11 Bittersweet Seasons

Donovan McNabb is Washington Redskin. That's a sentence I was sure I'd never in my life find myself writing. But it's true. After 11 polarizing seasons in Philadelphia, number 5 is a member of a team I hate and a division rival. I remember the day I found out we had drafted him. I was eight years old, I'm now nineteen going on twenty. My Dad broke the news to me. Although I had watched all the games as the Eagles went 3-13 the year before, I barely knew what the NFL draft was. "The Eagles drafted Donovan McNabb. He was terrible in the orange bowl, he laughed about it too." I didn't think much of it, to be honest. I was in the third grade. I assumed the Eagles would always be a bad football team. I didn't know that I would go through many peaks and valley's in life, all with this man as the quaterback of my football team. He would become like a family member. Even though he had no idea who I was, by the 3rd year, you felt like you were just watching a really good friend play. A friend that pissed you off, made you laugh, broke your heart, and got you through some bad times when you needed a distraction. I don't really think I can put into words how I feel about Donovan, because frankly, it's too difficult to explain. I sit here with tears in my eyes knowing what was and thinking about what could have been.
The media has tried every year to make a story out of the Eagles fans feelings towards Donovan. They've said we don't appreciate him and that most of the time he "had no weapons". For the last time in my life, I am going to tell those people to go fuck themselves. Members of the media outside of Philadelphia DO NOT understand the relationship between the two parties. That is not my problem. I don't apologize for any anger I have towards Donovan. I don't feel bad about any of the mean things I might have said about him. At the end of the day, he's going to retire a rich man, and I'm going to be driving a truck somewhere at age 65. I think it's safe to say I'll never forgive him for the NFC championship game losses and for throwing up in the super bowl. For laughing when he throws at a wide open guys feet. Truth be told I could go on and on, but I don't want to make this a negative post. I've watched every game the man ever played in, so what ESPN or Deion Sanders says means nothing to me. Once again, and for the last time, they can go fuck themselves.
I'm going to remember Donovan McNabb fondly and with a head full of great memories. I could go down the list, game by game, talking about the plays I remember him making and the excitement he brought me, but it would take too long. When I was a 12 year old kid going to my first Eagles game at the Vet, Donovan delivered me one of the greatest days of my life on a broken ankle. When I was a 16 year old kid on my birthday depressed over a girl, Donovan went out against the dallas cowgirls and terrell owens and beat them, taking my mind off every silly problem I was having so that my main focus was that the Eagles were now 4-1 and maybe this year was the year. I remember most of all a cold winter night in late January when he went out and after three years in a row of failure won an NFC championship game to take us to the show. It saddens me that he failed to ever complete the journey. It makes me angry, I won't lie. But if you asked me if I would trade all the memories I have of watching him play for a super bowl championship, I would tell you no, because I've had so much fun over the years being a fan of this team and watching guys like him, Brian Dawkins, and Brian Westbrook. All of those guys are gone now, and we have a new era of Eagles football. It will take a while for me and people that have been watching this team for the past 11 years to get used to and embrace the change, but with any luck, a kid who is eight years old now will be writing something like this about Kevin Kolb eleven years from now, minus the part about him never winning it all.
I'll end in saying that I can only hope that Kevin Kolb carry's himself with as much class and dignity as Donovan McNabb did for his 11 seasons in Philadelphia. For all the times I've called him a bum, a shithead, a piece of shit, the worst quarterback of all time, and worm murderer, I know the one thing I'll never be able to call him is a bad guy. I may not have always appreciated his personality, but I was always proud of the way he handled himself on and off the field. Thank you Donovan McNabb for 11 incredible years. I'll never forget a single one of them.