Although he's been talked about like a dog in the paper and on the radio, and been betrayed by the Eagles, Donovan McNabb has always refused to stab people in the back
and go on verbal tirades. He will continue to do that, but yesterday was the first time he publicly called the Eagles on their back handed public relations methods. Due to the Eagles deceptive procedures, there's no question that the relationship between McNabb and Andy Reid is strained.
First of all, you could hear yesterday that McNabb didn't appreciate the fact that the Eagles refused to use their first round pick to get some help for him and the team for the upcoming season. It wasn't that the Eagles drafted a quarterback with their first pick, because McNabb was already aware that they were going to draft Kolb. The shock was the fact that they took him with their first pick. Of course Andy Reid jumped on the phone and called McNabb to cover over the situation but Donovan refused to play along. How could Andy Reid have the nerve to say the Eagles are so solid and so deep, that they couldn't find a player to help them in the first round? Before it's over Andy could come to regret saying that.
So let's get back to the relationship between McNabb and the team. During the time since the draft, the team tried to say quietly behind the scenes, that they wanted Donovan to speak, but he was reluctant. The truth is, he was ready to speak all along. Why would the Eagles lie about something like that? This is the first degree of seperation. When the Eagles get ready to rid themselves of a player they send out their media representatives and start bad mouthing that player. They have started that process with McNabb.
Donovan made it a point in the interview to let everybody know that he didn't appreciate somebody with the Eagles leaking his conversations with Andy to 610-WIP's Howard Eskin. Only Andy Reid and Donovan were in the conversation a couple of days after the draft, but it was public knowledge about 40 minutes after they talked. Most of the local media believe it was either Andy or Joe Banner who leaked the information to Eskin. Up until now, the Eagles have controlled when McNabb speaks. At the same time they've been able to leak information when they want to, which presents the organization in the best light. Now no longer are they going to be able to control when McNabb talks and what he talks about. This is a very significant step in the seperation process.
Now the Eagles with their new young quarterback, Kevin Kolb, have a seperate agenda from McNabb, and he has his own seperate agenda from them. Yesterday was the first public step of that seperation.
