McNabb should sit

Has Andy Reid learned his lesson?

There are a lot of good things to be said for the Eagles coach. He came into Philly with a plan and he's taken a bad team to four straight NFC title games and, finally, a Super Bowl.

That being said, the man has his faults. Primarily, he suffers from an acute case of what I call "Ray Rhodes Disease;" sometimes the man thinks he is smarter that everyone else, and he is stubborn to a fault. The biggest example of this, of course, is his absolute unwillingness to run the damn football (thus the title of this blog), but that discussion is for another post.

Last week, Reid made the inexplicable decision to play David Akers and to not activate recently acquired backup Todd France. Now Akers is out. The Eagles will only admit that he will miss this weekend's game with the Chiefs, but he's likely out for at least a month. Now it looks like he is about to repeat the mistake with star quarterback Donovan McNabb.

The Eagles announced today that McNabb has a sports hernia, or a "disruption of the inguinal canal without a clinically detectable hernia" which basically means there is a tear in the abdominal wall through which parts of the intestine protrude. The injury does not improve with rest, but can be treated with minimally invasive surgery. According to Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder, recovery from such surgery takes 8-12 weeks but according to The Physician and Sports Medicine Journal and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, "Structured rehabilitation should enable athletes to return to sports activity 6 to 8 weeks after surgery."

This is the Eagles schedule over the next eight weeks:

Sun., Oct. 2: @Chiefs
Sun., Oct. 9: @Cowboys
Sun., Oct. 16: BYE
Sun., Oct. 23: Chargers
Sun., Oct. 30: @Broncos
Sun., Nov. 6: @Redskins
Mon., Nov. 14: Cowboys
Sun., Nov. 20: @Giants

That stretch includes some tough games, and four divisional contests, but there is no reason the Eagles could not win 4 or 5 of those 7 games without McNabb. After all, two years ago the Birds went 5-1 with Koy Detmer and AJ Feeley at the helm. The Eagles still have an excellent defense, and plenty of weapons on offense - Brian Westbrook can catch a screen pass from Mike McMahon just as easily as he can from McNabb.

What the Eagles cannot do is win a Super Bowl without a healthy McNabb. The first three games this season are evidence enough for that. They lost a game they should have won to the Falcons and then nearly blew a gimmie of game to the Raiders because McNabb's performance was obviously affected by his injuries. His injuries won't get any better and is very likely to get worse. Can McNabb even make it through another 16 games (including the playoffs)?

McNabb should have the surgery now, so that he will be healthy for the end of the season and the playoffs. Should the Eagles only manage 4-3 over the next 8 weeks (leaving them 6-4), they will still end up 11-5 or 10-6. They won't have home field advantage and might even lose a first round bye. That would hurt, but not as much as not having McNabb at 100% for the playoffs.