Michael Smerconish | HEY, DON, THERE IS A SECOND ACT

November 8, 2007

Philadelphia Daily News

DONOVAN McNabb seems to be in the middle of his Philadelphia swan song. The handwriting has been on the wall since he missed significant parts of the last two seasons, leading the Birds to draft Kevin Kolb in the spring.

Every week, we wait for the Donovan of old to reappear, but it's painfully clear now that that day will never come. At least not while he's in an Eagles uniform.

The Eagles are 8-10 in his last 18 starts. (And just 12-15 in games he's started since the team's Super Bowl appearance in 2004). And while Donovan has shown glimmers of his old self this season, more routine are the sort of games he turned in on Sunday: 27 for 46, 264 yards, two interceptions, 64 passer rating.

While it once seemed inevitable that the Eagles would win a Super Bowl with Donovan at the helm, now it's just a matter of when he's relieved of command.

Sooner than later is my instinct. And not just for the Eagles' sake.

For Donovan's, too. And though I can see the ending, I'm not saying we should fiddle with fate. Donovan will never win a Super Bowl directing the Eagles offense, but he just might somewhere else. Maybe Chicago.

That's the way these stories always seem to end. Philadelphia's discarded athletes often find greatness - in someone else's city.

Consider:

Sonny Jurgensen spent four years backing up Norm Van Brocklin, but it wasn't until he was traded to Washington in 1964 that Vince Lombardi called him "the best I have seen." Jurgensen was a five-time Pro Bowl selection, four times after he left Philadelphia. And 179 of his 255 career touchdowns came in a Redskins uniform.

Randall Cunningham's post-Philly resurgence was even more painful because Eagles fans thought he retired after the 1995 season. But a year later, Cunningham surfaced in Minnesota, and in '98 led the Vikings to 15 victories. He managed a 106 passer rating and threw a career-high 34 TD passes en route to an NFC championship game appearance.

Charles Barkley: Even though he was born in Alabama and retired in Houston, Sir Charles is a Philly guy. Fitting then that he won his only MVP award the year after he was traded to Phoenix, also the year he made his first NBA finals appearance.

Larry Brown spent more time here than in any other city (six seasons and 255 wins), and coached the 76ers to the finals in 2001. But he didn't win that elusive championship until he left for Detroit in 2004 - of course, his first post-Philadelphia season. He won 108 games in two seasons in the Motor City, more than in any pair of his six in Philly.

Terry Francona never won more than 77 games during his tenure as Phils skipper from 1997 to 2000. Four years later, he was a World Series champion in perhaps the most unlikely of cities.

The Francona-led Boston Red Sox won 98 games in 2004, dispatched the Yanks in the ALCS (after falling behind 3-0), and swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the franchise's first World Series since 1918. And a few weeks ago, when the Sox swept the Colorado Rockies, Francona became the only manager in baseball history to win his first eight World Series games.

Curt Schilling is another example of an athlete who spent more time in Philadelphia than any other place - only to move on up only after he moved on out.

Schilling won 16 games for the fabled 1993 Phils team that came up short in the World Series. Traded in the middle of the 2000 season, by 2001 he had already earned a World Series ring with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He's won two more World Series in four seasons in Boston.

Ryne Sandberg: Even a guy who only batted six times in a Phillies uniform got into the act. Sandberg was traded after playing just 13 games for the Phils in 1981. All he did was earn 10 All-Star selections in a Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Cubs.

Ferguson Jenkins: Similar to Sandberg, Fergie spent little more than one season with the Phils, who drafted him, then sent him to Chicago. He went on to win more than 280 games on the strength of a 3.34 career ERA. He made three all-star teams and became the first Canadian-born player in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Yes, the McNabb era is winding down in Philadelphia, and I'm OK with that, just as long as we recognize the likelihood of seeing him in some other city's parade, because that's the way it always ends for us in Philly. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.