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He is the man now, but for how long?

Gordie Jones

July 23, 2008

To call the guy a jogger would be a grave injustice. He was a runner , that much was clear. Bare-chested. Body fat of a hummingbird.

And carrying an American flag.

He ran past the practice fields at Lehigh on Tuesday morning, as Donovan McNabb was meeting his media buddies for the first time in training camp, in a tent erected for just such a purpose.

Oh, and the runner, who was by himself, was singing. Nobody in the tent could make out the tune. Might have been one of those sing-songy military chants (''I don't know what I've been told Â''). Might have been something else.

Hard to tell.

Equally unclear was whether or not McNabb was whistling in the wind during his remarks to reporters.

There always has been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with his work among the paying customers, even in the best of times. And the team began drawing the lines of succession at quarterback -- not an unreasonable idea, seeing as McNabb turns 32 in November -- by drafting Kevin Kolb in April 2007, then easing him into the second-string role during the minicamps this spring.

So while there have been no white puffs of smoke over the NovaCare Bunker to date, it's quite clear that Andy Reid and Joe Banner have gathered the kindling.

McNabb, however, is in no rush to leave.

''I look at it as this is my job, and I'm not going anywhere else,'' he said very early in the news conference. ''So just kind of get used to it.''

He talked about returning to the offensive form the Eagles displayed in 2004, when they made it to the Super Bowl.

He talked about his health -- how limiting the number of throws he made in his post-minicamp workouts (''very similar to a pitcher,'' he said) alleviated the tendinitis in his right shoulder. How it wasn't until February that he fully recovered from the surgery he had undergone on his right knee in November 2006.

He also was asked whether he now has enough weapons, a concern he voiced after last season.

''I love my guys,'' he said.

Period.

It was a command performance, though not without certain flights of fancy. Asked if the Eagles have become something of an afterthought to those handicapping the NFC East, he said, ''Not at all. A lot of people have picked us to win [the division], and rightfully so.''

Really? Seems like everybody's picking Dallas, and not without reason.

And looking back to 2007, McNabb reached a few more surprising conclusions.

''We beat the Cowboys last year [in the second meeting], and we should have beaten them in the first game,'' he said. ''The Redskins, we should have beaten them the first time. The Giants, we should have beaten them both times.''

The part about the Redskins makes some sense; the 20-12 loss to Washington the second week of the season was one in a long line of troubling defeats the Eagles suffered, en route to a playoff-less 8-8 finish. But Dallas waxed them, 38-17, the first time the teams squared off.

And Giants-Birds I featured Winston Justice's fine work against Osi Umenyiora.

It's quite possible McNabb believes all this, just as it's possible he believes in his long-term future. And maybe he should; he did appear to be rounding into form during a season-ending three-game winning streak last year, and Kolb is very much an unknown quantity.

At the same time, there is McNabb's age. There are his injuries; he has missed 15 games the last three years. There is the fact that he is just 17-16 in the games he has started in that same span.

So while he can calm the winds of change with a big year, he cannot quiet them forever. Surely he knows that, despite all he said Tuesday.

Surely he knows that more of his career is behind him than in front of him, and that one day in the not-too-distant future, there will be white puffs of smoke on the horizon.