Donovan McNabb: Lesson to Be Learned from QB's "Feud" with Bernard Hopkins

Donovan McNabb is a hard man to hate.  

He plays football, not for the money, but for fun.  He's silly, he enjoys it.  That's not a character trait that many players in the world of sports hold today.

The ultra-competitive nature of sports frowns upon players with that type of attitude.  Winning is the only thing that matters, forget fun.

One anti-fun athlete is boxer Bernard Hopkins.  Hopkins is from Philadelphia so he watched more than a couple Eagles games with McNabb under center.  Back in 2008 he criticized McNabb saying, 

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“Oh man, lack of performance, lack of heart. I wish the Wizard of Oz would come back out, man, so I could put McNabb in it as the character who needs to see the wizard to get a heart. The thing is this, man: Philadelphia is hungry for — yeah we’ve got the Phillies — but I mean the Super Bowl year. It’s all about character and heart and wanting to win the biggest trophy in football. There is just no urgency of going out on your shield to try and win the biggest prize."

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So the "feud" between McNabb and Hopkins didn't start a few days ago, but years ago.  Just recently when talking about the ex-Eagles quarterback, Hopkins lashed out, "Forget this," (pointing to his own dark skin). "He's got a suntan.  That's all."

There is no other way to say it: Hopkins is ignorant.

Sorry, but for all the people who hate the trash talk and the arrogance that is in sports today, he represents and lives every bit of that.  

McNabb didn't respond with an equal level of ignorance.  He didn't play Hopkins' child games.  In fact, he stayed out of the media and let his agent do the talking.

Now, if there were more players like McNabb out there, how much less trouble would we hear about throughout the week?  Santonio Holmes, Antonio Cromartie, Rashard Mendenhall, and the list goes on.

Other players in the NFL and in the sporting world need to take a page out of McNabb's playbook. If you don't have anything intelligent to say, just shut up.  

Sure there's freedom of speech, but with that comes the freedom to receive fines, suspensions, and a chance to make yourself, your team, and your sport look bad.

McNabb is a role model, Hopkins is the example...of exactly what not to do.

David Daniels is an NFL Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and a Syndicated Writer. Follow   him and   Bleacher Report Swagger on Twitter.