McNabb/Reid Era Over?

This is tough to write, tough to say and there is likely to be a lot of dissenters to the opinion, but the Donovan McNabb Era is over. So, too, is the Andy Reid Era.

McNabb and Reid will forever be joined in Eagles lore. As the years pass their time will be remembered as successful, very successful, but just not successful enough. It is time to start over before the 6-10 seasons keep repeating like the answers in Reid's press conferences.

It began in a New York ballroom, under a nationally broadcast torrent of heckles and in a demonstration of great draft-day faith. Eight years later, the Donovan McNabb era of Eagles football --- and at least as it was, and as it always was meant to be --- ended Sunday in the Linc, on a medical cart and in a painful 31-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

The time for the Eagles to seek their next quarterback has arrived.

It has arrived because it is official: McNabb is too prone to injury to continue to count on for Super Bowl-level production. Not five days before turning the big 3-0. Not with this injury --- a twisted, damaged right knee, the wound that has reduced so many quarterbacks to statuesque pocket-passers. Not for a team in Super Bowl retreat, on so many fronts.

He's done as the personality who, at the first sign of a frown, can chase teammates, good teammates, away.

Doctors found more than a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the injured right knee of Eagles franchise quarterback Donovan McNabb. Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder said meniscus damage showed up in the magnetic resonance imaging test taken after the knee buckled when McNabb planted to make a throw near the Titans sideline in a 31-13 setback Sunday.

While the Eagles stuck to their 8-to-12 month timetable for the rehab, the additional findings made it seem they were leaning toward 12.