Brian Westbrook said the season was on a virtual cliff when McNabb was benched in the Baltimore game.
It was at this point when Donovan McNabb showed tremendous character as a person.
You remember the situation. The Eagles were coming off of a game in which they had tied the hapless Bengals. McNabb and the offense had played poorly against Cincinnati. They had abandoned the run and were struggling again against the Ravens.
The Eagles were only trailing by three points in a 10-7 game. Their only score had come on a kickoff return for a touchdown by rookie safety Quinton Demps.
Nobody had any idea of what head coach Andy Reid was contemplating when they were leaving the field at halftime. He told his quarterback coach Pat Shurmur to let franchise quarterback McNabb know that he wasn't starting the second half because he was inserting second-year quarterback Kevin Kolb as the starter.
McNabb was stunned and angry. Here this team was trailing by three points and he was being sat down. He hadn't played well in the first half but noboy on the offensive side of the ball had.
He could have argued that right tackle Jon Runyan was at fault for a costly fumble McNabb had made.
One of the interceptions he had thrown was a deep throw to rookie DeSean Jackson and the kid didn't really fight hard enough to prevent the pick. McNabb could have gone off to the media after the game.
The media and I'm included was ready for it. We would have feasted on it. This team and this regime would have gone up in flames.
When asked his reaction to the benching McNabb said,“My first (reaction) was, ‘Wow.’ But you go along with it. I am upset about us losing the game, and I’m upset that I wasn’t able to contribute. But I am going to focus on trying to help this team get better by eliminating mistakes and turnovers.”
When asked about his reaction to who Reid would name as the team's starting quarterback on Monday, McNabb said,“That will be a decision he will make. The thing I will do is I will continue to prepare as if I am the starter. I’ve been a part of this thing for 10 years. You have to have short-term memory in this league, be able to focus on who you’re playing and be able to move on.”
On this past Monday night on his radio show, Westbrook talked about the 24 hours between when Reid benched McNabb and the next day when he named him his starting quarterback for the Arizona game.
"If Donovan had come out and made a big stink about it and argued and gone back and forth with Coach Reid in the media, that would have made a big problem – and things probably wouldn't have ended the way that they have," Westbrook said.
"He handled it like the classy man that he's always been. He said what he had to say, but he moved on, and he continued to lead this football team. He didn't go into a shell. He didn't disrupt what we had going on. He did everything he could to bring this team to the next level."
Say what you will about Donovan McNabb, his biggest critics have to admit that he showed a lot of character in not blowing up this football team at that point. He had every right to question what Reid had done, especially when you consider how the game finished.
Remember the Eagles were trailing by three, 10-7, but wound up losing by 29, 36-7, which was their biggest loss of the year.
He could have very easily pointed the finger at Reid who had abandoned the running game on a windy day in Cincinnati. Give Five credit. This was Westbrook not McNabb himself saying this and you know he's telling the truth.
