In 11 seasons with the Eagles, Donovan McNabb reached the playoffs eight times, the NFC Championship Game five times and the Super Bowl once. But McNabb never won a Super Bowl, and he was eventually traded away and was largely looked down upon by Philadelphia fans when he left.
But McNabb suspects that now that the fans in Philadelphia have had some time to think about what the team accomplished in his time there, that era in Eagles history doesn’t look so bad.
“Making it to the NFC Championship is not easy, and I think they’re starting to see that right now, that getting to the playoffs and going to the NFC Championship consistently, it’s just not that easy,” McNabb said on Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia. “There are teams right now who have winning records, like the Atlanta Falcons, they’ve done it for so many years, and they get to the playoffs and all of a sudden they’re one-and-done.”
McNabb says it’s foolish to judge a quarterback harshly just because he never won a Super Bowl.
“Myself, Dan Marino, there are a lot of quarterbacks who have gotten to that point and just haven’t been able to bring it home,” he said. “People want to make it look like you have nothing to show for it. Well we have a lot to show for it.”
And as McNabb’s coach in Philadelphia, Andy Reid, prepares to coach the Eagles for the last time on Sunday, McNabb thinks Eagles fans should appreciate Reid as a great coach.
“You look at everything he’s been able to accomplish, I think it outweighs what you’ve seen the last two years,” McNabb said.
In any event, there’s no doubt that Eagles fans would take the results of the McNabb years over the results of the last two years.