Big Ben Supports Donovan McNabb and His Ignorance Surrounding Tie Football Games

Remember last Sunday, when the Eagles improbably tied the Bengals? And not only that, but quarterback Donovan McNabb conceded that he didn't know an NFL game could end in a tie? Shocking, right?

I'll admit to being taken aback after hearing McNabb confess as much during the post-tie press conference, but I hardly think it's as big a deal as some people are making it out to be three days after the fact.

And it certainly has no bearing on some Philly fans wanting McNabb run out of town. It's sorta like John McCain going on Saturday Night Live two days before the election; sure, he was funny and less angry-robot-seeming, but at that point, everybody had already decided who they were voting for.

But I suppose it's always fun (and easy!) to paint athletes with the broad brush of stupidity. If nothing else, it requires much less work than being original. Oh, Al Gore, what hath you wrought?

Whatever, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger came to McNabb's defense during a Tuesday radio appearance:

"I think people are making too big a deal and are being too hard on Donovan, because you'd be surprised - I bet at least 50 percent of the league didn't know that at the time," Roethlisberger said.

"You'd be real surprised. I think people just assume that the quarterback should know it all and that everyone should know that stuff, and it's not necessarily true, because who ever thinks about that stuff?"...

"How often does it come up?" Roethlisberger said. "The rules change so often that you never know what happens. People are being way, way too hard on Donovan and making way too big a deal of this."

Yes, the dude making these comments is the same one who head-butted a car sans helmet some 30 months ago. No, the irony is not lost on me. Still, I think Big Ben's right: people are making way too big a deal of this.

Should McNabb know about ties? Yeah. But for all the pointing and gawking from the media, I find it pretty laughable that these are the same people who routinely yell "FUMBLE!" whenever a player on the punt return team touches -- and then loses -- the ball after a player on the coverage team touched it first.

I know, the media aren't actually playing the game, but you'd hope they'd know the rules of the sport they're covering. Or is that asking too much?

Big Ben Supports Donovan McNabb and His Ignorance Surrounding Tie Football Games originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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