The 2007 Offseason Thread

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

That article said a whole lot of nothing we didn't already know.

[Rome]

Hmmm... don't know what to make of this:

Is McNabb a Man of the People?

by Andy Schwartz
ComcastSportsNet.com

PHOENIXVILLE, Pa. – In Jeff Garcia's eight games as quarterback, the Eagles learned the value of a balanced offense. In Jeff Garcia's eight games as quarterback, Donovan McNabb learned something too.

McNabb won't be altering what he does on the field. Instead, he appears to be trying to change his image off it. Garcia quickly became a fan favorite not only because of his play but also because of his personality. Players loved Garcia's intensity. Fans loved his emotion. The media loved his honesty and availability.

   The Point After
   
ACL update
On Friday, Donovan McNabb said he has been able to do some running and cutting on his surgically repaired right knee.

"It doesn't swell up. It gets tight later. You ice it again and get ready for the next day," said McNabb, who had his ACL repaired last Nov. 28.

"The knee's getting better. You've still got to be patient. One day you may feel like you can do everything, and the next day it just starts to bother you. You just have to challenge yourself throughout this whole off-season, this whole training time to be faced with a lot of different things."

Fighting Diabetes
On June 15, the inaugural Donovan McNabb Foundation Golf Classic will be held at the RiverCrest Golf Club to benefit the American Diabetes Association.
Meanwhile McNabb seemingly has suffered from Mike Schmidt Syndrome. If Garcia is the gritty, grimy Lenny Dykstra, then McNabb is Schmidt, who won gold glove after gold glove and hit home run after home run – and made it look remarkably easy.

In that respect, McNabb may always be closer to Schmidt than Dykstra. But that doesn't mean the Eagles' quarterback of the last eight years can't change his image.

On Friday, in an unusual if not unprecedented event, McNabb held a cookout (burgers, hot dogs, sausages, steak, various salads, watermelon gazpacho – but sadly, no ice cream sundae bar) for the local media at the RiverCrest Golf Club in Phoenixville, Pa. Like a groom at a wedding, McNabb socialized with everyone, venturing from table to table. It was an odd opportunity to see McNabb up close, for the majority of his access comes in a news conference setting.

"Doing this is important to him because he spent eight years seeing [the media] sitting behind a podium," said McNabb's publicist Rich Burg, who recently took the job after being dismissed from the Eagles' media relations department. "That's an image that's projected sometimes in what you write or in what people see on TV – that he's on a pedestal. He shouldn't be on a pedestal.

"What works in this town is that Donovan is hopefully portrayed – and hopefully he lives his life this way – [as] one of the people. That he's no different than you or me or Joe fan or whatever. He wants to bring a championship to Philadelphia while he's the quarterback. Everybody really has the same agenda. But yet, for some reason people think that he's not one of them. I don't know why, exactly."

McNabb, however, doesn't appear bothered by his image.

"I don't feel like I have to change anything of how I'm perceived," McNabb said after taking a few hacks on the driving range. "Hopefully I'm perceived in a positive light. You want to be looked upon as a role model, a human being, a guy that works hard to be the best at what he can do and win championships. Not everybody can win the Super Bowl. Hopefully we'll be able to do that this year and be able to hold up that trophy and look forward to doing it again next year."

That said, McNabb wants to be known for more than being just a football player.

"A lot of people may just look at me as just the quarterback of the team, and they kind of just leave it at that," he said. "They've got to understand I was more than just a quarterback. I'm a father, a husband, a caring person that loves kids and is willing to do whatever I can do to help the next man out. If they are willing to look further into it, then they'll see I am a caring person."

Sometimes McNabb doesn't like when people look too far into things. Recently, he not only hired a personal publicist but also, in what were his first public comments since the draft, chose to hold interviews with a select few outside of the team's practice facility.

Was McNabb trying to make a statement, trying to squash the popular perception that he's a company man?

"This isn't a situation where I'm trying to stand out away from the team," McNabb said. "When I spoke at that time, I thought it was the best time to speak and also to get the word out. It wasn't a situation where I needed to involve everybody. Once the word was out, everybody heard it, and we were able to move on. My main purpose for that was to get the word out so that Kevin [Kolb] wouldn't have to come in and answer questions. He can just focus in on just playing football. The team didn't have to worry about what I said. It was out. Everybody heard it. Everybody knew what was going on. They could just focus in on that camp."

But why do it at the Flyers' practice facility instead of the Eagles'?

"I felt like it was best that I just got out when the time was there, and where that time was, it was in Jersey," he said. "Not to take anything away from the Eagles. I wasn't trying to say, 'Hey, look, I'm my own man.' I'm my own man anyway. I'm a player, yes, and I work for the Eagles. Everybody was looking at it too deep. There was nothing there to reach for. Yes, I didn't do it at NovaCare. I did it somewhere else. But the word got out, and the message was sent."

As for being a company man, McNabb doesn't seem too bothered by the label.

"Again, people look to deep into stuff," he said. "If my teammates look at me as a company man, hey, in order to be in the company, you have to do what's right by that company, or you'll be out of that company. It is what it is. When you play the position that I play, you can be looked upon as so many things. I'm sure just the way that I'm portrayed or people try to portray me as the company man or part of management – I'm sure Peyton [Manning] gets the same thing. I'm sure [Tom] Brady gets the same thing. Carson Palmer gets the same thing. So the list goes on of the franchise guys because they say we get more things or better things than everybody else."

Along those lines, McNabb said his relationship with head coach Andy Reid is fine. He said once again, people are digging for something that isn't there.

"My relationship probably is better than it was before," McNabb said. "We were able to talk about a lot of different issues. Obviously with the issue we've been faced with, drafting a quarterback – that's probably what everybody wants to know. But I think with the situation that he's been a part of, obviously with his family, I was there for him. I called him and talked to him or [text messaged] him or whatever to let him know that, hey, if he needed anything, I was there. I think with our communication after that whole situation and even after the draft, we were able to talk about other things. ... We talk all of the time."

Why the PR offensive all of a sudden?  Does McNabb think his company man image is really going to change just because he holds a news conference at a hockey rink and tosses on some barbeque for the local hacks?

Why bother at all?

Just plain weirdness here.

[ice grillin you]

clearly he had the press conference in NJ because the eagles wouldnt allow him to hold one at novacare...good for donovan

it doesnt mean theres some terrible rift btwn him and the front office...it just means he finally cut the puppet strings....thats a good thing imo

[MDS]

I know this Andy Schwartz guy. No.

[Diomedes]

clearly he had the press conference in NJ because the eagles wouldnt allow him to hold one at novacare...good for donovan

it doesnt mean theres some terrible rift btwn him and the front office...it just means he finally cut the puppet strings....thats a good thing imo

You're crazy if you really think, based on his last interview and this pr gag, that McNabb is suddenly the prodigal son.

[phattymatty]

theres video of the whole lito-fred taylor airplane dealy.  not nearly as scary as it sounded.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwA8sL_evIM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports%2Ecom%2F2007%2F05%2F19%2Fvideo%2Dof%2Dfred%2Dtaylors%2Dafrica%2Dplane%2Dflight%2Dnear%2Ddeath%2Dexperience%2F

[shorebird]

Was McNabb trying to make a statement, trying to squash the popular perception that he's a company man?

I think the drafting of Kevin Kolb did that. If he ever was, he isn't anymore.

[BigEd76]

Donut Don McKee thinks the Eagles should trade McNabb for Briggzzzz

[MadMarchHare]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

heh.  Will they throw in Urlakker?

[PhillyPhreak54]

Every time I hear McKee on the radio I picture Chief Wiggum doing a radio show.

[ice grillin you]

mckee needs to be put down

[PhillyPhreak54]

Rob Charry too.

Last week he wanted Favre and a #1 for McNabb.

[SunMo]

i dislike Martorano the most though

[ice grillin you]

if i had more confidence in the eagles not blowing the pick id trade mcnabb right now for gb's one

[mussa]

theres video of the whole lito-fred taylor airplane dealy.  not nearly as scary as it sounded.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwA8sL_evIM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Flarrybrownsports%2Ecom%2F2007%2F05%2F19%2Fvideo%2Dof%2Dfred%2Dtaylors%2Dafrica%2Dplane%2Dflight%2Dnear%2Ddeath%2Dexperience%2F

what happened? i never heard?