Donovan McNabb Insists He Should Be in Hall of Fame, Calls Out One Quarterback in Particular
For someone who has been retired for almost eight years now and is not one of the talking heads on debate shows, Donovan McNabb sure finds a way to keep his name in the news.
This time, the longtime Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is making headlines for talking up his stature among the NFL’s all-time greats.
McNabb appeared Thursday on the “TMZ Sports” show on FS1 and was asked if he thought he should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“Absolutely, and I’m not hesitating on that,” he said. “I am a Hall of Famer. My numbers speak for themselves. …
“My numbers are better than Troy Aikman’s. But he has Super Bowl rings and he’s played with Hall of Famers as well.”
If you stack up McNabb’s numbers against Aikman’s numbers, he has more yards, more touchdown passes and fewer interceptions than the Cowboys great.
Donovan McNabb: “I’m absolutely a Hall of Fame player”.
“My numbers are better than Troy Aikman.”
McNabb had 37,276 yards, 234 passing TDs and 117 career interceptions. #Cowboys QB Troy Aikman had 32,942 yards, 165 passing TDs and 141 career interceptions.
Do you agree?
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 24, 2019
But those stats don’t tell the whole story.
The most important stat for Aikman is his three Super Bowl rings. He led the Cowboys to a trio of championships in the 1990s, while McNabb’s Eagles lost in their only Super Bowl appearance.
Aikman didn’t pass as often as McNabb; the Dallas dynasty’s offense was driven just as much by the rushing of Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.
Also, it’s hard to compare quarterbacks who played in different eras. For example, Kirk Cousins has a better QB rating than Joe Montana, but no one is vouching for Cousins to have a bust in Canton.
McNabb brought up his numbers first and then mentioned the other things that voters consider when deciding who gets into the Hall of Fame.
“When they look at my numbers, yeah, but then they always want to add other stuff into it,” he said. “‘Was he an All-Pro? Was he this? How many Super Bowl opportunities?’
“But people don’t realize how hard it is to get to the NFC championship and to get there five times, and then make it to a Super Bowl? It’s tough.”
McNabb made six Pro Bowls, but he was never either a first-team or second-team All-Pro. Of the 27 quarterbacks in the Hall of Fame, all have made at least one All-Pro team.
Twenty-three of the 27 have been first-team at least once, and the four who have not (including Aikman) have combined for seven Super Bowl wins and 12 appearances.
McNabb has been eligible for the Hall of Fame since 2017 and has never been a finalist.
It was just a few weeks ago that he was also making headlines for calling out the Eagles’ current quarterback, Carson Wentz.
If Wentz can’t lead Philadelphia to the NFC championship game in the next two seasons, McNabb said, the Eagles should be looking for a new quarterback come 2021.
He faced a backlash but stood by his comments and said he was just being an honest analyst.
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