Andy Reid opened the bottle when he said Donovan McNabb was doing a great job of leading the football team.
That’s like opening Pandora’s box because that’s all opinion-based. Media members can make one guy a good leader and label another guy as a bad leader.
The whole leadership thing isn’t measureable. Anybody can say one guy is a good leader another guy is a bad leader for whatever reasons. It’s overrated.
I give you the Eagles. For over a decade the Eagles offense had been led by Donovan McNabb and their defense had been led by Brian Dawkins. Dawkins was labeled a great leader and McNabb was labeled a bad leader.
The media came to these conclusions based on interviews and asking other players. McNabb had the Terrell Owens issue whereas Dawkins never went through that type of ordeal.
The offense came up small in NFC Championship games and the defense came up small in NFC Championship games.
The offense didn’t make plays with the game on the line and the defense didn’t make plays with games on the line.
With this evidence how could one guy be a great leader another guy is a bad leader. All it’s based on is nonsense. McNabb didn’t make the plays when those games were on the line, but neither did Dawkins.
I think I saw a stat which said that the Eagles defense forced only 3 or 4 turnovers in those five NFC Championship games. That’s not championshp football regardless of what anybody is saying.
Personally I think the Eagles defense relied too much on the blitz to be dominant in championship games and the offense didn’t have enough weapons to be effective against championship level opponents.
And as far I’m concerned, the best leaders are guys who make plays, expecially plays which win championships.
I’ve heard that Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu is quiet but what a great leader he was last year in the AFC Championship when he picked off a pass late in the fourth quarter and ran it back in for a game deciding touchdown.
Speeches don’t mean anything if the guy talking isn’t making the plays needed to win the game.
Eagles wide receiver Jason Avant said, “Leadership is always going to be dictated more by what your actions are out on the field.”
Rookie running back LeSean McCoy spelled it out, “The biggest thing is probably what someone does, because anybody can say something. But can you actually go out there and perform it? Big difference.
