Dawkins: No need for McNabb to change
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Dawkins: No need for McNabb to change
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
In an interview at the Pro Bowl with NFL Network, Brian Dawkins came out and said what anyone who's watched Donovan McNabb over the years knows: he's a better player when he thinks everyone's against him."Donovan is just Donovan. I don't want him to change," Dawkins said. "I want him to come back next year with even a bigger chip on his shoulders for whatever reason. Let him make up a reason. I don't care. He plays better when he has a chip on his shoulder because I think he dials in even more."
Earlier this week, ex-teammates Hugh Douglas and Jeremiah Trotter were critical of McNabb for his comments about the Eagles' defense.
Dawkins, a pending free agent, came to McNabb's defense, saying the Eagles' quarterback is appreciated by many Philadelphia fans.
"The thing about it is this. Philadelphia, it is a tough place to play. Everybody can't succeed in Philadelphia," Dawkins said. "You have to have tough skin. You have to be able to move through booing. You have to be able to play through that stuff on the other side. It's not all of Philadelphia. There are fans that feel that way. But there are other fans that feel like, 'Man, you will never understand what we have until he is gone.' And I don't think he's gonna be gone anytime soon for them to feel that. And he's always handled himself with class. He's always tried to do the right things and saying the right things."
A cool part about the interview was Dawkins didn't even mention the possibility of playing somewhere else next season. Already this offseason, we've heard several guys -- T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Albert Haynesworth, Kurt Warner -- talk about keeping their options and possibly switching teams. Dawkins said as long as he can play at a high level, he wants to continue.
Dawkins sounded optimistic that he'd be back in an interview with Birds' Eye View last week.
By the way, speaking of Houshmandzadeh, here is a post from last night where he said he hasn't been contacted by the Bengals about a new contract.
Well if a boxer says something about a football player, I think it's best that we just end the debate there. What else could possibly be said?— owumd- lonewolf, this interview WAS FROM THE PRO BOWL. Dawkins is playing in the PRO BOWL.— MichaelB
- Eagles fans don't need to apologize for anything. They support the team no matter how much they raise prices. The team has not delivered a Super Bowl in a million years. Dawkins is entitled to his opinion but in a year or so he will be long gone....the people who have been fans for 40 years will not. So Dawkins opinion is not all that important in the grand scheme of the long time Eagle fan.— JonKap
- Funny, you think Kurt Warner is hearing the same flack in Ariz as Donovan does here? After all, he did throw an int from the 3 yard line that cost his team the game. Probably not, huh?— gee1971
- Calabrese, thank you! McNabb has taken the blame many times (even when it wasn't all his fault), but people choose to ignore that to zone in on comments that he made about the other team driving the field; comments that were true, by the way. I understand that people are frustrated. We all want the Eagles to win, but to make up this whole McNabb-as-the-villain thing is really ridiculous. The man is the best quarterback this team has ever had.— kingsolomonsmind
- wok...i gotta put some kind of stock in it. Dawkins wants to win and win bad, but if he stands by McNabb why shouldn't we.— ajbrown2005
- Eli is a team leader ???.... ELI, the greates QB ever !!!!...pfff, c´mon!, come back to earth lonewolf! If you don't belive in statistics, only in SuperBowl rings, and 4th quarter comebacks you are noth measuring really well a QB. The Super BOwl rings depends of an entire team not just the QB. And I prefer someone that plays very good 3.5 quarters than only the remainig 0.5 quarter. How many comebacks did tom Brady needed to take the patriots to a 17-0 season?.... Is better to crush from the begining than waits until last quarter.— josma
- Brian Dawkins is a leader and is respected by all!— JBP
- i hate this website...half of my posts never work! cheap website!— ajbrown2005
- loanwolf u are officially a tool. in earlier posts you were saying how dawkins called mcnabb "our britney spears" but now this comes out and he defends mcnabb dawkins all of a sudden wont be back next year and he stinks too. ur a tool bro, you know absolutely nothing about football, u just come on here and post irrelevent gargabe to tick people off. get a better hobby man. cuz seriously you make a complete fool of yourself everytime you type a message on here. j-offs like you are the reason intellegent philadelphia fans are given a bad name.— ajbrown2005
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Eli won't say anything because he is afraid he will get clobbered in the locker room. Check out Tiki Barber's comments before proclaiming Eli a leader. There are others on that team that are leaders. Eli has his hands full just being the quarterback. It is really laughable to put any stock in Bernard Hopkins. Boxers make a career out of running their mouths. Trotter has always been a loose cannon and Douglas only ocassionaly makes some sense. Dawkins, on the other hand, thinks before he speaks. When he speaks he does so in soft measured tones and ALL his teammates listen. Granted, he has lost a step or two in recent years but he is still number 3 on defense this year behind Stewart Bradley and Quinten Mikell with 96 tackles, 46 assists, 3 sacks, 6 forced fumbles and 1 recovery. I still think he has a couple of good years in him and I hope the Eagles are not foolish enough to lose him. In fact, my opinion is that they should retain him in a coaching capacity after his playing years. As for his comments about McNabb, I will always take what he has to say about his team/teammates over Trotter or Douglas.— cleansports
- Dawk wants a contract....Dawk is a team guy so won't badmouth anyone in public...Dawk is media savy...Dawk is a guy we want in the locker room because he is smart and a "leader" Dawk knows Donovan will be back and he gives them the best chance to win in his time frame so why would he badmouth him....IF Dawk has an issue with Donovan he would address it directly...(that is what a "man" does) But he said he does not care how Donovan motivates himself but if the haters do that...then great....Hopefully Dawk will be here next year.....— nuggett
- Dawk might add "and as soon as I get done here, I'm calling my defense together and teaching them how to tackle, stick and wrap-up, not stick and drive a runner forward into the end-zone" (see S.Brown, Demps, et al). Get well, Trot and Doug, stay on your pills.— ItalianSausage
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