Donovan McNabb may have not been a bully, but according to one former Eagles player, he was no leader, either.
After hearing about the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin controversy in Miami, former offensive lineman Shawn Andrews, who played with McNabb with the Eagles from 2004 to 2009, is speaking about the shoddy treatment he felt he received from the quarterback, which Andrews says “disgusted” him.
Andrews also alleges McNabb and other Eagles players spread rumors that he was gay, and the former lineman says by the end of his six seasons in Philadelphia, Andrews had thought about taking his own life and received psychiatric treatment.
“It just felt like I was in a living hell,” Andrews said, according to Sync Weekly.
Andrews said the players on the team developed cliques and McNabb was in charge. Andrews said teammates and staff members would suck up to the quarterback, who craved the spotlight.
“I could be sitting in the players’ lounge with a group, having some laughs, and he’d get his say in so the attention can shift,” Andrews said. “He was the type of person that had everything in the world he could want, but that still wasn’t enough. He wanted the attention on him. There was a whole lot of that behavior. He wasn’t just that way with me. I’m thinking, ‘Every day I strap on my shoulder pads and helmet, I’m here to protect you.’
“[McNabb] was a big part of it — he was a big part of my issues there. Bully is a strong word, but he was degrading to me and spread rumors. It’s bothered me that I haven’t really spoken about it.”
Once rumors spread that Andrews might be gay, he began showering after other teammates, so to not arouse suspicion that he was looking at other teammates.
“If you want to question someone, I’d see guys in the shower talking face to face,” Andrews said. “If you want to go further, I’ve even seen a teammate piss on another teammate. They think it’s funny. They are having a conversation and the whole time one guy is peeing on him and the other doesn’t even know. This is the stuff that goes on, and I am the one having to defend myself. There were a lot of immature dudes on the team.”
Andrews said he tried confronting McNabb, but he said the quarterback gave him a weird look and denied it.
When he came to the Giants in 2010, Andrews finally had a relationship with a quarterback that he had always envisioned. Andrews loved one season in New York — his stint was cut short by injuries — and he said no one was more welcoming than Eli Manning.
“We were in the weight room the day after a game, stretching, and Eli came up to me and said, ‘Shawn, thanks for protecting me,’” Andrews said. “That never happened in Philadelphia. I had heard that Tom Brady bought his linemen Mercedes. That ‘thank you’ was my Mercedes. That meant a lot to me, but the entire organization was like that.
“I had the time of my life in New York. I just wished I could have played a few more seasons there.”