ESPN's take on McNabb's admission
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ESPN's take on McNabb's admission
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
The panel on ESPN's Monday Night Countdown discussed Donovan McNabb's comments about not knowing the overtime rules at length during tonight's show.I thought I'd share their comments for anyone who is interested on the national perspective on this matter, but didn't get to watch. Check out our Eagles section for thoughts and analysis about McNabb's comments from The Inquirer and Daily News.
Here's parts of what they said...
Keyshawn Johnson:
"To me, that's the organization starting from the top. That's the head coach. That's the assistant coaches that should tell these players."
Do most players know the rule?
"I probably say it's 50/50. ...Your coaches are supposed to prepare you for everything, period."
Cris Carter:
"As a professional...when do you do the extra? As a player, for me, I'm into the extra. I'm into knowing everything that's going on in every football play. I don't make no excuses for Donovan not knowing because if you're touching it 60 times, you better know the rules. ...We're fighting for inches and now we talkin about, 'we don't know what the rules are.' Did it affect the game? C'mon, don't insult my intelligence, of course it affected the overtime."
Trent Dilfer:
"It is in your job description as an NFL quarterback to know what everyone else might not know. It is in your job description to lead the people out on to the field, to be the coach on the football field and inform your players of the nuances of the game that they don't understand...This is not a nuance, this is remedial football...
There are no excuses for not knowing this rule but I think it speaks to a bigger matter here. And that's the lack of detail of the Philadelphia Eagles, their lack of understanding of situational football, and the blame goes all around. Their biggest issue this year has been not managing situations. Goal-line offense, short-yardage offense and overtime football is a situation you must manage correctly. The National Football League is about managing situations offensively and if you don't do it, you're not going to be successful."
Chris Mortensen also said he talked to several GMs and players around the league today. One GM suggested as many as two-thirds of the quarterbacks in the league might not know the rule, but other GMs refuted that estimate.
In a league that never changes rules from year to year and given the great frequency of OT games (oh really), you would think the players taped the rulebook to their hands. My favorite rule is the tuck rule. I tell everyone to watch out for that rule because you see it all the time. Everybody knows about that rule.— thinkAgain
This is the same mentality and lack of awareness of situations (Dilfer nailed it) that typifies Reid's and McNabb's tenure. Case in point: 2 years ago at TB with 10 seconds left in the half, Iggles ball at their 5yd line, there is time for one shot at the end zone, but the play has to be a pass and it has to be complete in the end zone, or incomplete because they have no time outs left (having sqaundered them earlier, sound familiar?) and the only way to salvage at least a FG is to absolutely under any circumstances not complete a pass short of the goal line. For those of you who don't recall or have successfully blocked that painful memory, McNabb threw a pass to LJ Smith at the 2yd line, he managed to not drop it, gets tackled immediately and the half expires with no FG, Birds lose by 1 point on a 60 yd FG by TB as the clock ticks to zero. Speaking of zeroes, Chris Collinsworth is horrible; I scramble for the mute button every time he opens his whiny yap.— tornadoh
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