McNabb: Too soon to gauge feelings about return

Take away the miles and miles of fiber-optic cable and the horde of reporters cramped around a speaker phone at the NovaCare Complex auditorium, and it was the same old Wednesday Donovan McNabb news conference.

Nearly six months after the Eagles traded him to Washington and four days before the Redskins quarterback was to face his former team at Lincoln Financial Field, McNabb spoke with Philadelphia-area reporters, some who had covered him for all of his 11 years here.

For the 10-minute interview, he was at various points contradictory, considerate, confrontational, and contemplative as he downplayed his return to Philadelphia.

Beforehand, local reporters hypothesized as to which of his favorite phrases McNabb would roll out during his conference call. Some were in there, but in a bit of an upset, it took him nearly the entire interview before he said: "The list goes on."

Most of all, he was understandably bland.

Immediately after his conference call, McNabb spoke with reporters - a number also from Philadelphia - at Redskins headquarters in Ashburn, Va., and gave virtually the same responses. The answers were longer and sometimes punctuated with his trademark stabs at humor, but the sentiment remained the same: Let's play the game and then talk.

"I think people are probably looking at it a little deeper right now than anything," McNabb said. "You've got to remember it's just Wednesday. . . . It's kind of hard for me to explain at this particular point. But it's probably something I can answer after the game."

McNabb fared better, a half-year later, in explaining how he felt when the only NFL team he had played for dealt him to a division rival.

"It's unfortunate," he said. "Was I upset at the time? Absolutely. I moved on."

And how long did it take to move on?

"Well, I was here the next morning after the trade to work out with the guys and spent time with them," McNabb said. "So I've moved on from it."

Still, for many, the trade remains as raw as an open wound. The Easter Sunday transaction has taken on a new life in light of Andy Reid's controversial new quarterback.

The Eagles' coach was asked Wednesday if he would have made the trade in April had he known he was going to bench heir apparent Kevin Kolb in favor of McNabb friend and protege Michael Vick.

"Well, since I didn't think about all that and I traded Donovan, I'm not going to worry about that," Reid said. "I mean, that's a fully loaded question and I'm not Plato."

McNabb weighed in on the Vick-or-Kolb debate last week when he said, "That's Philadelphia. Things like that happen. I've been a part of that for 11 years and, obviously, as you see, it just doesn't stop."

Asked to clarify his statement on Wednesday, McNabb responded, "I've only been in one place, so I don't know anywhere else. Are you trying to reach for something that's not there?"

McNabb remains a polarizing figure in this city, a lightning rod, with talk radio sometimes providing the thunder. Indeed no Plato, Reid would not play Nostradamus when it came to the question of whether McNabb would be cheered or booed upon his emergence from the visitors' tunnel.

"I'm big on the things that I can control, and that's something that I can't control," Reid said. "I can't do that. I don't know the answer. I'm not sure Donovan's focused on that."

McNabb said that he was hoping for "maybe some cheers," a sentiment he echoed in Virginia. But he acknowledged that there may be some jeers, not because some Eagles fans dislike him but because he will be wearing the uniform of a rival.

"I'm with the Redskins," McNabb said. "So I'm sure they won't be happy with that aspect."

Many of the Eagles players who played with McNabb felt that the response would be positive or that at least it should be. Vick and Kolb said they hoped their predecessor would receive a warm welcome, with Kolb going as far as to say that McNabb "deserves applause."

A few weren't as sure.

"I think he'll get booed," said injured fullback Leonard Weaver, also a close friend of McNabb's. "I'm not saying the majority will boo, but I think you'll hear them."

McNabb and the Redskins will run out onto the field ahead of the Eagles. The team may come out as one or individual players may be introduced, as the Denver Broncos did last year when former Eagle Brian Dawkins returned.

Eagles safety Quintin Mikell was asked if he would allow himself a moment to applaud McNabb.

"I'm a defensive player, man, come on," Mikell said. "If he was on defense like when [Dawkins] came back, I was happy to see Dawk on the field. . . . I know it's going to be crazy either one way or the other, so I'm already getting my mind ready for it."

McNabb, who said he looked back fondly on his years with the Eagles, was optimistic.

"I've always tried to stay positive," McNabb said. "In 11 years, we had a lot of positive things happen. From great seasons, winning seasons to obviously NFC championships and Super Bowl appearance, big games - the list goes on."