Mike Florio of SportingNews.com writes that because Donovan McNabb and other athletes didn’t know there were ties in the NFL that they don’t love the game of football as much as fans do.

However, a player’s knowledge of the rules should be a factor in the overall process. It’s relevant because it shows whether he truly loves his sport or if he just plays for money and fame. It’s relevant to whether he can be counted on to do whatever is necessary to win — no matter if it’s in the first minute of the first quarter or in the final seconds of overtime.

For players like McNabb, it’s hard to conclude they truly love pro football. If they did, they’d figure out at some point before turning 30 that tie games can happen, even if they don’t happen often.

Here’s what we learned Sunday, when Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb declared with stunning nonchalance that he didn’t know an NFL game could end in a tie: Many pro athletes are motivated primarily by the fact they get paid a lot of money to do what they do.

How else can anyone explain McNabb’s ignorance of a rule almost all NFL fans can recite without advance thought?

As it turns out, several other Eagles didn’t know. Plenty of players on other teams also are saying they didn’t know, either.

The message? They care. But they don’t care. Not like the rest of us, who’d play pro football for free and routinely fork over big money to watch others do it.

McNabb + didn’t know about ties in the NFL = he doesn’t love football? There seems to be a lot missing from that equation.

Ben Roethlisberger said that he didn’t know there were ties in football, but Florio doesn’t mention him, or any players from the Falcons-Steelers tie in 2002 who admitted they didn’t know there were ties either. Maybe these players don’t know about ties because they only happen once every six years. Hell, thousands of players go entire careers without playing to a tie.

This is absolutely ridiculous that this is being made into such a big deal. The bigger deal is how the Eagles were even in this situation to begin with. They should have been running out the clock in the fourth quarter – not playing for overtime. Criticize McNabb for his horrid performance, but don’t focus on something as dumb as this. A gaff in the Steelers-Chargers game cost people roughly $64 million and Florio is writing about this.

McNabb doesn’t love football because he didn’t know there were ties? What an asinine thing to say.

Mike Florio of SportingNews.com suggests that Saints’ RB Reggie Bush will never be a great NFL player.

But with two punt returns for touchdowns Monday night, folks now assume Bush, after two-plus years of average-to-mildly-above-average play, has arrived.

Um, not quite.

Bush had a great game. It’s still only one game. Less than four years ago, Eddie Drummond returned two punts for touchdowns on the same day and is now out of the league. Jermaine Lewis did it for the Ravens not once but twice, and he won’t ever get into Canton without paying admission.

Apart from those punt returns Monday night, Bush was ordinary. He ran the ball 12 times for 29 yards.
For the season, Bush is averaging 3.3 yards per carry. For his career, he is at 3.6 yards per carry. Monday night’s showing of less than 2.5 yards per attempt only brought down those numbers.
Bush also caught seven passes for 64 yards Monday. Solid, not spectacular.

I’m not saying Bush isn’t a solid player. I am saying Bush has a ceiling on his skill level, and that his performance on Monday night did nothing to shatter it.

He’s good, not great. He’s definitely not the guy everyone thought he would be.

Reggie Bush isn’t going to live up to the hype because the hype was too much to begin with. And that’s not Bush’s fault. Just like when Michael Vick came out of VA Tech, everyone had these grandioso ideas that just because the guy was a superb athlete, meant he was going to revolutionize the quarterback position. And then when he didn’t, writers like Florio jumped all over him and said he’ll never live up to the hype. Gee, you think? Joe Montana couldn’t live up to the hype that’s bestowed upon some athletes these days.

It’s the same deal with Bush. People who actually took the time to watch him in college knew that he was an amazing athlete, but that LenDale White got the bulk of the carries in between the tackles. Bush wasn’t all of a sudden going to be an every down back in the NFL and that’s why the Saints have wisely hung on to Deuce McAllister over the years. So will Bush ever be a great NFL player? Probably not, but he’s still the same player that lit it up at USC when you stop and think about it, only now the stage is a hell of a lot bigger and he’s not getting the same pub. It’s because of the media’s hype-machine that people even debate whether or not he’ll ever be a “great” player.