IS GETTING ITS DRAFT BOARD READY
Donovan McNabb was envisioning winning the Super Bowl Wednesday. Specifically, he was envisioning the postgame phone call from the White House to the victorious quarterback.
"The thing that I kind of think about now, what would be special, if we make it to the Super Bowl and win, and I get the phone call from Barack Obama. That would be excellent," said McNabb, who explained that he declined several requests to talk about Obama's candidacy before the election because he didn't want to jinx the first African-American president. McNabb's roots trace to the South Side of Chicago, where Obama worked as a community organizer in the late '80s. McNabb said when he met Obama, at a White House dinner in 2005, the Senator mentioned having followed McNabb's career since he was in high school.
Obama's victory resonated within the locker room of the Eagles, where currently 64 players dress, including practice squad and injury list members. Forty-three of those 64 are African-American.
Free safety Brian Dawkins said he stayed up until about 2 a.m. watching TV coverage of the election. Dawkins, who grew up in Jacksonville, said: "I thought about some of the stories my grandaddy told me before he passed, of how things were. Things my father told me about, about the way things were. Things that he kind of sheltered me from, my father, that is, the racism that is around. To live to see this day, to see an African-America as the president ... maybe 40 years ago, in the '60s, there is no way possible you would ever think something like this could happen. But here it is. Here he is."
McNabb said he had never registered to vote before this year, so Obama will be the first president he has voted for, though he is closing in on his 32nd birthday.
"A wonderful individual," McNabb said, "I'm excited for him, excited for the city of Chicago, and just, the world."
McNabb said he figures he'll now find a frame and a spot on the wall for that photo he took with Obama at the 2005 dinner.
McNabb also stayed up late Tuesday, and he said he was moved by Obama's speech.
"It was historic," McNabb said. "Such a great speaker. Reminded me of when Martin Luther King spoke, and the message he spoke about, it was so similar. A wonderful speaker. Really reached out. As a man, if you teared up, it was acceptable. it was that deep."
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
