This is our second annual "Top Ten Philly Sports Moments of the year." You can find last year's list here. We will roll out a new moment each day (one over the weekend) from now until New Year's Eve.
For 11 seasons, Donovan McNabb was the face of the Eagles franchise.
Love him or hate him, overrated or underrated, McNabb symbolized a decade of football in Philadelphia. He was the centerpiece on a team that went to five conference championship games and one Super Bowl. Unfortunately for McNabb, that Super Bowl and four of the five NFC Championship games were failures. We could go on and on talking about the dichotomy of number five, but we'll leave it at this: He was the quarterback for a decade of winning football in Philadelphia, and his trade within the division, while still under contract, came as a shock to all.
It also ushered in an entirely new era (one that would be led by Kevin Kolb Michael Vick) and paved the way for the rest of this top ten (oh, tease!).
Rest of the Top Ten here. As always, leave your memories of this moment in the comments.
I always liked McNabb and thought that he got too much grief. I have to say though that the trade (who it was to, mainly) and subsequent results on both sides speak for themselves. While he is obviously the best QB we have ever had, the time since he has been away from the organization takes away from what he accomplished whether you like it or not. It also speaks to how great Andy Reid is at developing QB talent.
I’ll never forget this one b/c it was on my 30th birthday and I was in DC for the Opening Day of the Phillies season. In a DC bar, drunk on Sangria, I learned that #5 was gone.
Classic!
God I love my city
Greatest QB in Eagles history so far. I hope some day he gets his due in Philly.
If he had just played better in those title games, everything might have been different. We’ll never know.
I do know that if we are all going to love Randall & walk around sporting old #12 jerseys, then #5 ought to be worn a lot around Philly in years to come.
I don’t think Philly appreciates when one of their ex players gets mistreated. I think if he comes back to Philly at some point he will get a huge ovation.
Also, I wonder if this would be a top ten moment if Vick hadn’t turned out so good. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to remember it.
The Top Ten is meant as more of a “biggest” moments. Not the best per say. On an impact scale, this gets up there
yeah true true, was just wondering.
I remember thinking when it was revealed that Reid was taking offers on ALL 3 QB’s, that Donnie Mac was as good as GONE. In his early career (Pre-T.O.), I was one that used the excuse, “He has no weapons”. I think the TO saga really showed his (lack of) REAL “leadership”. When Hugh Douglas is finally the one to step up and take on TO in a locker-room spat…it showed that #5 could not step up to a challenge, much like his game when things were not going his way – he would seemingly just give up. Then when he threw the Eagles’ “youth” under the bus after the two losses to the Cowboys, I knew he could not lead this team rebuilt with young players. HE was the one that skipped his first throw of the second game two yards in front of a wide-open DJack, setting a negative tone.
I think it’s been proven that McNabb thinks higher of himself than he ought to, as he can’t co-exist on a team with a ‘weapon’ that has as big of an ego as him. Or that he could use that excuse -”I have no weapons”, or they are “still young” when he fails. With McNabb it has ALWAYS been someone else’s fault, someone OTHER than himself. And those of us in or from Philly (as I) trashed him, we rightfully did so. Reid took him and got everything out of Five that he could and made him the All-Pro that he was, but McNabb never had the nuts to step up to any of the challenges or tough times in front of him….Good Riddance and thank God for Vick (who learned HOW to be a GREAT leader from his failures and adversity….)
Um…like the style of your writing.*_*