When longtime Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb returned to Philadelphia and guided the Redskins to a 17-12 victory — outplaying the quarterback (Kevin Kolb) that was designated to replace him — it was a movie we had seen before.
About 11 months earlier, Brett Favre returned to Green Bay and guided the Vikings to a 38-26 victory over the team he had led for 16 seasons, outplaying the quarterback that was chosen to replace him, Aaron Rodgers.
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There were other similarities. Both games were broadcast nationally (Fox) in the Sunday 4:15 p.m. slot. Both quarterbacks had guided their former teams to five NFC championship games. And both were cheered loudly in pregame introductions, then booed during the game.
While Favre was lights-out in his return to Green Bay, completing 17 of 28 passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns, McNabb struggled, completing eight of 19 passes for 125 yards and one touchdown. McNabb did make some clutch plays out of the pocket, scrambling for a pair of first downs in the second half.
After beating Green Bay, Favre kept his comments low key. McNabb did the same publicly. The exception was when Fox cameras caught his postgame comments in the Redskins’ locker room.
“Everybody makes mistakes in their lifetime,” McNabb exhorted. “But they made one last year.”
