Shawn Andrews: Donovan McNabb was degrading, spread rumors

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Former All-Pro offensive lineman Shawn Andrews was back in the news a couple weeks ago claiming he was bullied by Donovan McNabb while a member of the Eagles. Andrews declined to get too deep into specifics at the time, but he assured us McNabb rolled his eyes a few times.

What Andrews wouldn’t tell Mike Missanelli on 97.5 The Fanatic, he shared instead with Nate Olson for a publication called Sync Weekly (via Deadspin). This time he and his brother Stacy—who had a dismal stint of his own on Philadelphia’s offensive line—paint a scathing portrait of the entire Birds locker room, with McNabb as one of the ring leaders.

Shall we sample the sniping?

 “[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.”

“I went into Coach [Andy] Reid’s office and told him it might be a good idea if I was traded because I was so fed up that I was afraid I might do some uncharacteristic and uncool things,” Andrews says. “I’m a loving guy and so many guys have gotten it twisted up. They totally misunderstood me. When you are dealing with a guy who presumably has everything on the outside looking in — commercials, endorsements and making a $10 million contract — and it’s still not enough attention for him.”

“I poured my heart out. I’m not a public speaker, so I was nervous,” Andrews says. “But I felt it had to be done, so I was standing there talking, and in the middle of talking to them I was making eye contact with as many of the [players] as I could. So guess who was looking at me rolling his eyeballs? Can you guess who was doing that while I was pouring my heart out to my teammates? You know how that made me feel? After that, my thoughts were so screwed up. Then I started to stutter and thought, ‘These guys probably think I’m full of sh*t.’ At that point I really cared. [McNabb] was rolling his eyes at me the whole time.”

In the nearly 4,000-word piece (seriously), Andrews discusses being bullied as a child, his well-publicized battle with depression, and contemplating suicide. There’s some heavy stuff in there that nobody should make light of.

Then of course there’s what he’s saying about McNabb and the structure of the Eagles locker room circa 2007-09—when he went AWOL as training camp opened and later couldn’t get on the field due to injuries—which comes off as a tad melodramatic and is littered with contradictions.

Andrews felt ostracized, yet admits he rarely talked to teammates. He claims teammates spread rumors about him, but gossips about their behavior in the shower (seriously) and extramarital affairs. He says he’s just trying to focus on positive things and stay away from negative energy, yet here we are, three years after his pro career ended with a one-year stint on the Giants.

In the end, he viewed his time in Philly in a very negative light:

“It just felt like I was in a living hell,” Andrews says of his time with the Eagles.

The issue with Andrews’ allegations is he really brings very little concrete evidence at all, even admitting McNabb denied spreading the rumors. He doesn’t understand why he was a target, but what exactly was he even a target of? It’s entirely possible any rumors about Andrews took on a life of their own because he was a strange dude who seemed to keep to himself, not out of a concerted effort to harm his reputation. Other than that, there was no direct name-calling, no hazing, nothing of the sort apparently.

I don’t doubt for a second some of Andrews’ teammates didn’t care for him or his personality, but that’s life.  It’s a shame he had a problem with some people, but maybe he needs to look in the mirror too.

>> Not always sunny in Philadelphia [Sync]

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