Full Speed Ahead in Philly

Eagles Quarterback McNabb Says He Won't Miss a Beat After Knee Surgery

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- All was as it should be for the Philadelphia Eagles on a steamy afternoon this week at their training camp at Lehigh University. Donovan McNabb, wearing a red jersey to reinforce to would-be tacklers to not even consider touching him during non-contact drills, took snaps and threw crisp passes to his green-clad receivers. Coach Andy Reid stood with arms folded near midfield and took it all in, wearing an all-back ensemble of shorts and T-shirt topped by a white Eagles cap.

Reid and McNabb have been the faces of the franchise since Reid was the surprise coaching choice of owner Jeffrey Lurie and club president Joe Banner in 1999 and decided, to the chagrin of many of the team's fans, to use the second overall selection in the NFL draft that spring on McNabb. The pairing has been highly successful, with the Eagles coming off their fifth NFC East title in six seasons. But during the offseason, there was room to wonder whether McNabb and Reid would be sharing a practice field when training camp opened. McNabb was on the mend from the knee injury that cut short his season, and Reid took a five-week leave of absence from the team in February and March after two of his sons became entangled in legal troubles.

"Everybody is excited about getting the season started and making a run at it," wide receiver Reggie Brown said. "I'm very excited about this offense. Everybody is back and healthy. We have a lot of playmakers here."

Reid did one of his best coaching jobs last season, holding things together after an ugly late-November loss at Indianapolis dropped the Eagles to 5-6. They regrouped behind veteran quarterback Jeff Garcia and won their final five games of the regular season, then beat the New York Giants in the first round of the playoffs before losing an NFC semifinal at New Orleans. McNabb had been reduced to spectator status after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a mid-November game against the Tennessee Titans, and the initial prognosis of an eight- to 12-month recovery period left open the question of whether he'd be ready when training camp opened.

But McNabb said as he sat in a cramped dorm room on Lehigh's mountainside campus after practice that he always believed he'd make it back for camp, and he became more and more convinced of it as his rehabilitation progressed. He began running about 4 1/2 months after his surgery, he said. By the time he went to Arizona for the annual offseason training that he does there, he was ready to really test himself. He did drills that forced him to make hard cuts, to drop back and plant on it and throw in every direction. He pushed himself to do things at the speed of a regular season game.

"As I continued on," McNabb said, "you had more and more confidence, knowing that I was going to training camp ready to roll. . . . I have that confidence knowing that I can do everything I've done before the injury."

Still, he's wearing a knee brace and easing back into things. Garcia is gone, having signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a free agent during the offseason, so much rides on McNabb staying healthy after missing significant chunks of three of the past five seasons. He turns 31 in November, and the Eagles drafted a potential quarterback of the future in April by using a second-round pick on Kevin Kolb of the University of Houston. Even so, McNabb said he doesn't feel he has anything to prove, to those in the Eagles' front office or anyone else.

"I don't even care what they think," he said. "I don't. I don't because the only thing that really matters to me is that those 10 other guys on my side of the ball and those 11 guys who go out on defense have that confidence knowing that I'm going to give everything I have, and they have that confidence knowing that I will be there through the whole season and as we fight to get to the Super Bowl. I think when you begin to worry about how they think upstairs or how they think out on the outside, then that moves you away from a lot of the things you're able to do. Now, when I step out on the field, all of that can be erased by me just going out and playing football and making plays."

McNabb is sporting a cleanly shaved head at this camp, and Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse said: "It felt good to walk out on the field with Donovan. We talked a little bit in the locker room about meaning business this year. You can see he has his bald head. That shows he means business."

Reid was in good spirits that afternoon, fast-walking his way across a courtyard in front of some dorms to get to a live television appearance for which he was late. "I'm gassed," he said with a grin. "That was like a 40 [-yard dash]."

But Reid warned reporters during his camp-opening news conference that he would not answer questions about his offseason family difficulties. The day before training camp, Reid's 24-year-old son Garrett pleaded guilty to drug and traffic offenses, and 22-year-old Britt Reid requested a jury trial on drug and weapon charges. Both sets of charges stemmed from traffic incidents that occurred on the same day in late January.

Andy Reid said after he returned from his leave of absence in March that the thought of quitting coaching had only briefly crossed his mind. McNabb said this week that he traded text messages with Reid during the coach's time away, and never fretted about whether Reid would return.

"This is his passion," McNabb said. "This is kind of his life. As a coach, it's sad to hear because you have a family and family is first. There's his family, and he loves his family. His family is always around us. But this is what he loves to do. And for all of us as players as well -- we have our families that we go home to, and we love them dearly and they are first in our life. Football comes second. But when it comes to football, we're all in."