Remember the Good Old Days Donovan

I'm confused by what is going on in Philadelphia between J. Whyatt Mondesire (is there a more pompous name this side of J.D. Rockefeller?) head of the local NAACP and Donovan McNabb.

Maybe I'm too white to understand this but I thought the NAACP was supposed to support blacks not call them out as mediocre AND racially improper. This whole thing seems totally counterintuitive.

First off all, why now? McNabb has been out for over a month and the Super Bowl in which Mondesire is alledging that he choked was almost a year ago. What has he been sitting in the NAACP offices everyday stewing on this until he finally decided that he couldn't take it anymore and needed to make a statement? McNabb is done for the year and this Eagles' season is over, was it that slow of a news day in Mondesire's publication and he needed something to boost readership or is he just an idiot?

Secondly, did Mondesire watch the Super Bowl? Has he watched any Eagles games over the last 5 seasons? The Patriots won the Super Bowl last year, Donovan McNabb did not choke it away. Period. Anyone who watched the game could have told you that. If he was sick in the huddle on the last drive that tells me something about the effort he had already put out, and if he was not ill there is no guarantee that the Eagles score anyway. The Patriots would likely not have allowed that game to slip away, sick McNabb or not. Furthermore, Philadelphia never would have reached that position without him, nor would they have reached the previous 3 NFC Championship games. He was the best player on one of the best teams in the conference for 4 consecutive years, what more do you want from him? If that is a failure as a leader I'll take failure every year if I'm an Eagles fan.

Third, how can Mondesire honestly look at the Terrell Owens situation and blame anyone but the perpetrator himself? He contends that the problem could have been resolved if McNabb, "had the courage to offer only a tiny fraction," of his contract bonus to make T.O. and Brian Westbrook happy. Clearly this is Mondesire's first foray into the field of sports. Why should McNabb give up a part of his contract, a deal to which he is abiding, to help placate a blowhart millionaire who is unwilling to abide by his own lucrative deal? The idea that McNabb's unwillingness to pay Owens out of his own pocket contributed to the ultimate suspension etc. is absolutely preposterous and unfair. If that holds water you have to hold all of the 52 other players on the roster accountable in the same way. Blame T.O. for signing a bad contract, blame him for mouthing off in the press about team leaders, heck even blame the media for making it more of a circus, but don't under any circumstances try to blame a player on the team for not ponying up his own millions to a guy that has criticized him from day one. I hope that J. Whyatt isn't holding his breath for that type of behavior around the league, because it certainly is not happening.

Finally, I think the most ridiculous aspect of this story is the idea that by not scrambling as much McNabb has hurt to cause of black athletes. Is he serious? So by that token Byron Leftwich, who moves about as well as Dan Marino, must have set the cause of black athletes back 100 years, right? Quarterbacks get older and as such they realize that scrambling around gives huge 400 pound defensive linemen much more opportunity to try to plant them into the ground than passing from the pocket. That may be hard for Mondesire to understand because the only pocket he is likely familiar with rests on the laurel of his smoking jacket but if he were to follow the careers of some of the greatest running quarterbacks he would see that trend in all of them, black or white. Steve McNair, once a great running quarterback, now passes mostly from the pocket after not being able to practice for the better part of 2 seasons due to hits taken while scrambling around. Steve Young, Brett Favre, Joe Montana, all the same story, runners in the beginning of their careers that turned into pocket passers as their games developed.

Having a quarterback that can run is a weapon, but if I am an Eagles fan (and I am NOT) I do not want McNabb running all over the place. Why? Because very few quarterback runs are designed plays, most of the time when a QB takes off it is because the play did not develop downfield or the protection broke down early. Does any logical fan want a large percentage of their plays to break down and rely on the improvisational skills of your quarterback? Absolutely not.

As for the racial idea in his criticism shouldn't Mondesire want McNabb to be judged on an equal scale with all quarterbacks of all races? It seems completely against the idea of the NAACP for McNabb to be held to a different standard based on different criteria. He says that McNabb's lack of running later in his career belittles the struggles of black athletes who have had to endure "sterotypcasting" (which I'm pretty sure is redundant). But the idea that McNabb should run simply because he is a black quarterback is inherently "typcasting" or "stereotyping" him into a mold that is not best for the team or best for his game at this stage of his career. Playing within a system that is best for his team's success and his health and productivity makes perfect sense and in my mind cannot be construed as belittling to anyone.

I think on some level I just do not understand Mondesire's argument. He claims that McNabb cited the idea that black quarterbacks should run as a reason that he no longer scrambles as much. There is no way that is accurate. Even though I am no fan of McNabb he is without a doubt a fierce competitor as is his coach Andy Reid. If either of them, who know infinitely more about football than Mondesire, thought that having McNabb run the ball more would help the Eagles win you can rest assured that he would. To suggest that it is some type of racial coup by McNabb to stop running is totally ridiculous and frankly shows a lack of sports intelligence that should preclude Mondesire from publishing his musings on the subject in a public forum. The Eagles under McNabb and the current management have had enough success to be beyond this type of reproach from ignorant, agenda laden, and misinformed critics, regardless of their stature within their own organization, be it the NAACP or any other.

There are those that would criticize McNabb's play and sadly in this country there are still those that would criticize his race but those criticisms cannot be piggy-backed together. In fact, the only thing racist about this argument is the fact that Mondesire tried to tie the two together. Any correlation between expected athletic performance and race is discrimination against the athlete regardless of who we are talking about. You would think that the head of an organization charged to fight against discrimination against blacks in all forms would know better and would be able to see the larger picture in what he was saying.

But hey, what can you expect, the man does work for a group that still contains the word "colored" in the name?