Even as he heads into the final year of his contract, and a season in which he’ll turn 34 years old, Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb insists that he’s thinking about the long term.
“I’ll be here with the Redskins for years,” McNabb told NBC Washington’s Dan Hellie, via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. “We’ve both said it, I’ve said it, they’ve said it. I want to be a Redskin. I want to be a Redskin. Just like I was an Eagle for years, I want to be a Redskin. I want to finish my career here. There’s a lot of exciting things that are ahead of us here, there’s a lot of talent here, and I think good things can happen here in Washington.”
McNabb’s comments echo those of Redskins G.M. Bruce Allen. But the truth is that until there’s a contract in place, neither McNabb nor Allen can say with any confidence how long McNabb will stay with the Redskins.
For that matter, until there’s a new Collective Bargaining Agreement in place, no one in the NFL can say much of anything with any confidence beyond 2010. McNabb acknowledged the possibility of a lockout in 2011 and said he might have to play for the NBA’s Washington Wizards next year.
That doesn’t sound like a very realistic fallback option. Of course, McNabb, who played college basketball at Syracuse, has a better chance of making it to the NBA than Brandon Marshall, who also claims he’ll play in the NBA if there’s a lockout.