What Philadelphia Eagles' Fans Won't Miss Following McNabb's Trade

On NFL draft day eleven years ago, Philadelphia's selection of Donovan McNabb was greeted with loud and lusty boos from Eagles fans in attendance at Radio City Music Hall. Thus began over a decade of a love/hate relationship that finally ended when McNabb's trade to the Washington Redskins was announced on April 4, 2010. (Maybe it hasn't really ended, since both teams play in the same NFL division; they're destined to meet at least once, probably twice, a season.) Philadelphia Eagles fans versus Donovan McNabb: they never truly had faith in their quarterback, and let it be known at games, in the media, at every opportunity given.

What will we fans NOT miss about Donovan McNabb?

1. The whining and finger-pointing. During a particularly horrendous two-game season ending against rival Dallas Cowboys during the latter part of 2009, McNabb placed the game's lopsided defeat in the hands of the team's more youthful players. "We were showing our youth", said McNabb - a statement that had a huge impact on the likes of DeSean Jackson. The fact that McNabb himself played incredibly poorly apparently didn't factor into the final score. Stop blaming others for your personal failures on the field, big man.

Resentment reared its head when McNabb complained about the injection of understudy QB Michael Vick into plays upon Vick's arrival in Philly. Really, Donovan? A few Vick plays 'broke the rhythm' of the game for you? This is a young man (hmmm... 'young' again) literally scrambling for his life and his career on the field, and you resent his presence? Was it the fact that your 'scramble' consisted mainly of lumbering down field like Frankenstein in an Eagles uni? There were just some things that Vick always did, and always will, do better than you. He's just a more athletic player overall.

2. His immaturity. I remember watching in horror a televised game that showed you coming out of the visitors' tunnel to the field. You were shuckin' and jiving; you were playing air guitar like an 18 year old brain-dead slacker kid. You threw yourself against the Plexiglass window separating the players from the fans in the tunnel, no doubt scaring the life (and more) out of those fans. You were once penalized for smack talking with Plaxico Burris in a Giants' game - the two of you, on opposing teams, were laughing and God knows what, and you got called for a delay of game. We watched you literally "mug" for the camera, both in photographs and pre and post game interviews, bugging out your eyes with a big, stupid grin. Don't recall seeing Tom Brady or the Manning brothers doing that, bro. Lose the big goofball move and show some class once in a while.

3. Vomit on the field in clutch moments, and I mean that literally and figuratively. McNabb famously lost his lunch during the fourth quarter of the only Super Bowl in which he played, as first reported by Terrell Owens and confirmed later by other players. First and goal? Mac choked far too many times when a game's outcome rested on his shoulders. He never won a championship in Philadelphia for at least this reason.

4. His lack of a presence in the community. McNabb lives in Moorestown, New Jersey, less than a mile from our own home, in a guarded, heavily wooded estate. His charitable work in the Phladelphia area consisted of his hosting a yearly Christmas party for underprivileged kids. I believe he also holds a free football camp for less fortunate kids in the Philly area as well. But that was it. He didn't associate himself by serving on the Board of any major Philadelphia charities, lending either his name or his time. But it was somewhat worse in southern Jersey. In all fairness, he and his wife recently opened the McNabb Family Neonatal Care facility, associated with Virtua Memorial Hospital; all four of McNabb's children were born at Virtua Hospital in Mount Holly, New Jersey. His twin son and daughter were prematurely born, and the McNabbs wanted to thank Virtua as an institution by providing them with a state of the art facility for premature babies.

While this is very, very commendable, McNabb literally did nothing for his home town. Asked numerous times, he did not lend his name or time to township events - its school district's annual Fair (its biggest fundraiser), parades, dedications, etc. His refusal to participate - and it was refusal - was very disheartening. The McNabbs wanted to live within the privacy of Moorestown, a small, Quaker-rooted town, but he didn't want to give back to the community that honored his respect for privacy. He was, quite honestly, a huge disappointment to Moorestown residents.

Not that he was seen all about town in Philly, either. He avoided media contact, instantly spurning reporters and news anchors and then wondering aloud why the media treated him harshly.

What will we miss about the Eagles former QB McNabb? Not much - there wasn't much of a relationship from the start...