Article on McNabb's "gastric difficulties"

[GeorgiaEagle]

Can Birds stomach McNabb's gastric difficulties?

A colleague who went to Syracuse passed a couple of newspaper stories along to me about how Donovan McNabb alternately vomited and made fantastic plays to bring his team from behind for a dramatic upset win over Virginia Tech when he was in college.

He reportedly did the same thing — threw up, not led a dramatic comeback — in a game against Oklahoma.

I recall seeing him walk up behind center in the fourth quarter of a game early in his career and add another bad spot to the surface of the Vet, right behind his right guard.

And the last time the Eagles played the Jaguars at Alltel Stadium, McNabb had another gastric event.

He denies it happened again in Sunday's Super Bowl. But at least three teammates say he was in considerable discomfort late in the fourth quarter when he tried to rally the Eagles to a win over the Patriots.

I'd deny it, too, if I was being paid considerable money by Campbell's to plug their Chunky Soup, with ads implying he eats lots of it, perhaps even at halftime.

And gee, who needs a quarterback with a panic disorder? Hardly fits in the image McNabb wants to project.

Freddie Mitchell, for all his considerable faults, didn't make up the story about having to call a play because McNabb was unable to. Can't believe Hank Fraley and Jon Runyan were making things up, either, when they said he was ill.

But the best proof of all that something was amiss with McNabb was just watching the Eagles in the final minutes of play, wasting time in the huddle, seeming in no hurry at all. OK, so they didn't run a two-minute drill all season. But they practice it. And it doesn't involve sleepwalking.

Something was wrong Sunday night, but we'll never find out what. McNabb will deny it, coach Andy Reid will avoid it and the players who are talking will be told to shut up.

Until the next time it happens.

www.mcall.com/sports/all-mcnabbfeb11,0,3750347.story?coll=all-sports-hed

[GeorgiaEagle]

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Vote: Tired of the McNabb controversy?

DONOVAN McNABB says he did not puke. He says he did not vomit, hurl or boot. He says he did not ralph, gack or spew. He says he did not, in alphabetical order, blow beets, blow breakfast, blow chow, blow chowder or blow chunks.

And, still, we cannot let it go.

I understand it, too - because I feel the same way. This is an Eagles season that none of us really wants to let go of, not yet. It has been such an incredible ride - from the 25,000 people who showed up that day at training camp to see Terrell Owens and the new-look offense, to the 7-0 start that had everybody believing again, to the T.O. injury, and the controversial resting of the starters down the stretch, and the playoff run that took the Eagles to their first Super Bowl in 24 years.

The fact that it is over seems irrelevant at this point, because nobody wants it to be over, not this suddenly. And, so, the discussion continues. Three Eagles who were in the huddle with him - center Hank Fraley, tackle Jon Runyan and receiver Freddie Mitchell - say that late in the fourth quarter of their Super Bowl loss to New England, for at least one play, McNabb was unable to communicate because he appeared to be choking back vomit, and that Mitchell had to complete one play call in the huddle.

Now, from the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, McNabb has responded. He says he did not toss his cookies, lose his lunch or decorate the sidewalk. He says he did not throw up, upchuck or heave.

He says he neither drove the porcelain bus nor worshipped the porcelain god.

And, yet, we hang on desperately to the story.

The day began with a thorough scanning of all available media - newspapers, TV, radio, Internet - for the latest news, and the latest spin. Because it can't be over - it just can't. The final score might have been 24-21, and the game might have ended more than 3 days ago, but that just cannot be it. Cannot.

The Eagles, these Eagles, entertained us for months and mesmerized us for the last few weeks. They lifted a city. They threatened history. And now, nothing? No. It cannot be nothing. Not yet.

So, you consider all options. How much would it cost to hire a forensic agronomist to search for any random DNA that might have splattered the turf at Alltel Stadium? And is there such a thing as a forensic agronomist? And is there DNA in vomit? Too many questions, after all.

Next came the daily media schedule. Two sources of information seemed obvious. The first was McNabb's press availability from Hawaii - in which he said he didn't get sick, that he might have been out of breath at one point, that Mitchell never called a play and that he was a little tired of seeing Fraley's mug on the TV clip from Angelo Cataldi's show on Comcast SportsNet.

The other possibility was at 9 p.m., when the NFL Network showed its 1-hour condensation of the Super Bowl, with all of the NFL Films camera work and sideline microphones and such. It seemed to have some potential. I mean, what could beat slo-mo blown groceries? (Set to some appropriate music, of course.)

But there was nothing - no evident sickness, no pictures from the huddle in question, nothing at all. In addition, there was no insight into the question of why the Eagles didn't hurry up their offense in the game's final minutes. Amid conflicting reports and theories, no sideline snippets from Andy Reid were offered on the program as the clock ticked down and down and down.

Earlier in the game, after the first of McNabb's three interceptions, Reid asked him as he came off the field, "Slip out of your hand?'' McNabb replied, "No - got caught in the wind.''

But there was nothing like that from the final, frantic minutes. So we are left with the testimony of Donovan McNabb, live from Hawaii.

He says he did not retch, regurgitate or sing to the sink. He says he just lost a football game - which is something we can neither accept nor let go of, not yet.

www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/sports/football/10861690.htm