This is becoming a yearly tradition around here. Green Bay and now the Jets have the Brett Favre sweepstakes, we have the Donovan McNabb one. Every year we have poor QB play, which is in fact every year everybody is trying to find the best option and the spinning wheel always lands on McNabb. Despite the 5 NFC Championship games, the 1 Super Bowl and the fact that when he retires statistically he will rank high on the all-time QB lists, Philly hates the guy. Everybody wants to see him out of Philly, except they never do it. Maybe they think he has a poor attitude or maybe it is the freaky TD celebrations, but every year he is on his way out just to have him be pulled in once Philly realizes they have nobody better to replace him with.
So we are here again. This time the fire was fueled by a mid-season benching only to see him come back rejuvinated and lead his team on an unlikey playoff run. It seemed like they had worked out their differences and McNabb was back in the fold.
No so fast, says NFLN personality Deion Sanders. Now granted by reading this Sanders has not spoken to anybody, including McNabb, but he is insistant that McNabb's asking for a new contract is a ploy to get him out of Philly.
"I don't hate Philadelphia," Sanders said. "I never said anything derogatory about Philadelphia. What I said about Philadelphia is that Donovan McNabb wants to leave. I think it's a beautiful city, but it's also a city that cheered when Michael Irvin was injured. That's my thoughts about the athletic realm of Philadelphia. But I never said I hate the city. I think it's a beautiful city." If it's so beautiful, why does he think McNabb wants to leave? "Maybe it's because they booed him on draft day," Sanders said. "Maybe it's because they continuously doubt him when he's taken them to four [actually five] NFC championship games. Maybe it's because no matter what he does, it's never enough. Maybe that's the reason." McNabb has always publicly said that he wants to finish his career in Philadelphia, even though Sanders has said several times this season that the quarterback wants to leave the Eagles. "Donovan is a well-spoken, articulate man," Sanders said. "He does a great job representing himself professionally." But Sanders still thinks McNabb wants out. "I'm telling you what I know and not what I've heard," Sanders said before admitting that neither McNabb nor his mother, Wilma, have ever said to him that the quarterback wants to go elsewhere.
So it is the flimsiest of hopes, but if you were still hanging onto hope that the Bears could get McNabb, I just threw you a life line to hang on for a few more weeks.