McNabb traded to Redskins

Let me begin by saying I have long believed Donovan McNabb would never lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl win. I remember, as he began what would be his final Eagles Super Bowl drive, telling everyone in the room “this is going to end in a pick,” which of course it did as Asante Samuel executed a classic McNabb interception, that back breaking ball at a receiver’s knees that no one in a Philly jersey had a cheesesteak’s chance at a fat farm of catching.

Such was life with McNabb. He threw so few picks, but they were always devastating knock the wind out of you haymakers. He could pad his numbers against bad teams, and struggle, almost valiantly, against good ones. Under his stewardship the Eagles’ offense was that of a classic ‘tweener team – they (mostly) throttled the teams they should beat, and suffered heartbreaking, if not always foregone, loses to the teams whose defenses could actually play.

Trading him within the division for a 2nd round pick and either a 3rd or 4th rounder next year feels, upon first glance, like an insult. For the Redskins, it is a steal – no one available at the 37th slot in the draft will touch McNabb this year. For the Eagles, only time will tell (I wonder about trading him within the division, even though I imagine if the Eagles’ brass thought McNabb could stuff two games down their throat, they would have thought enough of him to keep him). They have, over the past decade, drafted reasonably well. For this moment, this trade brings into full relief what I love, and hate, about the Eagles management, and it is the same feature – they never forget the NFL is a business first and foremost.

I love that Philly runs their roster from the Bill Walsh School of “I’d rather get rid of a player a year too early than a year too late.” And let’s be clear – the Eagles are not a Super Bowl threat in the coming season. Their defense is thin and soft on a good day, and they have so few good days.

I love that they manage the salary cap so well and always have room to make a move. But I hate, HATE, that they never make that move. After signing Terrell Owens and Javon Kearse as free agents (and going to the Super Bowl), Philly has carried itself in the free agent market like a kid who got burned playing with fire. Sure, TO was a media disaster here and on other teams (forget for a moment that he is, unarguably, a damn good receiver). And sure, Kearse got horribly hurt and never fully came back. Let me reiterate – they made a few moves and went to the SUPER BOWL. That’s the damn goal.

I don’t disagree with trading McNabb. I think getting something for an aging veteran makes sense given the middling state of the team (their receivers are awesome, their D is suspect, and O-line flat out stinks). I agreed with releasing Westbrook. I agreed with releasing Dawkins and Douglas and Taylor and Vincent and even Runyan.

Of course, those players were all released, and had the option, should a team be interested, in choosing their new home. Donovan is exiled to a team mired in the same rebuilding the Eagles stand on the precipice of – hardly a reward for years of a sold out stadium and prime time TV games. Maybe, if Favre was not doing his annual roster dance, McNabb could have landed in Minnesota. It is always the maybes, what ifs, when it comes to McNabb.

What if New England had gotten busted for their video tape scheme earlier? What if Taylor and Vincent and Dawkins had been able to play a few more years? What is Westbrook had been healthier and emerged as the Marshall Faulk he was touted as? What if Jim Johnson had lived a few more years? What if Philly had done something about the sorry state of their receiving core (this is the saddest element of the trade – the Eagles finally have good receivers and now, now, they send McNabb packing)?

Five NFC Championship games, McNabb’s defining stat, places this Eagles team somewhere below the Vikings and Bills near miss dynasties (they at least lost Super Bowls). Did he perform well enough to be in the Hall? Well, his career isn’t over yet, but I don’t see that ring coming with Washington, who is years from a division championship, if not a Super Bowl. His stats are strong, even if his ring fingers are light. Having watched almost all of his games, he never inspired fear in an opponent or confidence in a fan. He was a solid B+ quarterback who spent most of his time with sub-standard receivers. I can’t think of a way to spin that so it would sound better read off a Canton plaque.

And you care why, exactly?

Much as I am enjoying casually watching the NBC late night TV debacle, I would like to take a moment to clear up a few things. Before doing so, I offer the following disclaimers:

I have not seen Jay Leno’s current show, and do not plan to do so.

I have only seen Conan’s Tonight Show twice, and it was fine. No better, no worse.

I have not regularly watched late night TV in years, and when I did it was via DVR the next day, and it was Letterman.

So, all that being said, let’s get a few things straight:

First, if you got a promotion you were promised, and proceeded to generate roughly half the revenue of your predecessor, your ass would get fired, too.

Second, I have long thought Conan was pretty funny and Jay Leno was not, but the reality is Jay plays to the Heartland and Conan plays to the coasts (where the brain is), and the coasts watch TV on DVR or online. Conan is nowhere as accessible (read: bland) a comic as Jay and really has to dull down his act for Tonight. Really, this was never going to work.

Third, after watching a number of online Conan “support” groups pop up, I arrived at the following question: Seriously, who gives a shit? Conan brings in roughly 3 million viewers a night. I have no idea what that comes out to in terms of ratings points or ad rates, but I do know it is less than 1% of the U.S. population, so it ain’t like he’s setting the world on fire.

Fourth, go back to my first point and then understand this, if you failed at your job and were being pushed out, Conan wouldn’t give a shit about you.

Five, don’t hand me this “sanctity of The Tonight Show” crap (based on the show’s ratings even when Leno was the host, the vast majority of people do not watch it). I’ve long been a believer that sanctity and tradition are a fancy way of saying you are too lazy to change something. And let’s not go applying sanctity to this. It’s a fucking TV show, not Parliament. It’s a long running TV show, even an occasionally amusing TV show, but at the end of the day it’s still just a fucking TV show.

Maintain perspective. If you are upset Conan may not be on at 11:35 PM because you like watching Conan at 11:35 PM, so be it, but be upset because it screws with your schedule (and watching Conan at 11:35 PM is actually part of your schedule). Don’t be upset because you think Jay Leno is a dick (if you’re reading this odds are you’ve never met the man), or because think you could run NBC better than Jeff Zucker (you could not, specifically because you know nothing about the actual business of TV).

Conan will be fine. Before this (and after) he will still be rich and talented. You, the TV viewer, will also be fine. The only people who will not be fine are people who have shares of GE, NBC’s parent company (which will soon become Comcast), and they only until NBC either starts putting on better shows or finds a way to bring in a bigger audience for the good shows it has.

What happens between Jay and Conan’s shows will be a business decision, and much as we all like to anonymously post and tout ourselves as experts, it is not a business decision we are qualified to judge.