The best quarterback in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles was benched during Sunday’s game, and his head coach didn’t even have the you-know-whats to tell him.

Before we get into how Eagles head coach Andy Reid threw away the season at halftime of a three-point game, doesn’t Donovan McNabb deserve better than a lowly assistant telling him that he is being benched for the first time in his career? The fact that Reid didn’t think he needed to waddle over to McNabb and tell him what was about to happen disgusts me.

How many times have we heard that the Eagles are one of the classiest organizations in professional sports, yet this is how they treat one of the best players to ever put on a green jersey? At least guys like Troy Vincent, Bobby Taylor and Duce Staley got to walk off the field in their last games. They weren’t benched like McNabb. I swear right now that if Brian Dawkins gets embarrassingly benched like what happened today, I will disown this team until Reid, Joe Banner and Jeffrey Lurie are all run out of town.

Now, I understand that McNabb was having a bad game, but knowing that the entire season was riding on the following 30 minutes of football, why make the change then? Why do it when your team trails by just three points? Why do it for a quarterback who is completely untested and unprepared to face the toughest defense of the last decade?

Basically all that Reid did today was tell his players, his bosses, and millions of green-blooded Philadelphians that he was throwing in the towel on 2008, and that he was only concerned with saving his job for 2009. If he really wanted to win Sunday’s game, A.J. Feeley, despite his propensity for throwing to the wrong colored jerseys, should have relieved McNabb, not a player who had thrown just nine passes in his career.

Honestly, I don’t know if Kevin Kolb is going to be the next Ron Jaworski or the next Bobby Hoying, but don’t we deserve to watch the players who give us the best chance to win? Apparently we don’t, and the rest of the team showed what they thought of the move, being outscored 26-0 in the second half.

Looking forward, not only did Reid ruin any chance of the franchise quarterback playing another meaningful game with the Eagles, he simultaneously ruined any chance that Kolb had to make a good first impression on a fan-base that seems to have an empty place in their hearts when it comes to the quarterback position.

Instead of giving Kolb the reigns after the Cardinals game on Thursday night, which would give him 10 days to prepare for his first start, Kolb got himself a whooping from Ray Lewis and company, and then gets just three days to prepare for his first start. That is of course unless Reid makes McNabb walk out onto the grass at the Linc as a lame duck.

It’s kind of funny that three Sundays ago I walked out of Lincoln Financial Field, after the 36-31 loss to the Giants, angry and frustrated that this team wasn’t playing up to its potential, but now I can’t even root for us to win because that will just extend the Andy Reid era. At least when Rich Kotite coached the team, I wasn’t disappointed because I knew we were going to lose most of the games. With Reid, we should win, but all we do is find different ways to lose, and it needs to end.

On the bright side, at least now I can enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner because I can’t see myself rushing through a good meal to watch the train-wreck that will appear on the NFL Network that night.

***
Like the "On the Edge" Blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show, where, this week, we will have tons to discuss, including the benching of Donovan McNabb, and the Eagles’ Thanksgiving night battle with the Arizona Cardinals.