It Must be Racist: Sportswriter Criticizes Donovan McNabb

I say it's racist because just this past week we've had to relive the six-year-old canard that Rush Limbaugh was somehow racist for saying Donovan McNabb was overrated.

Well, if that's the case, what can we say about this?

He caught a lot of heat last year for not knowing how NFL ties work, though he's not the only one -- heck, even intelligent ex-quarterbacks-turned-announcers get it wrong from time to time. But Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb must carry the grief alone for his clock-butchering boo-boo in his team's 13-9 loss to the Oakland Raiders.

Down 10-3 with 27 seconds left in the first half, McNabb went to the line and called a time out after deciding that he didn't like what he saw on the Raiders' side of the ball. Problem was, the Eagles had already used their customary three time-outs in the half, and no amount of bargaining could get them another one. Philly was busted for delay of game, the ball was pushed back from the Oakland 15 to the Oakland 20, McNabb took a Richard Seymour(notes) sack on the next play, and the Eagles had to settle for a field goal. Had the Eagles scored a touchdown and kicked the extra point in that drive, they would have had the points needed to tie the Raiders.

What is the nefarious implication here? That McNabb is too stupid to know how many timeouts he had left? Any why does he have to remind us McNabb didn't know the overtime rules last year?

That seems awfully racist.

The geniuses at ESPN were unavailable for comment.

Clueless McNabb Doesn't Know NFL Rules

Maybe he's getting punchy or took a shot in the head during the game, but how on earth does a 10-year NFL quarterback not know that if you play through overtime during the regular season the game ends in a tie?

I heard an audio clip of this and he sounds dead serious.

The overtime details will slip away gradually over time. What do the psychiatrists call it? Repressed memory?

The fact that Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb turned over the ball four times in a game for the first time since 2003 will be slowly forgotten. The minutiae of the Eagles' 2008 season, which just about died yesterday in a 13-13 tie against the bedraggled Bengals, will pass from our consciousness, too.

The symbolism will remain, though. And this will always be remembered as the day when the Eagles' quarterback admitted to not knowing that an NFL game could end in a tie.

"No, I didn't know that," McNabb said at his postgame press conference. The 10-year veteran said he was not aware that one overtime is all you get in the NFL in the regular season until the final play of that overtime, when the Eagles tried an unsuccessful Hail Mary pass. He said, "When the play was called, I kind of figured, 'I guess there's ties in the NFL.' "

He said, "I've never been a part of a tie. I never even knew that was in the rule book. It's part of the rules and we have to go with it. I was looking forward to the next opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game."

Then McNabb compounded his error by not knowing the postseason overtime rule. Those games do play to a conclusion for obvious reasons, but McNabb said, "I hate to see what happens in the Super Bowl or I hate to see what happens in the playoffs. You have to settle with a tie."

Uh, no. Several of his teammates, a couple of them veterans, also admitted to not knowing the rule. There was a brotherhood of the uninformed in that locker room, and that is worth mentioning here - not that it will matter. And whether or not McNabb knew the rule, it had no material effect on how he played in the game. That should be mentioned, too - again, not that it will matter.

Will it be racist if Rush Limbaugh mentions this?

Maybe when his season ends in six weeks he can bone up on the NFL rules. He'll have plenty of time on his hands and surely won't be worrying about any playoff overtime scenarios.