No Soup For You

All of those fans that booed Donovan McNabb during the 1999 NFL Draft look like soothsayers on Tuesday morning. They must have known that McNabb would be the biggest underachieving quarterback to hit Pennsylvania since Neil O'Donnell was giving away balls in the Super Bowl.

The time has finally come to recognize McNabb for what he really is�a product of media hype. A guy that became a legend more for his endorsement contracts than his ability to win football games. History should remember his three jokes in the NFC Championship Game or his vomiting in the Super Bowl.

Or better yet, those awful Campbell's Soup commercials.

You can take your Sports Illustrated or Madden cover jinxes, but give credit for Campbell�s too. Kurt Warner, Reggie White, and Terrell Davis went from Super Bowl heroes to zeroes after signing up to pitch the product. Davis injured his knees, Warner went back to looking like a former AFL quarterback, and White turned into a black Rush Limbaugh.

Serves them right for using actresses instead of their real moms. (Or in Warner's case, his wife who looked older than his mother.)

Jerome Bettis, Brian Urlacher, and Michael Strahan, who all hawked the soup, are kindred spirits with McNabb�media monsters who are famous for playing football instead of winning at it. Quick, try to think of the time McNabb put his team on his shoulders and carried it to victory. You cannot do it. The only thing you can think of is all of those camera shots of his mother (not an actress) cheering him on in the stands.

McNabb's career was summed up in the moments after he threw the Eagles season away to the Cowboys Roy Williams. McNabb seemed to have no ill effects of the sports hernia when he ran for a touchdown and showed the worst dances moves for a quarterback since Daunte Culpepper. But McNabb was limping around the field after he was blocked following Williams� touchdown return. Professional wrestlers wished they could sell an injury so convincingly. Al Michaels and John Madden were quick to say that the injury was hurting his passing. How could you tell? It is not like McNabb is an accurate passer.

The Eagles season appears finished and McNabb might not be returning to the lineup anytime soon. But then again, look at the bright side Eagles fans, you can always catch a glimpse of your hero on those Campbell�s commercials.