Why Philly Sports Fans are Infuriatingly Stupid.

This is the second attempt at responding to the rampant stupidity of Philly fans. The first approach was doomed to be too long and circuitous at getting to its point, so I will try again to take the direct approach.

Philly fans are too busy being passionate, loyal, and hungry to use their brains before they react. The Eagles just concluded another disappointng season by losing for the third time in a year to the Dallas Cowboys, who demonstrated that they are simply the better team this year.

Now they are calling for the release, trade, or sale of Donovan McNabb, the best QB in franchise history, who just completed the second best season of his career. They watched the Cowboys demonstrate the superiority of the Cowboys on both the offensive and defensive lines. They saw the coaching staff of the Eagles look under-prepared and ineffective. They saw the inferiority of the Eagles' linebakcers and secondary, and they concluded that the best way to respond to those observations was to call for the head of the quarterback.

If you think I am saying that the fans are wrong, I am. However, I don't have a problem with their being wrong, and I don't object to their opinion, though I disagree, that McNabb should be shown the door. They are entitled to their opinions. They are not allowed to be so blindly stupid that they disregard the obvious failings and focus their umbrage on NcNabb. I realize I am now going to make a comparison between Tom Brady and McNabb, and that to do such a thing will infuriate the McNabb haters, but I am nothing if not thoughtful and objective.

I watched the golden boy Brady, almost uniformly seen as the greatest QB of the decade becasue his team has won three Super Bowls, look disarmingly like McNabb against the Baltimore Ravens. And Brady looked mostly awful for the same reasons that McNabb looked awful: his receivers weren't consistently good enough, and he spent too much time dodging pass rushers who disrupted his sight lines or his footwork.

Brady finished 23-42 with four turnovers on his dance card. McNabb's stats were eerily similar. 19-37 and 1 turnover. Brady did throw for 2 TD's but he more than compensated by throwing three INT's. He also lost a fumble. McNabb, by contrast, had 1 TD and 1 INT. McNabb also won the total yardage race.

No one in New England will be calling for Brady's dismissal. No one in New England will be wishing for the return of Matt Cassel, who actually put up good numbers last year while Brady recovered from an injury. By contrast, Philly fans will largely be happy with just letting McNabb leave, paving the way for Kevin Kolb, a COMPLETE unknown entity. Furthermore, they would probably approve of a plan to let McNabb walk and to name Michael Vick, whose season was mostly awful when it wasn't non-existent, as the heir apparent. I will go farther. Philly fans would support the idea of bringing Jeff Garcia back to play QB, even though the entire NFL agreed this year that Garcia's career is over.

Please don't think that I am excusing McNabb for his poor play. He wasn't good enough, the same way that Brady wasn't good enough. However, Brady is sharper in some ways than McNabb when it comes to addressing the media. Brady minimized his own part in the debacle to some extent, and told reporters that he would have booed the Patriots' performance too. McNabb was baited, by contrast, into talking about whether or not he will return next year, and into avoiding any mention of what caused the loss, because he made the mistake stating a fact after the season ending loss to Dallas - that the Eagles showed their youth in the game.

If Philly fans were SMART, and if they were as KNOWLEDGEABLE as they claim to be, they would be hoping that the off season has the following highlights. 1. The Eagles sign a quality LB from the free agent pool, AND they draft a quality LB like Rolando McLain. [Yes, McClain will cost draft choices or players if the Eagles wish to move up, but they have bait in Kolb and Vick, who are worth something on the open market to the right team.] 2. The Eagles find a quality right tackle via free agency or the draft. 3. The Eagles find a quality safety via free agency. 4. The Eagles extend Sheldon Brown's contract after disclosing that he has been injured more seriously than they have let on for the past six weeks. 5. The Eagles announce a genuine expectation that their most significant injured players - Stewart Bradley, Jamaal Jackson, Kevin Curtis, and Cornelius Ingram - will be able to return at full strength for the 2010 season.

The Eagles have a lot of work to do, but their future does not look as cloudy as Eagles fans will say it is. They have two talented young receivers. They have the best QB in franchise history. They have a reasonalbe chance to use both McCoy and Westbrook as a running tandem. They have Leonar Weaver and Brent Celek, who made themselves conspicuous by their qualtiy play through most of the season.

However, I expect four months of McNabb and Redi bashing. I expect more lamenting the departure of Brian Dawkins, who happens to be the first veteran they have let go about whom they were short term wrong. Dawkins may not have many more seasons left in him, but this is the first time they have let someone go becasue they thought his skills were diminishing, and he proved them wrong. Good for him. I miss him too.
I also expect more radio hosts to invent reasons to object to McNabb. He's pointing fingers at his teammates. He's too aloof on the sidelines. He chokes under pressure. He can't bring them back in the fourth quarter (Oh that's right: he did that three weeks in a row during the six game win streak.)