Donovan McNabb race-card revisited

Excellent op-ed from columnist Jason Whitlock regarding the latest Donovan McNabb witch hunt. Whitlock's probably the only guy with the balls to put McNabb's "controversial" comments about feeling more pressure as a black QB into context. I'm a big McNabb guy, frankly, and couldn't help but nod my head in agreement after each paragraph.

However...

Shed no tears for McNabb, model of consistency and superstar that he is. Peyton Manning, the whitest guy around, had more than his fair share of undue pressure. Until he finally won the big one, that is. What am I saying? I'm saying that winning the Superbowl cures all if your focus is simply quelling the masses. People en masse don't have time for the intricacies of any given story. Just feed them the headline and move them along. It's a sound-byte, SportsCenter-driven world we live in. And when you've got the talent like McNabb does, guess what? You're going to get steaming piles of undue praise and criticism (depending on your most recent performance) because you're a superstar quarterback. Black or white. Hell, it took all of one statistically impressive season for the nation to fall in love with Daunte Culpepper even though he underachieved in Minnesota with regularity. Vince Young averages something pitiful like 125 passing yards per game, yet he's got a bandwagon the size of Tennessee.

But people don't have time to dwell on the fact that you've never had a supporting cast to get the ball to. Sadly, nobody outside of Philadelphia (and even then...) is looking to Jeff Lurie to rectify that situation. As far as the nation is concerned, McNabb should be good enough to overcome his offense's general lack of talent (Brian Westbrook accepted). That is what's unfair. Is it racist? Well, not really so much as it is stubborn on the part of Lurie and Andy Reid. Reviving Whitlock's comparison of the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, yes, Bob Kraft finally broke down this summer and got his QB some receivers after some squawking from the locker room and an all-too-telling performance in the AFC Championship game punctuated what Brady had been griping about for the last two Superbowl trophy-less seasons. But I suppose when you're thrown under the bus by your teammates for not being "black enough," it is hard for these types of concerns to gain traction with the higher-ups in the organization.

Anyway, all told, I'm still a McNabb guy. He's still not 100% as evidenced by the loss on Monday night. Should be interesting to see when he breaks down this season. I still think the Eagles are good enough to win that division. Even with the death knell of an 0-2 start.