Doesn’t Donovan McNabb play for the Washington Redskins now?¬† You would never know if you check out Philly newspapers and websites.¬† All the talk is about McNabb and his former Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson.
As I said yesterday that anything that involves McNabb is turned into a controversy which sells newspapers, interests readers and gives all of us something to write about and that’s the case here.
This is a manufactured controversy.¬† It’s really nothing about nothing.
John Gonzalez of Philly.com writes, “There are ways to answer questions that prevent you from adding to the attendant drama and keep you from becoming part of the story”.
This isn’t true if you’re talking about McNabb.¬† The truth is we would hear about it, if McNabb were to say nothing.¬† If he walked in, looked at the camera and walked away.¬† We would hear about it in detail.
I heard the word “feud” used in talking about McNabb and Jackson.¬† You’ve got to be kidding me.
There’s nothing much happening with the Eagles, but there are plenty of controversies involving members of the National Football League. Yes controversies and I’m talking about real controversies.
We’ve got a Super Bowl winning coaching staff like that of the New Orleans Saints, their head coach Sean Payton and assistant coach Joe Vitt being sued for covering up prescription drug thefts at club headquarters.¬† Reportedly there’s video tape of Vitt stealing prescription drugs out of the team’s training room.
We’ve got award winning players in the league like Brian Cushing, who was voted NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, failing drug tests. He’s now taking a lie detector test.
We’ve got current star players like Ben Roethlisberger, who helped Pittsburgh win two Super Bowls, raping women or being constantly accused of it.¬† S.I. just ran a story about him that shows us why his picture should be in the dictionary next to “scumbag”.
We’ve got former players and future Hall of Famers like Marvin Harrison shooting people or some how his gun went some where on its own and shot somebody. This happened right here in Philadelphia.
We’ve got other star players, like Plaxico Burress, who helped the Giants win a Super Bowl, shooting themselves and going to jail for it. There are reports that he got caught in a falsehood which cost him some liberties while in jail.
We’ve got current players who was tried for double murder like Ray Lewis, who helped Baltimore win a Super Bowl, having streets named after them.¬† Nobody has ever been found guilty of the double murder that took place that night at the nightclub.
We’ve got a player on the Eagles in Michael Vick, who was the number one pick in the draft, caught running an interstate dog-fighting operation and just got out of prison.
You’ve got all this going on yet every time McNabb opens his mouth and says nothing, a big deal is made out of it.
Many times all this nonsense concerning nothing is made to seem like it’s a big of a deal and some of these serious controversies concerning other NFL players and coaches.
If you read Jackson’s comments in their entirety, you see that Jackson went out of his way not to say anything critical of McNabb. McNabb didn’t go after Jackson in his response, so this is nothing.
An Associated Press reporter went to McNabb and asked him to respond to comments by Jackson, but they didn’t given him the entirety of the comments.¬† You and I know that.
“I don’t think we lost anything, even with McNabb being gone,” Jackson said. “It was nothing against Mr. McNabb. . . . It’s just that I’m very confident in what we have here now, with Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick. Basically, I was just very happy with the decision that was made.”
I’m sure that the phrase “It was nothing against Mr. McNabb” wasn’t relayed to Donovan.
This isn’t a real controversy but it’s made one because you’ve got editors throughout the area demanding that writers come up with something that for readers to read.
Going forward though McNabb should refrain from commenting on what somebody else said until he either reads everything they said or talks to the person who said it.
This is more nonsense.  As Philly.com put it yesterday, “The manufactured controversies between Donovan McNabb and his former teammates will quickly get old.”
It obviously hasn’t gotten old yet.
Do you agree with me or do you think this is a controversy?
G, I agree. I think until the day McNabb dies, we are going to constantly have to hear his name brought up in controversies and wannabe stories like this one. I feel bad that the poor guy can’t just stay out of the headlines. Sounds like this story was all taken out of context.
btc, I agree. I don’t think Desean meant any harm in what he said and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what he said. I just hope Desean learns soon that the media in this town will create something out of nothing and keep it going. I just want Desean to be quiet for his own good and the teams good. I mean he could create a QB controversy next year if he implies in anyway that the team should use Vick more or whatever. Who knows. The media is cynical and they are using him to sell papers. I just want him to play football and just talk about your team as it is and how you are excited and leave it at that. They will use him and when he’s gone, they’ll find someone else.
and who said that “Manufacturing” is a dying industry in this Country….
It is alive and well in Philadelphia…
Uh…no, now I don’t think it has to be made as big a deal as it is being made, but Jackson saying that they aren’t missing ANYTHING when there’s now a starting QB with virtually no experience and no arm to utilize the most dangerous deep threat player in the league? That really can’t be viewed as anything but a swipe at the long list of accomplishments and the illustrious career Mr. McNabb had as a Philadelphia Eagle.
Maybe this will be a lesson for DeSean and the rest of the young guys on the team not to talk to the media at all unless they absolutely have and in that case keep it as boring and banal as possible. I don’t care about what they say at all only what they do on the field so if this will annoy the reporters, the talk show hosts, and the ‘fans’ that actually believe this stuff means anything then all the better.
forgive me if i’m wrong, but i think it was this website, just a few days ago where i first heard about this story… and you were saying that desean needs to keep his mouth shut… did i step into the twilight zone or something?? how can you point the finger at the “media” now for doing the same thing?? did you not read the full article either? i’m very confused right now.. i’ll have to go back and check, maybe it was one of the other writers on your staff..
Can’t stand the “he says”/”they said” stuff… it’s gossip and pure yellow journalism. Why even bring it up, Garry? Let it die. All those players involved in nasty off-the-field stuff will be held accountable by the heavenly Judge, not mere earthly judicial systems. We just need to keep our mouths (and pens) off those players.