Donovan McNabb Hall of Fame Worthy

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Yahoo Sports had a list of locks, on their way and maybe maybe nots to make the Football Hall of Fame.  Well on the list of Maybe maybe not is one Donovan McNaabb.  It is absolutely frustrating to witness the lack of respect this man has received over the years from Philadelphia faithful and management and now with the Washington Redskins.   All McNabb has done is toss for 35, 139 yards.  He has also thrown more than twice as many touchdowns as interceptions with 225 td’s to 111 interceptions.  This is the second best ratio next to Tom Brady.  He is 1 of only 6 qb’s to have more than 25, 000 yards passing and 3,000 or more yards running. He is currently holder of the third highest winning percentage among active QB’s.    For a scrambling Qb he has the 20^th most pass attempts all time.  He led his Eagles team to 4 consecutive NFC East Division Championships and 5 NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl.  In that Super Bowl he threw for 357 yards and had 30 receptions.  The Eagles didn’t lose that Super Bowl because of McNabb.  The Philadelphia Eagles really didn’t have any explosive wide receiving group during the majority of McNabb’s time there and most of the offensive productivity laid on his and all purpose back  Brian Westbrook’s shoulders.  Folks will insist the following:  McNabb ranks 27th in completion %, McNabb has thrown more interceptions than TD’s this season and McNabb is the second most sacked QB in the league.  Well sacks are directly related to your o-line. So if you go by that stat Ben Roethlisberger has ben a horrible quarterback for 4 years when you consider how often Big Ben is sacked.   Completions and interceptions yes can be related to the quarterback but the receivers in Washington aren’t exactly household names.  Further, McNaab’s career Touchdown to interception  ratio is extremely good.

When you look at the so-called QB’s who are locks for the Hall of Fame since 1998 Peyton Manning has had 2 Super Bowl Appearance  winning 1 and only 9 wins in 19 playoff games and a reputation for not winning the big game. Tom Brady has 3 Super Bowl Championships, 2 Super Bowl MVP’s.  McNabb should fit into this group quite easily but the elephant in the room is black and scrambling quarterbacks are still not respected.

This season was another prime example with the Shanahan led Redskins mis-using and degrading McNabb, the Eagles wanted to and did  start Kevin Kolb ahead of Michael Vick before coming to their sense, Jeff Fisher’s Titans usually won when Vince Young started games but Fisher has spent 5 years pining for the useless Matt Leinhart  (who he wanted to draft instead of Young) and attempting to destroy Vince Young’s career at the same time.  It took years before the NFL appreciated and recognize the value of  Randall Cunningham, Warren Moon and even Doug Flutie’s (because he was small discrimination is discrimination) scrambling and overall abilities.  The NFL is in love with the stand in the pocket QB.  While there are more Quarterbacks of ethnicity today than ever before their unique skill set to move the pocket and make things happen off the run has been resisted.  However, those same abilities were revered in the likes of Steve Young, Brett Farve and now Aaron Rodgers.   McNabb is hall of fame worthy no question no doubt.