Wings on Fire

So I'm sitting in the office Sunday night puttering along as usual when the call comes.

Donovan McNabb's been traded?

To the Washington Redskins?

A division rival?

Really?

REALLY?!?!?!

Never has one decision thrown every aspect of my life into complete chaos.

Right now, it qualifies as the second-worst personnel decision the Eagles have ever made. (The first, of course, was letting Reggie White - arguably the greatest Eagle ever - leave in free agency for no good reason and getting nothing in return.) Green Bay traded Brett Favre to the Jets. San Francisco traded Joe Montana to Kansas City. The Oilers traded Warren Moon to Minnesota. You know what all of those teams have in common? They don't play each other twice a year.

You don't - DO NOT - trade such an important player - especially a top-10 quarterback - to a team that can hurt you as badly as the Redskins can now hurt the Eagles.

The trade itself was only a mild shock. With all three of their quarterbacks in the final year of their respective contracts (an unusually egregious oversight by the Eagles' front office), the situation had to be settled. They couldn't risk going into the 2010-11 offseason not knowing what they had in Kolb and not knowing if McNabb would want to return. So something had to be done.

But to the Redskins? With the division's best defense and finally a head coach and GM who know what they're doing? And that's the most you get in return? Jay Cutler can't lace McNabb's cleats and the Broncos got two first-round picks from the Bears for him. McNabb's only worth a 2 and a conditional 3? And if the Raiders did offer their second-rounder and Nnamdi Asomugah - only one of the league's five best cornerbacks - then it wasn't even the best offer the Eagles got.

Are the Eagles a better team now than they were a week ago? Not one reasonably intelligent football fan would say "yes."

I still remember the uproar when the Eagles were considering taking McNabb in 1999. I remember the chorus of boos that rained down from the Theatre at Madison Square Garden when the pick was announced. I remember McNabb looking completely unfazed by it all. I remember some so-called "experts" claiming that it was a bad decision. But the truth then - and even more so now - is that your football team will never be successful without a good quarterback. Ask any Cleveland Browns fan.

Andy Reid knew that. That's why he drafted McNabb and didn't draft Ricky Williams, and didn't trade out of the No. 2 spot in the draft and risk not getting the quarterback he needed. Oh, and by the way, not only did Williams never live up to his potential, but three of the other four quarterbacks drafted in the first round that year never got a second contract, including the ones drafted right before (Tim Couch) and after (Akili Smith) McNabb.

Is Kevin Kolb a big-time quarterback? Can he be? The truth is, we don't know. Sure he's the only quarterback in history to throw for over 300 yards in his first two starts, but let's not forget that: in the first start he also threw three interceptions and the Eagles lost by 26 points; and the second start was against the Chiefs, one of the three worst teams in the NFL last season.

And while we're here, let's get something else straight: The Aaron Rodgers comparison only succeed to a certain point. People forget this, but Aaron Rodgers was being talked about as going No. 1 overall in the draft in 2005. Kevin Kolb was on no one's radar.

As far as McNabb, sure, the biggest strike against him is that he "can't win the big game." But let's look at those big games again. The Rams and Patriots were better teams. The Cowboys were a bad matchup across the board last season. The entire team played terribly against the Panthers (that was the game where the Eagles' WRs dropped about 10 passes and was the impetus to go get Terrell Owens) and the defense cost them the game against the Cardinals after McNabb had led them back from a defense-caused deficit. The only one of those losses you can realistically blame McNabb and only McNabb for is the Vet finale against the Buccaneers, and Ronde Barber owned McNabb his whole career, not unlike how Ty Law owned Peyton Manning when Law was with the Patriots.

Admittedly, McNabb tended to underthrow receivers and seemed a little over-sensitive to criticism at times. And some of that criticism was deserved. But a lot of the criticism - much of it from uninformed corners such as Rush Limbaugh, Bernard Hopkins and the president of the Philadelphia NAACP - was specious at best and flat-out inaccurate at worst.

And now some of those same people, along with the segment of idiot "fans" who give Philadelphia sports fans worldwide a bad name, are glad he's gone. You all know who you are, too. You booed him at the draft, were ready to dump him after he'd gotten the Eagles to three straight conference title games, took Terrell Owens' side when he turned against him, and conveniently forgot that Rodney Peete, Ty Detmer and the immortal Bobby Hoying had been taking regular snaps from center in the three years prior to McNabb's arrival. He was the best and most successful quarterback in that franchise's otherwise miserable history and you never accepted him. I hope you morons are happy.

I'm willing to give Kolb a chance. But this had better work. Because right now, it looks like a bad move. And if 54 weeks from now, Roger Goodell is standing at the podium in the Theatre at Madison Square Garden saying, "With the first pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles select Jake Locker, quarterback, University of Washington," then it's an absolute disaster.