John Smallwood: McNabb settles into familiar "Woe is Donovan" role
THIS COULD have been simple.
Donovan McNabb could have ended the stigma of "Overtimegate" that has floated over him with three one-syllable words.
Associated Press
Donovan McNabb tells reporters he is done talking about his lack of knowledge about the overtime rules.
"I messed up."
Question: Donovan, going back to your acknowledging you did not know the overtime rules . . .
"I messed up."
Well, a follow-up question . . .
"I messed up."
End of story, end of controversy, let's talk football and the Eagles' upcoming game at the Baltimore Ravens.
Of course, rarely do things surrounding the Eagles quarterback end up being simple. It's been that way since some charged-up fans booed his selection at the 1999 NFL draft.
That began his "Woe is Donovan" routine, and things have not improved in the decade since.
McNabb could have mocked himself - that would have doused the spark that had kindled into an inferno of controversy.
Instead, he again left us wondering whether he knows the difference between a can of gasoline and a bucket of water.
"Laugh at myself? No," McNabb said, when asked whether he was bothered by the way he has been ridiculed since revealing he didn't know an NFL game could end in a tie after Sunday's 13-13 draw with Cincinnati. "This is 10 years for me. I've been through the down days, the down weeks. I've been through the highs. So I don't let anything like this affect me in any way."
It was the classic, poor-old-Donovan routine.
It was McNabb again hinting that a mess of his own making was instead his detractors taking opportunistic potshots at him.
I'd hoped he wouldn't go down that road, but it didn't shock me, once he did.
What was a surprise was McNabb's putting on a layer of martyrdom for being ridiculed as clueless for the previous 3 days. Here was a whopper of positive spin to one of the most embarrassing gaffes in recent sports history.
It was McNabb's burden to suffer the slings and arrows of self-inflicted outrageous fortune so that his NFL brethren could become enlightened.
"The thing about it is that now other people are saying they didn't know it either," McNabb said. "Am I wrong for that? No. Should I have known the rule? There are a lot of coaches, officials, players that don't know.
"I think 100 percent of everybody in the league knows now. I'm kind of a trendsetter. I've kind of set a trend."
Whatever, a trend of expressed ignorance is not something I'd necessarily be proud of, but whatever floats McNabb's boat.
By the time McNabb had declared, "The overtime was over" and tried to explain (incorrectly) that the rule had changed a few years ago, everybody's brain cells had practically vaporized anyway.
In the grand scheme, I agree with both McNabb and Eagles coach Andy Reid that not knowing the rule had no bearing on the outcome.
But McNabb's initial statement and yesterday's follow-up point again to the larger issue of this quarterback's image as a leader and why many fans don't consider him a strong one.
Reiterating the point of my Daily News colleague Les Bowen, McNabb's inability to take ownership of situations - many of his own creation - was again on display.
It was him dismissing the controversy of referring to his spat with Terrell Owens as "black on black crime." It was McNabb telling HBO things are harder for him as a "black quarterback," and refusing to explain himself.
It was his pleading for Reid to "upgrade" the weapons, then backing off after saying acquiring cornerback Asante Samuel represented what he was talking about.
This was another disappointing reminder that at a time when the struggling Eagles desperately need their quarterback to wear the mantle of leadership down the difficult path ahead, McNabb doesn't inspire confidence that he is capable of doing that.
Not that McNabb necessarily views it that way.
"What people say doesn't bother me, because, as you can see, every time something has happened that I've been a part of, more and more things have come out that people begin to sit back and say, 'Oh well, maybe he was right,' " McNabb said. "Should I have known that rule? Yes, but there are a lot of rules in the rulebook that a lot of us don't know, and we ask questions."
McNabb should have stopped at conceding he should have known the rule.
In fact, that's where he should have started, because that would have made everything so simple. *
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