McNabb hopes to hear cheers

Donovan McNabb returns to Lincoln Financial Field for the first time on Sunday, and whether the polarizing quarterback enters his old place of business to cheers or boos or both, he will get the in-law treatment beforehand.

For years, McNabb, the Eagles quarterback for 11 interesting seasons, occupied the stadium's master bedroom suite. But when No. 5 arrives this Sunday as the marquee player for the NFC East rival Washington Redskins, he will be directed to the dusty basement and tossed a beat-up sleeping bag.

And the accommodations in the home and visiting locker rooms at the Linc will be just one of the many differences McNabb will encounter on his first trip back to Philly since he was traded to the Redskins on April 4.

He will stay at a different hotel from the Eagles the day before the game. He will take a different route to the stadium from that hotel. He will meet and greet different stadium personnel, and, perhaps most notable, he will walk through and emerge from the visitors' tunnel onto the field from the opposite side of the stadium.

It will be a whole new experience for a man who loved his Eagles routine.

"I just hope I'll walk out the right tunnel," McNabb said, making one of the few jokes he cracked last week.

McNabb will definitely enter from the correct tunnel, and he is hoping for a warm welcome when he does.

Last week, McNabb was asked if he would be surprised if some of the 69,000 fans booed him.

"No," he said. "I mean, anything is possible."

He was also asked how he thought the fans would react.

"Hopefully, cheers," he said.

McNabb certainly hopes for another win at the Linc, where he won 71 percent of the time when it was his home field. And while he did not say it, he almost certainly would love to stick it to the team that traded him away in April.

"I'm just going to have fun with it," McNabb said in his usual understated manner.

McNabb's counterpart, Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, faced a similar scenario last season when he returned to Atlanta to face his former team. While the circumstances for their departures differed greatly, Vick had the same doubts about how he would be received.

"I had mixed emotions," Vick, a friend of McNabb's, said Thursday. "You're excited about going back, but at the same time you're in a different position. You're in a different place, and you got so many good memories. But it's like there's a chance for there to be more hurt or more pain than joy and excitement."

The 33-year-old McNabb will have a few extra moments to ponder those thoughts as he makes his way from his hotel to the Linc in South Philadelphia.

The Eagles still bunk at the Airport Marriott on the eve of home games. When McNabb was an Eagle, he would climb into his car - usually the Bentley - and make the 41/2-mile drive from the hotel to the stadium.

For his first four seasons, he called Veterans Stadium home. Starting in 2003, McNabb would arrive at the Linc, pull into the lot off Darien Street and park not far from the 50-foot banner of his likeness that was displayed on the south side of the Linc for passing motorists to see as they sped by on I-95.

That remained his ritual for seven years until Sunday.

About three hours before the kickoff for this game, McNabb will hop into a waiting bus at the Hotel Sofitel at 17th and Sansom, where the Redskins are staying, and sit back as the bus rolls the five miles down Broad Street to the field.

If McNabb looks out his window, he might catch a glimpse of radio host Angelo Cataldi of WIP-AM (610) leading a group of listeners - many of whom booed the Eagles' drafting of McNabb in 1999 at Madison Square Garden - in a "Boo McNabb" parade.

And he might see the banner of wide receiver DeSean Jackson that has replaced his when the bus pulls up at the stadium to drop the Redskins off at the visitors' locker room.

McNabb said he has never entered the opposing team's locker room at the Linc.

"I'm sure it's probably small, congested, probably not clean," he said. "You know, that's what you do to an opposing team."

Indeed, the visitors' locker room is small - 3,600 square feet compared with the 9,000-square-foot Eagles' locker room. And it is congested. The 9-foot ceiling is dwarfed by the home team's 15-foot arched ceiling.

But it isn't dirty. On the Thursday before the game, workers were busy scrubbing the showers.

There are other significant differences, ones McNabb won't enjoy. His visitor's stall was chosen by the Redskins' equipment staff on Saturday and will be sandwiched between the other gray, 3-by-6-foot, high-school-gym-looking stalls in the boxlike room.

Down the corridor, 75 paces away, is McNabb's old locker, nestled in the corner of a spacious room. It is like the other 60 or so stalls - 4 feet by 8 feet, green, and paneled with wood. But the locker adjacent to his was left empty to give him additional room.

Rookie quarterback Mike Kafka now occupies that stall.

The Eagles' locker room, though it is used only 10 or 12 times a year, has a country-club atmosphere. There are two big-screen TVs hanging from the center of the ceiling, several refrigerators, and a cappuccino maker. The team eats its pregame meal at the Marriott, but there is fresh fruit - along with other assorted snacks and five different flavors of gum - provided before and after the game.

Attached to the locker room is the trainer's room, with its two large hot tubs, the equipment room, and the bathrooms and showers. The Eagles have 16 shower heads to stand under. Over in the visitors' room, there are two sets of six.

When McNabb arrives - always in a suit - he will change into his uniform - now burgundy and gold - and take the field. There may be a greeting or two from some familiar guards, vendors, or Eagles personnel, but the stands will be empty. The fans will still be outside, getting ready to either cheer or boo the familiar No. 5.

When Brian Dawkins returned to the Linc last December as a Denver Bronco, he skipped pregame warm-ups because, he would say later, it was too emotional. McNabb, never known to let his feelings show easily, is unlikely to do that.

The Redskins' new quarterback is expected to begin his pregame routine about two hours before kickoff and a half hour before fans are permitted to enter the stadium.

The quarterback, generally regarded as a solid teammate during his years in Philly, is likely to interact with his former teammates, shaking hands and exchanging hugs and pats on the head. Then he'll head back inside to finish suiting up.

He'll reappear to get loose with the rest of the Redskins as the anxious fans begin to filter in. That's when he's likely to get the first hint of how he will be greeted by the full house. Many people expect a mix of cheers and boos. McNabb seemed a bit apprehensive when he talked of the fans' reaction during the week.

"It's been 11 great years, and you wouldn't expect me to say I'm going to get booed," he said on Wednesday. "But, I mean, 11 years have been great. You know that's one you just can't forget."

Vick recalled feeling anxious about how he would be received at the Georgia Dome last year. He was serenaded with a mix of cheers and boos.

"You just got to get to a point where you get ready and go and play the game," Vick said. "Initially, you thought all week of going back, and it weighs heavy on you. But other than that you got to be like, 'I got a job to do.' "

Then the teams will head back to their respective locker rooms for final preparations and instructions. McNabb will have to pass close to the fans as he makes his way off the field and back into the tunnel. Will he look up into the faces of the fans?

A few minutes later, the Redskins and their new quarterback will line up and again march out from under the stands through the tunnel for introductions. This time, the Linc will be full of fans with an opinion about McNabb, and No. 5 will be serenaded with their views.

McNabb's walk to this greeting will be less dramatic than it used to be. When he was with the Eagles, McNabb would leave the locker room by exiting through a set of doors with a sign "To Game Field," and he and his teammates would trudge over mats through a nondescript concrete corridor, turn right, and funnel through the tunnel that led to the south end of the field.

It took approximately 110 paces for McNabb to walk from his locker to the first blade of grass. His trip this Sunday will be significantly shorter - 40 paces out of the visitors' locker room and a sharp left turn into a much larger tunnel. He'll immediately see the north end-zone stands. The stadium is likely to be vibrating.

"I'm sure I'll probably have some kind of feeling," McNabb said. "Who doesn't have feelings getting ready for a game?"

The Redskins were waiting until Sunday to decide if their offensive starters would be introduced individually. Coach Mike Shanahan will make the call, and it will be interesting if he gives McNabb the spotlight.

Dawkins had his moment when the Broncos' defense was introduced. The last to be called, the safety ran out, did a somersault, and flipped backward into a handstand to raucous applause.

When McNabb used to run through the giant inflatable Eagle head, surrounded in smoke and sound - on the opposite side of the stadium - he often pounded his chest two times and pointed to the sky in memory of his grandparents.

On this Sunday, he'll have more than his grandparents to remember.