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.
