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Chris Cooley Does A 180 On Donovan McNabb Trade

They were young, innocent and had their whole future ahead of them.  (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
They were young, innocent and had their whole future ahead of them. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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I'm sure many of you remember Chris Cooley's infamous quote when the Eagles traded Donovan McNabb to the Redskins last year. If you read the site with any regularity, you probably do considering how often Jimmy or I have reminded everyone about it...

"This is one of the top 10 biggest bonehead trades in the history of the NFL."

That wasn't all he said by the way. He also raved about quickly McNabb acclimated and how well he was fitting in.

"It’s been great from the minute he got there. It’s been fantastic. You wouldn’t know he hasn’t been our teammate for the last 10 years. He’s stepped right in as a leader, as a friend ... "

In reality, McNabb never acclimated to the system, didn't seem to have any authority on the team and things were decidedly not fantastic. Assuming he meant the trade was "boneheaded" from an Eagles perspective, it goes without saying that Cooley was pretty much 100% wrong. He finally admitted it on the Rich Eisen podcast this week.

"It's hard because you have to be honest and say 'this didn't work'. You're not lying when you say this didn't work for us and it's probably not going to continue in the future. So you're on a fine line because you're saying 'this guy's my friend' and in no way shape or form don't want to say he's not a good football player."

Sorry to pile on Skins fans, but Cooley's initial statement was just so arrogant, so grandiose and so epically wrong that we deserve to revel in the schadenfreude of his recent comments. I can only hope that one day someone directly asks him about his original reaction one day.

Actually, I probably could have done it, because he was sitting maybe 7 or 8 seats to my left at the draft... but I kinda felt like it would have been a dick move. And you all know how I like to keep it classy ;)

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