Ever know a couple that are together even though everyone knows they're wrong for each other and they keep fighting publicly and everyone keeps wondering why they won't just go ahead and break up and save their friends the awkwardness of watching their relationship go up in flames?
Yeah, that's Mike Shanahan and Donovan McNabb apparently. After McNabb's agent Fletcher Smith issued a scathing statement directed towards Shanny and his son Kyle on Thursday (which was based on Shanahan saying that he'd welcome McNabb as a backup in 2011 which was based on McNabb saying he'd been disrespected, which was based on Shanahan benching him for Rex Grossman), the Redskins countered with their own statement from the head coach.
"As I stated earlier, when I traded for Donovan McNabb I had hoped that he would lead us to the playoffs. No one wanted him to be more successful than me. When the team was 5-8 and mathematically out of the playoffs, I made the decision to evaluate our other two quarterbacks. This was not personal, but strictly professional. The decision was made in the best interest of the Washington Redskins and I stand by my decision. I will attempt to talk to Fletcher Smith directly to clear up every one of his misconceptions."Now, this is actually pretty good public relations, because Shanahan is saying what he should be saying -- that he respects McNabb as a person and a player and that he's doing what's best for the team.
Unfortunately, this is pretty contradictory to the whole "we'd love to have him for a backup" public statement that defines "backhanded compliment."
And at this point, we all know they're breaking up anyway; the nice thing would be for them to just go ahead and cut ties and let everyone move on. Or everyone involved could keep firing off statements that are either directly or indirectly insulting to the other party. That would be fun too.
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