Donovan McNabb Released: McNabb Should Retire from the NFL

Donovan McNabb should retire from the NFL. He has been granted a release from the Minnesota Vikings. The team benched McNabb earlier in the season in favor of Christian Ponder, their first-round selection in the 2011 NFL draft. This is his third strike in as many years, and now McNabb should throw in the towel and call it a career.

McNabb was drafted with the second overall pick of the 1999 NFL draft by newly appointed Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid. This decision was famously booed, and the fans in Philadelphia were opposed to McNabb for the entirety of his tenure with the Eagles. 

This was despite the fact that McNabb was actually one of the best quarterbacks in the league for the better part of a decade. McNabb led his team to four consecutive NFC Championship games (2001-2004) and Super Bowl XXXIX, which the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots.

Two seasons ago, Reid decided to roll the dice and go with a younger, more dynamic version of McNabb and traded him to the Washington Redskins, a team within his own division.

That should have been the first clue that McNabb's career was finished.

Unfortunately, Daniel Snyder was foolish enough to ignore wisdom and gave McNabb a shot. We all remember the incident last season where Shanahan pulled McNabb for a two-minute drill because he "wasn't able to catch his breath," right?

That experiment failed miserably, and McNabb helped the Redskins waste an entire season.

Then, the Minnesota Vikings tried to see if there was any gas left in the tank this season.

McNabb will never get the proper respect he deserves, but he could help his cause by announcing his retirement and staying out of the NFL for good.