I was at the news conference this morning at the Eagles Nova Care complex as Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb talked about the agreemnt to restructure the last two years of his contract.
They offered a lot of happy talk about how the Eagles loved McNabb and how McNabb loved the Eagles.
McNabb pointed at the next two years and what the Eagles focus will be, “I looked at it as the situation that these two years are very important. With the type of thing that we have, I think it’s important that we focused in on what we have to do in order to achieve that common goal, and that’s obviously to win a Super Bowl.”
Reid seemed like he kind of enjoyed not being the focus of the questioning. Here's part of his explanation for the restructuring.
“I think really in a nutshell here, both sides wanted to get something done. We thought it needed to be done. Donovan warranted this. There are very few players or situations where a player is far enough along in his career, and then his contract where he warrants something like this. We felt Donovan was in that situation. And then, really, what goes on in the NFL over the next couple of years here, that’s an unknown right now
There were a few questions about the benching last year.
Then Eagles president Joe Banner was asked about the signing and used the phraase the fair thing to do."
"It was appropriate to make some adjustments so that he was rewarded commensurate with the way he plays," Banner said. "At the risk of saying something very counterintuitive, it was the fair thing to do. We do try to be fair with the guys. In this situation, we felt if we didn't make an adjustment in light of where he was at in the timing of the contract, it wouldn't be fair. That motivated us. He obviously had similar motivations and it worked out."
Banner also said that he doesn't forsee them talking again about extending his deal until the end of the season in 2010.
Owner Jeffrey Lurie, who was outside playing with the Eagles' front office baseball team in a tournament, said he was thrilled about the deal because of the all the contributions McNabb has made to the football team.
Everybody has what they want now. McNabb has his money and the Birds have their quarterback.
