Ala Got: Donovan McNabb Coverage Update

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Donovan McNabb Coverage Update

PHILADELPHIA - DECEMBER 30: Donovan McNabb #5...

Thanks to Iggless Blog

Donovan McNabb Trade-A-Palooza Meta-Coverage Update

It has only been five days since the Eagles publicly and officially indicated that they would be entertaining offers for all three of the quarterbacks on their roster. If you're reading this web site, it probably feels like a lot longer, in that time seems to slow down a bit when you're frantically hammering the F5 key in the hopes of another twist/ update/ tidbit.

With the absence of fresh information this evening, it seems as good a time as any to offer a first review of the media narrative to date. What I've noticed:

Seriously, you should see this, it's hilarious. For a few days, the operative phrase in re: the Eagles quarterback situation was that the Birds were "entertaining" offers. Still, if we're nitpicking, we might note that the original story has the quote as, "People are entertaining us with offers," which actually conjures up images of Andy Reid, Joe Banner and Howie Roseman crowding around a laptop and guffawing at inbound e-mails from the Buffalo Bills. Minor point.

Speaking of the initial story. So Ashley Fox gets the first big scoop of the Donovan McNabb trade situation. Obviously, the leak was as deliberate as could be, and the Inquirer is the biggest paper in town, but, um, I can't imagine the rest of the Eagles media were thrilled that the Birds chose to whisper to Fox. If you're going to talk to the Inquirer, at least give the beat guy a fighting shot at this. If you don't, he might leave his story about a purported trade to the Rams being "not yet completed" up on his blog for like four days or something (we kid!). Still, spurning the national sports media and keeping this local was the right thing to do -- take that, Sal Pal! I imagine Howard Eskin's and Derek Gunn's feelings were also bruised, much less those of the Daily News crew.

The junior high part of the meta-narrative. As we all well know, you can't have Donovan McNabb controversy without a precise accounting of exactly when and how Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid have spoken to each other. Initial reports indicated that they hadn't spoken in months, plural, which is actually difficult given the constraints of the previous NFL season and my understanding of the space-time continuum operating here in this dimension. By Friday, we'd been assured that they had spoken in the previous day, ostensibly by telephone or mobile telephone, and not by text, e-mail, instant-message, Skype video call or Tweet. THANK THE LAWD. I just hope they can remain BFF when this thing is all done.

Yeah, well, the tickets were non-refundable since I bought them with miles, so, you know, I couldn't really cancel. I thought the revelation that Joe Banner and Andy Reid were both taking vacations this week was particularly charming. So wait, you make a point of leaking that the Donovan McNabb Lemonade Stand is open for business on Wednesday when you know you're going to be out of the office three days later? This is all just a signal that we amongst the paying customers should maybe ratchet back our expectations of when this will be resolved, isn't it.

Hey wait, who let that guy in? Let's just say that I find this Donovan McNabb thing stressful enough without this fella showing up and demanding attention. Couldn't the national media just let us wallow in this on our own without bringing Him into it?

Second-most publicly candid Eagle of the 00s speaks. Definitely check out the podcast Jon Runyan's interview with Vai and Gonzo (?) on 97.5 from Thursday. Big Jon manages to make a lot of sense even as he resists the urge to say anything too controversial. He politely takes the anti-Screamin' A position regarding the Eagles' treatment of Donovan McNabb. Essentially, Runyan makes a point of noting that pretty much everyone ends up changing teams eventually, even guys like Jon Runyan, Brian Dawkins, and Donovan McNabb. He also manages to decline an invitation to accuse the Eagles of treating Donovan McNabb differently than the rest of the players on the team (as there used to be rumblings that Dunavin was a bit of a teacher's pet inside the locker room); instead, he simply says that quarterbacks are treated differently on every team, because the demands on the quarterback are just that much different than the demands on other players (with media responsibilities, being the face of the franchise, etc). Well worth a listen, though you can probably turn it off once he starts to explain why he's decided to run for Congress (in that this part of the interview doesn't have anything to do with Donovan McNabb).

And then what of the most publicly candid Eagle of the 00s? So his name is dangling out there as a subject of trade inquiries, he still hasn't received a raise, and not a peep from Sheldon Brown? Even if he won't sound off about the McNabb situation, I'd at least like to hear what he thinks of the Great Roster Purge Of 2010. Who amongst the real media is going to get Sheldon on the phone this week?