Mike Freeman

There likely has never been a quarterback of Donovan McNabb's stature who has had his legacy spat on, trounced and macheted.

At every opportunity, Eagles fans have expressed their disdain and Andy Reid has shown his disloyalty.

The signing of Michael Vick is another indication of that. Just another slap in the face of McNabb who's been smacked so many times he must feel like a punch drunk Mike Tyson.

It constantly seems as if the city of Philadelphia and the Eagles organization can't wait to ship McNabb's big butt out of town as quickly as possible.

Oh, and that's what the Vick signing means. If you don't believe that Vick is McNabb's heir -- sooner rather than later -- you're a fool. McNabb is once again being prepped for pasture.

McNabb is publicly playing the good soldier because that's what he is and always has been...a good person and team guy.

It's been said that Reid and McNabb are close but if they are so close why was it that Reid didn't bother to inform McNabb that he was being benched for Kevin Kolb, instead allowing assistants to tell McNabb? Their closeness has always been somewhat exaggerated.

Ron Jaworkski, who was highly critical of the move, called Reid and McNabb "spin doctors" on ESPN. Leave it to Jaws to tell the truth about the signing and leave it to Eagles homers, blind and loud, to suddenly love Vick. Yahoo! writer Michael Silver wrote that the Vick signing reinforces how McNabb has an invisible "kick me" sign affixed to him.

"McNabb is being a pro," former Eagles player Barrett Brooks said in a radio interview, according to Profootballtalk.com, "but this makes him have to put up or shut up. He has no comfort in being the Eagles quarterback, if he messes up one time the whole city will be calling for Vick. Point blank."

Exactly.

Eventually Vick will take snaps from McNabb and deep down McNabb knows this. He won't say it but he knows it.

This move hurts McNabb and puts the microscope on him almost as much as it does Vick.

We've seen this sort of treatment of McNabb before. It started when Eagles fans booed McNabb at the draft. They wanted Kid Marijuana, Ricky Williams. Nice draft expertise, Eagles fans.

McNabb has taken body blows from Rush Limbaugh, village idiot Terrell Owens, and he's been benched by Andy Reid.

Now the Eagles sign a dog killing felon to replace him.

Unbelievable.

Please, McNabb bashers, keep these statistics in mind: McNabb has played in five conference championship games. He is easily the greatest quarterback in Eagles history. He holds franchise records for playoff victories, most touchdowns, most completions and most wins.

He's one of only six players to have 25,000 passing yards and 3,00 rushing yards.

He recently broke his own single-season passing record with 3,916 yards.

He played in a Super Bowl and lost to arguably the best franchise in NFL history.

Last year, after the team and Eagles fans again wrote him off, and McNabb bounced back by going to the conference title game -- again -- he gave this delicious quote: "I’ve been kind of revived, I guess. They've thrown me out, they ran over me, they spit on me, but you know what?

"I just continue to prevail."

McNabb will say the right things but this is bad for him and he knows it.

So do the Eagles.