of controversy.

McNabb is the most accomplished quarterback in the modern history of the franchise, but he failed to accomplish the one thing that everyone wanted the most. He thrilled people with his powerful arm and legs and he frustrated them with his inaccuracy. He once played a game on a broken ankle and completed a pass on fourth-and-26, but he also lost four NFC Championship Games, three as the favorite. He simultaneously won a lot of football games and divided a fanatical football city, and he always did.

That will always be his legacy - of unfulfilled excellence; of a series of fantastic voyages that always ended on the shoals.

That will always be his story, such a mixed story - of impeccable personal character; of widespread national commercial appeal; of a local fan base that always saw him as lacking in leadership and charisma.

A long and complex tale, then. (Tolstoy should have been the beat guy.) And now, a final twist. Rather than box him up and ship him several time zones away into the AFC - out of sight, out of mind, and it's been great knowing you - the Eagles, instead, traded the face of their franchise within the division, to the Washington Redskins, to a place where they will be looking at that same face twice a year.

They made their lives more complicated. They made the job of new quarterback Kevin Kolb more difficult. After cultivating over the years, justifiably or not, an image of heartless adherence to the facts and the film, they said last night that they did their best to send McNabb to a place that he wanted to go. On the way out the door, McNabb's feelings mattered.

"We thought that it was best for Don and, at the same time, the compensation was right for us," Eagles coach Andy Reid said, at the proverbial hastily called press conference. "We sure took into consideration Don's feelings."

The vibe at the NovaCare

Complex was that the Eagles turned down at least marginally better compensation offers than the Redskins presented - their second-round pick in the 2010 draft (the 37th pick overall) and a fourth-round pick in 2011 that could become a third-round pick based upon certain contingencies related to McNabb's success and the Redskins' success - because they were from places that McNabb preferred not to go.