Donovan McNabb's Race Comments Way Out Of Bounds

In an interview with James Brown on "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel" set to air tonight, Eagles QB Donovan McNabb breaks out the race card, saying that black quarterbacks have to endure more criticism than white QBs.

"There's not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra," McNabb tells HBO. "Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn't want us to play ... is low, so we do a little extra."

"I pass for 300 yards, our team wins by seven, [mimicking] 'Ah, he could've made this throw, they would have scored if he did this,'

It's funny the interview airs today ... just a day after McNabb is getting ripped for not making a key throw [that could've been a game-tying TD] and losing an 8-point game to NFC East rival Washington. A day after ESPN's Monday Night Football crew basically excused McNabb's inaccuracy to him trying to recover from knee surgery. I'm sure McNabb does get a lot of heat. He plays in Philly, for goodness sake, who boo everyone. But no more than any white QB would.

Chad Pennington was cheered being hurt as he limped off the field in New York last week. Trent Green has been consistently booed in Miami. Ask Rex Grossman about getting criticized. Or Eli Manning. Or Jake Delhomme. Last year, Super Bowl winning QB Ben Roethlisberger was reemed for bad choices off the field. Even Golden Boy Brett Favre got some lashing after a subpar 2006 season.

Ask Chris Simms, or JP Losman, or Alex Smith, or Joey Harrington. Even the great Peyton Manning endured a ton of criticism for not being able to win the big one ... until he won the big one.

The NFL world is fawning over Vince Young ... while Jason Campbell made the league take notice last night on the same field McNabb stunk up. I don't think Steve McNair or Daunte Culpepper are treated any differently than any other QB.

Hell, Michael Vick had one of the worst QB ratings in the NFL ... yet the team traded his backup [who is now 2-0 in Houston] to ensure he was their future. He rewarded them by pleading guilty to dogfighting charges ... which forced them to use a much criticized white QB in Joey Harrington to replace him. Now, they are looking at signing Byron Leftwich ... a black QB who was replaced in Jacksonville by another black QB.

The only QB that I can see that doesn't see much criticism is Tom Brady. Um, but Brady is a genuinely likeable guy who has won three Super Bowls and is nailing supermodels. Remember? He was the quarterback in Super Bowl XXXIX not blowing chunks on the field.

Donovan, the fact is that the team you are leading has lost 6 of 7 games with you as the starter. Meanwhile, the guy that took your spot while you were hurt went 5-1. He's now in Tampa. He also dealt with Terrell Owens calling him gay ... while you couldn't handle the fact that T.O. said you weren't Brett Favre.

It's not a race thing. You play in a city where people still wear Randall Cunningham jerseys.

"But every day that we go through life, you're faced with a lot of adversity. Now the answer is how do you handle the adversity. How do you respond?

"I try to handle myself with class. I try to handle myself with dignity. I think sometimes people look to players to act out, speak loudly, pretty much be an idiot. But that's not me."

I beg to differ.