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It’s been a very quick fall from stardom for Donovan McNabb. As the marriage in Philadelphia turned ugly after a decade, McNabb had unsuccessful stints in both the Nation’s Capital with the Washington Redskins, and in Minnesota as a mentor for Christian Ponder. At this point most NFL fans are lead to believe that McNabb is probably finished after his drop off in play. Well, the former Eagles signal caller isn’t concerned about his perception in the media. McNabb knows his work ethic has always been tremendous and looks to compete for a quarterbacking job this summer in training camp. Donovan McNabb joined KILT in Houston with Mike Meltser, Brad Davies and N.D. Kalu to discuss his short term plans at this moment in time, the ideal playing situation for him at this point of his career, the reports that said he lost his work ethic before he was cut by the Minnesota Vikings and why the Chicago Bears didn’t give him a look when Jay Cutler was ruled out for the season late last year.
What are in the short term plans for Donovan McNabb?
“Well you know what man right now I still have my mind on focused on football. All I have been doing is just working out and just staying abreast with things. I have been doing some TV stuff in the meantime just to polish that up for future endeavors that I may step into when I am done, but the most important thing for me is to just stay involved and continue to perfect my craft and get better and better as I continue on.”
Do you want to go to a team where you can start or would you rather be on a winning team as a backup. What situation would you like?
“I think the most important for me is to have an opportunity to come in and compete. Coming in as a starter? Yes that is great. I have no problem with that, but in certain situations obviously being a 35-year old quarterback and people want to look into your past of the last 2 years they want to nitpick a couple of things. I just want an opportunity to compete, go into a team with a solid defense, run game and some weapons on the outside. That’s something I am accustomed to being in obviously Philadelphia and the two teams that I have been on. There have been some ups-and-downs, but coming in I just want an opportunity to compete, learn the offense and begin to build that bond with the guys in the locker-room, so hopefully we can propel ourselves to get into the playoffs and possibly the Super Bowl.”
How did it make you feel as a professional when people said in Minnesota you lost the will to compete?
“I think one thing for me especially being an analyst myself when it comes to being on TV, a lot of times you hear something from one person and you take it and run with it. They add that as their ‘source.’ The situation in Washington didn’t work out as well and there were a lot of things involved in that. I looked forward to working with those guys for another year, but it didn’t happen and I had to move on, but all you had to do was ask the players. The players that I played with, players that I have been around and trained with, some of the coaches, who were able to get to know me not only as a player, but as a person and they could be able to tell you the facts about my work ethic. The way that I prepare. The way that I prepare myself as far as conditioning and things of that nature concerned. It is unfortunate that as players you have to go through certain situations like this because you just don’t…if something doesn’t work out you don’t want to just say, ‘Hey it didn’t work out. We thought we seen something, but it didn’t happen.’ Then they want to nitpick and make themselves look better by digging into your work ethic and preparation and things of that nature where I think that is all just garbage.”
Why didn’t things work out for you with the Bears with their needs at quarterback this year?
“You know it’s tough. I really couldn’t give you the answers for that. For me when the Minnesota situation didn’t work out and the way things were going I felt the best thing for me was to just step away for a minute. Sometimes you have to do that. I asked for my release. I asked Leslie Frazier. I talked to Leslie Frazier knowing how the situation was going and how things were moving. I asked to step away from the game. I think that was the most important thing for me because I had an opportunity to step back and realize the things that I have been through. The things that I wanted to accomplish. Where I wanted to go? That made me stronger mentally, not only as a player, but as a human being I got a chance to spend time with the family, take my kids to school and do things that I will end up doing in the future, but most importantly spending time with them and kind of building that relationship that I need in my house. Now I have the opportunity to step back into the game and I look forward to it. The Chicago situation is really out of my hands. It didn’t work out for me or for them, so we’ll see what happens next.”
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