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The interesting thing is that he did this all on his own. Normally he'd go through the Eagles to set up a "media blitz," but instead he hired former Eagles media dept guy Rich Burg to do it. Burg was let go by the Eagles for unknown reasons, but McNabb liked the guy and brought him on as his personal media adviser.
So the media has taken this to mean the Eagles have "lost control" over their QB and that "trouble is brewing" between #5 and the Eagles... come on. Before we get all doom and gloom let's not forget the shocking out of control statements he made during this wild, off the cuff media blitz...
McNabb said he would attend the minicamp, but he will not be an active participant.
"I'll be out there as the kind of skinnier coach," he said. "I'll be out there with the red jersey on and going over plays. I'll be talking to the guys and working with Kevin just so he'll see different things happening and the defensive schemes that we'll face. Everyone wants to know about Kevin Kolb. I'm excited to have him."
Shocking, I know...
Clearly hes out of control and there's trouble brewing with statements like "I think Kevin Kolb is going to do an excellent job for us, I'm going to try and help him as much as I can."
So when these sports writers like Ashley Fox say things like "The Eagles have a problem. A big problem. They've lost control of their franchise quarterback, and that has the potential to get real ugly. There is disharmony. He obviously feels people inside the organization are not looking out for his best interests, and that's not good."
And the guys from Pro Football Talk say "...at any moment the whole thing could explode."
When they write these things... don't ignore what McNabb actually said. People can overthink, overanalyze, and read into it like the amateur psychologists that they clearly think they are, but the reality is that McNabb's words were not one of a guy fearing for his job, angry with his bosses, or bitter towards a young rookie. It takes a real stretch to see how the Eagles organization would be in any way worried or angry by anything McNabb said yesterday.
The real thing to read into this all? McNabb seems to have finally realized that he needs to stand up for himself and take charge of his own image. While he has always done the admirable thing which is to keep quiet and go out there to do his job and toe the company line... it's clearly not enough. People will always look to make trouble and Eagles fans will start running around wildly like their hair is on fire. McNabb has decided that he is now charge of what he says. Not anonymous sources, not talk show hosts, not amateur psychologist writers or bloggers, not fellow teammates. You want to know where McNabb stands on something or what he's thinking. Just ask. No need to speculate or ask his parents anymore. #5 is in charge and it's something I've been waiting for him to do for years now.
Frankly, I'm thrilled with what he did yesterday. I can't see it as anything but a positive for this team going forward.
Update [2007-5-9 15:56:49 by BleedGreen]: The Eagles are clearly so angry at McNabb for scheduling an interview with Howard Eskin without their knowledge that they've posted a transcript of it on their own site. Obviously that's what an organization that's "lost control of their QB" would do. Let's try to see people spin that into some sort of harbinger of doom for the McNabb era in Philly...