It’s one thing for Stephen A. Smith to direct his one-setting volume at the Eagles and their handling of Donovan McNabb. It’s quite another for a Hall of Fame quarterback who has been traded by the team with which he became a star to do the same.
As to the former, who cares? As to the latter, we all should.
Warren Moon believes that the Eagles are bungling the Donovan McNabb situation. Moon compares the situation to his own exit from Houston. Specifically, Moon tells Jim Corbett of USA Today that, when the Oilers traded Moon out of Houston because the franchise deemed that Cody Carlson (who?) was ready to take over the Chuck ‘n’ Duck offense, the Oilers let Moon know what was happening, and worked to accommodate his trade preferences.
Moon believes the Eagles are doing the exact opposite.
“It’s mind-boggling they would put Donovan in this position,” Moon told Corbett. “He’s hearing about things second hand, which I don’t think shows him a lot of respect.
“It really surprises me because the Philadelphia Eagles have already made very strategic and very smart personnel moves that has gotten them in position to win championships. This one really baffles me, especially because of how important that position is.”
On the surface, Moon has a point. The Eagles’ focus apparently has been maximizing trade value, and nothing more. As a result, potential suitors like the Browns and the Cardinals, apparently convinced that the Eagles wanted too much for McNabb, made other plans. Now that the Eagles appear to be willing to take the best offer, teams that may have made offers are out of the picture.
Still, no one knows whether and to what extent the Eagles are communicating with McNabb, or whether the Eagles will try to move him to a team that he wants to join.
The other side of the coin, of course, is that the Eagles have no duty to do anything along the lines of cooperating with McNabb. And given their propensity to lock players up to ultra-long-term deals and then say “tough crap” after a few years go by and the player feels underpaid, we’d be inclined to think that the Eagles are oblivious to -- or simply don’t care about -- whether and to what extent their handling of McNabb’s departure reflects “respect” for the player, or has a negative impact on the men who remain.
