Several years ago, Rush Limbaugh went on a tirade about Donovan McNabe, quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles. Rush's basic claim was that the media wanted to have an african american quarterback they could rave about whether or not the quarterback was any good, and Donovan McNabe was the chosen one.
There are a couple of ironies about what Rush said back then. The first irony is that no truer words could have been spoken if Rush had been talking about the 2008 democratic race in which the media was indeed looking for an african american political candidate for president that they could rave about.
However, in Donovan McNabe's case, I think Rush Limbaugh should have taken a different tact, and a funnier more effective one as well.
If ever somebody had a name that screams out Hollywood swashbuckling celebrity, it's the name Donovan McNabe.Rush Limbaugh could have simply avoided the race card and done a rant about Donovan's name, not his race, and gotten a big laugh as well. But Rush Limbaugh did play the race card back then, and now some have not forgotten and they don't want his money in the NFL.
It was silly to pick on Donovan McNabe, who at that time had led the Eagles to at least two NFC championship finals on his way to four consecutive NFC conference finals. That's really not so bad for what Rush Limbaugh seemed to be saying was an overrated african american quarterback that the media was overhyping simply because he was african american.
I don't know which year among those four straight NFC conference final series Rush made his comment, but if he made them after all four appearances, it really makes no sense since McNabe took his team to what amounts to a final four four years in a row. If Rush made the comments after the second of those four consecutive years, then McNabe proved Rush Limbaugh wrong by going to two more championship finals after Rush made his comments.
The bottom line is, McNabe has proven solid enough to be a final four quarterback a total of five times in his career, and that is very impressive.
I don't have a way to look this up, but Donovan McNabe may be the youngest football player to have he took his team to the fifth football conference playoff finals game of his career.And this is the guy that Rush Limbaugh is claiming is a token african american quarterback that the media is overhyping?
yeesh.
As great as John Elway was throughout his NFL career as quarterback of the Denver Broncos, it wasn't until John Elway was in in his final season with Denver that he won his first super bowl, which in turn led Mr. Elway deciding to come back for one more season in which he won his second super bowl ring at the age of 38 years, old by NFL standards.
What if Elway had taken a real hard hit in the final game of the season before his first super bowl win, and had decided to retire right then and there? John Elway might have gone down as the biggest underachiever of all time for a quarterback with so much talent, it was not until John Elway was in his LATE 30'S that he actually lived up to the media hype surrounding his career. Yet there is Rush Limbaugh, blasting an african american quarterback was just in his late 20's!
So the question remains, why hate on Donovan McNabe when he had already taken his team to several NFC conference finals, and was still in the prime of his life and had many more seasons to still try and win a Super Bowl?
In the case of John Elway, one could further make the argument that it was Denver's improved defense, and a solid running game that actually allowed Elway's talents to truly shine. It becomes very clear that the difference between a great quarterback and a solid quarterback may not matter as much when it comes to winning a super bowl, it's the defense and running that appear to be the foundation for winning super bowls.
Rush Limbaugh's remarks about Donovan McNabe were not only off the mark, they could have been a lot funnier and poignant if Rush had done a rant about how reporters obviously liked McNabe because of his name and wanted to see him succeed, because of his name, and not his race. Now that would have been a breathe of fresh air, especially coming from Rush Limbaugh, clearly Rush Limbaugh dropped the ball on that one.
