You can't keep a good man down

Donovan McNabb's transformation since his benching in Week 12 has been amazing. Al Tielemans/SI

In the spring of 2007 I was in the locker room at the Eagles' training facility. The purpose of my visit that day was to interview cornerback Sheldon Brown about his otherworldly hit on Reggie Bush in a divisional playoff game the previous January in the Superdome, as part of a story I was writing on that and other big hits in the NFL. (Brown that day presented me with one of the best sound-bite quotes I've ever heard, explaining that his hit on the unsuspecting Bush was so well-timed that it was like running through a cardboard box, and then he added, "Seriously. Cardboard box.").

As I was waiting to talk with Brown, Donovan McNabb walked into the room after showering, got dressed at his corner cubicle (first one one the left when you enter) and then left. McNabb had gone down with a freaky, non-contact torn ACL while trying to hit the brakes out-of-bounds in a November game against Tennessee. Jeff Garcia had taken the Eagles two rounds deep into the playoffs. The Eagles had subsequently drafted quarterback Kevin Kolb in the second round.

And here was McNabb, in the flesh, fresh from a rehab session. He was 30 years old at the time, an eight-year veteran. He was wearing a prodigious beard and limping slightly, giving him the look of Fred Sanford's friend Grady. All I could think was: Toast.

On Sunday I will be sitting in the press box at the Metrodome when McNabb plays quarterback for the Eagles in a wild-card game against the Vikings. The Eagles are favored to win the game and advance to the divisional playoff round against the Giants next weekend. It will be McNabb's first playoff appearance since the Eagles lost the Super Bowl to the Patriots four years ago. "Just like a riding a bike,'' he said earlier this week, smiling broadly. So McNabb was not toast after all.

Now he sits at a career-defining moment. And this is appropriate, because McNabb's entire career has been career-defining to an extent that few players experience. "You've always got to remember, he was booed on draft day," says Eagles' wideout Reggie Brown.

It's true, and probably too often told, that Eagles draftniks booed McNabb on the April afternoon in 1999 when he was selected second overall while Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams was available. That moment will forever shape McNabb's career. When he dies, this sentence will appear within the first three paragraphs of the obituary: "McNabb, who was booed by Eagles fans before ever putting on a uniform ... "

No need to beat that story to death except to summarize, when you are booed on draft day, nothing will ever be easy.

McNabb has been a very good quarterback in the NFL. He took his team to the NFC Championship in his third, fourth, fifth and sixth years in the league, a towering statistic. In the last of those seasons, the Eagles were beaten by the Patriots in the Super Bowl. A year after that game the Eagles went 6-10 and a year after that McNabb went down and the team won its last five regular season games and a playoff win over the Giants with Garcia. Last year they went 8-8 as McNabb played on a leg and a half. He was still looking like toast.

Then on Nov. 23 of this year, the Eagles were 5-4-1 (including a dismal tie with the Bengals) and trailing the Ravens, 10-7 at the half. In the locker room, Eagles coach Andy Reid -- the only head coach McNabb has ever played for -- sent quarterbacks coach Pat Shurmur to notify McNabb that he was not starting the second half. It was an extraordinary move, probably designed to motivate not just McNabb, but the entire team. "[Reid] probably couldn't have gotten the same message across by benching the left guard,'' says left guard Todd Herremans.

One day after the benching, Reid named McNabb the starter for a Thanksgiving night game against Arizona and lent credibility to what Herremans is saying now. "Sometimes it's good to step back and look at things from a little different angle,'' said Reid.

Four days after the benching McNabb threw four touchdown passes in a 48-20 crushing of the Cardinals. That night, McNabb told the NFL Network's Adam Schefter, "Adversity always happens at our position. You have to pull yourself out of it.''

Later that night, he sat on the NFL Network's stadium set and said that he had met with Reid on the day after the benching, but intimated that they had not talked specifically about the benching, but that they would. "After 10 years, a conversation is needed,'' McNabb said.

The Eagles won four of their last five games, and embarrassed the dysfunctional Cowboys last Sunday. With some unfathomable help (most notably Oakland's win over Tampa Bay), they made the playoffs and put Nov. 23 deep into the rearview mirror. On Wednesday during McNabb's weekly press conference in Philadelphia, he was asked about his emotions relating to the benching. Smiling, McNabb said, "No range of emotions. I'm happy. I was happy then and I'm happy now.''