New depths have been reached, new heights have been attained. Whichever way you choose to view it, the Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb saga is now almost completely out of control. Up until last week, Donovan handled the situation with class. He used the proverbial turn the other cheek method, which angered a lot of the fan base, but still he showed his ability to smile through it all. These particular actions however resulted in the general public viewing him as some sort of sissy because he wouldn’t “stand up” to T.O.. The question that needs to be asked is, what exactly did you want Donovan to do? Attack Owens in the locker room, stuff him in a locker, yell and scream at him in the huddle? As a whole, people just wanted to hear what Donovan felt deep down. In Philadelphia, we like to see the hearts of our athletes. We relish when one of our superstars opens up to the media and subsequently to us. That is just not McNabb’s style. He is the so-called good son, who says all the right things most of the time. So when the brash Owens brought the fans into the mix by spouting off to the media, now all of a sudden we were right there, part of the team, inside the film room, inside the huddle. Our open door to the team was then abruptly closed by Andy Reid and Donovan himself with their typically mundane politically correct answers.
That drove the fan base up a wall. We wanted our quarterback to speak, say something of interest, anything. We wanted was to say how he felt when those poison words came spewing out of Owens mouth. Like the old adage says, be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it. Boy did we get it, in the worst way possible.
In an interview with ESPN’s Michael Smith, Donovan referred to the comments made by Mr. Owens as black on black crime. When the interview aired and the fans of Philadelphia heard those words for the first time, you could hear the collective groan within a hundred mile radius of the city. Our good guy, one of the pillars of our city, just made a monumental mistake on national television. Without a doubt, everyone watching went through the same rollercoaster of emotions in the moments following. First was disbelief, saying “No, he didn’t say that.” Next was denial, “It was the TV, had to be a glitch in the cable.” Finally we came to the realization, “Oh boy, he really did.” Once the words were out of his mouth, the onslaught began.
Comments like “baby” and “whiner” were spewed all over talk radio air waves and filled up newspaper columns. Terrell Owens went after McNabb in a very public and malicious manner, and it was done to further one very greedy point, that he deserves more money. As horrible as T.O’s comments and actions were, it still in no way should be even mentioned in the same breath as the escalading violence that is taking place in the inner-cities.
Sorry Donovan, this is not going to go away with time.
There is only one way to mend fences here in Philly. It’s simple, just win baby! The damage is done. Arguably the best receiver and worst individual in football is now gone as well. All is not lost for our much maligned quarterback.
What Donovan needs to do is put Owens in his rearview mirror and watch him fade into the sunset. McNabb’s arm is going to lead us to the promise land, so give him another receiver, a running attack and 4 seconds in the pocket and we are back going deep into the playoffs.