CAN HEAR CLEARWATER CALLING
Donovan McNabb called it "a wonderful thing" and "a memorable thing."
Last week's back-from-the-dead victory over the Cardinals?
No, the Tuesday birth of twins, a boy and a girl, to Donovan and his wife, Roxy. The couple also has a 4-year-old daughter, Alexis. McNabb declined to disclose the names of his newest family members.
McNabb was asked about how having a wife pregnant with twins might have affected him this season; in 2007, free safety Brian Dawkins missed quite a bit of offseason work because of complications that ensued from the premature birth of twins to his wife, Connie. Dawkins felt his subpar season had a lot to do with that situation. The McNabb twins apparently also arrived at least a little early, but are in fine health, their father said.
" 'Dawk' and I, our situations were a lot similar," McNabb said at his regular weekly news conference. "It's hard not to think about your wife going through something like that ... I can't sit here and say '(No, it wasn't) on my mind the previous weeks.' I tried not to let it affect my play, knowing that I didn't play as well as I wanted to in the previous weeks ... It's sort of a weight off your shoulders, knowing that everyone is healthy and everyone is fine."
As the Eagles prepare for Sunday's game at the Giants, which could determine whether they have a chance at the playoffs, and whether McNabb stays here in 2009, is he thinking even a little about the allure of a fresh start somewhere else?
"No. No. I don't even think of that," he said.
But McNabb did acknowledge that his talk on the NFL Network's postgame show last week, about needing to have a further conversation with Eagles coach Andy Reid after being benched and then brought back to start, was related to his concerns about his future.
"I'll be talking to Andy, Joe (Banner) and Jeffrey (Lurie)," McNabb said. "We'll discuss that when the time comes. I think at this particular point, it's just really for us to focus on who we're playing, and that'll be the Giants, and continue on from there. The conversation will happen."
He added that the conversation will happen at the end of the season.
Asked if he feels secure in his role, McNabb said: "I am the quarterback and I will be the quarterback ... I don't look at anything else happening."
Other highlights Wednesday: Asante Samuel (neck) was scheduled to return to practice. Correll Buckhalter (knee) was to sit out, though Reid said Buckhalter has been running.
Brian Westbrook said he feels as good as he has felt since the start of the season.
The Eagles announced that they have brought up offensive lineman Chris Patrick from the practice squad to replace Max Jean-Gilles, who suffered a season-ending broken ankle against Arizona. Patrick has been replaced on the practice squad by offensive lineman Tala Esara, a former member of the Dolphins' practice squad.
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.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with 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 started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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