In 1999, WIP host Angelo Cataldi recruited a group of Eagles fans who took a bus trip to New York with the goal of welcoming to the franchise running back Ricky Williams, the player that they wanted the team to take with the second pick in the draft. When they instead picked quarterback Donovan McNabb, the so-called “Dirty 30" made their displeasure known.
Loudly.
Eleven years later, McNabb is returning. And Cataldi is rounding the “Dirty 30" up again. Though Cataldi says that the intent in 1999 wasn’t to boo McNabb but to cheer Williams, Cataldi acknowledges that, this time, the goal is to boo McNabb.
“I don’t like Donovan McNabb, because I always felt he was a phony,” Cataldi told CBSPhilly.com. “He’s always been passive-aggressive, which doesn’t resonate well with the fans of this city. That’s my problem with him. He never connected to the fans in this town. They only wanted one thing from McNabb, a championship. Look at those great Flyers teams of the 1970s. They won championships and never had to buy another dinner in this town again. With all that talent, McNabb never delivered.”
But Cataldi regrets that the “Dirty 30" booed McNabb when the group first convened.
“We didn’t intend to do anything wrong, we really didn’t,” Cataldi said. “We weren’t driving a 100 miles both ways to boo the newest Eagle. Now as I wind down my radio career, I’m going to be remembered as the guy who got 30 big fat puking drunks together to boo McNabb -- not as an articulate journalist who contributed something.”
The group plans to march down Pattison Avenue in Philly and convene at the steps of the Spectrum. And once the fans assemble in Lincoln Financial Field, we think that a lot more than the “Dirty 30" will be booing McNabb.
