Sheldon Brown's defense of Donovan
Last week, we had Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter and Hugh Douglas all weigh in on Donovan McNabb's comments about the Eagles' defense following their loss to the Cardinals in the NFC championship.
It's a topic we've completely beaten to death here at MTC. But we're not the only ones. McNabb actually commented on his own comments Saturday at the Villanova-Syracuse game at the Wachovia Center.
In what will hopefully be the last episode in this miniseries, Eagles cornerback Sheldon Brown offered his opinions with Howard Eskin on WIP Friday afternoon.
Here's a recap of what he said:
Did Brown have a problem with McNabb's comments?
"I don't have a problem with any of that. It's just however you want to interpret it and take it. You can look at it in 50 different views," Brown said. "I mean, one, you can be a negative guy by the situation and saying, 'well he's saying we didn't do this and we didn't do that.' Or you can say, you know, he's just defending himself. I take it as, he's just defending himself. Obviously the defense had to play somewhat well for us to even get back in the game. Now it wasn't our best performance by far. We all know that. But there were some games... the thing I like to say about football, it's the ultimate team sport. And for me, I just wish Donovan wouldn't get upset when people saying it's his fault because those people that's saying that, pointing the finger, they have no clue about the game.
"A lot of people ask me about some of my personal goals and being a football player. It's not about me. It's about the team," Brown said. "And until people understand that, he's never gonna win trying to defend himself. As long as he throw everybody back to it and just say 'you know what, we didn't play well as a team,' then nobody can say anything, period."
What did McNabb say when he and Brown talked recently?
"When we talked, he was just saying you know 'they took it out of context' and they're trying to twist it to make it seem like he was... taking a byte from him saying well the defense didn't do a great job. Actually he's saying the defense did do a good job too because we did go to 25-24 and we was getting off the football field," Brown said. "Now the last drive, you know, they threw the ball a couple times in there too. Yeah they ran the ball six, seven, whatever many times it was, but they threw the ball in there too. But from my standpoint, I don't understand why...he don't need to explain himself to nobody. All that he needs to do is continue to play like he's playing and been playing and have the respect for your teammates and who cares what everybody else think."
Is he upset with anything McNabb said?
"The only thing I'm upset with, he feels that he has to defend himself to somebody. He don't," Brown said. "The only thing he has to realize is, as long as your peers and your teammates respect you, that's the only thing that matters becase that's who you gotta look in the face on a day-to-day basis. And we're not talking about him so he's good to go."
Brown also talked about the team's veteran free agents. He said he has no clue how many years he has on his own contract, and while he expects Dawkins to be back, there's no telling what the defense might look like next year.
"I've seen some crazy stuff go on this past year and there's no telling," Brown said. "I mean I'm being honest. I don't have a clue. You never know what's going on with management's mind. You never know how people feel about anybody, seriously, so you never know."
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Quick plug for Saturday's post in case you missed it. It's a weekly feature we'll do from now until the end of April -- five questions with draftcountdown.com's Scott Wright. Wright answered questions about the Senior Bowl, who the Eagles might select and more. Interesting stuff that I recommend checking out.
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