And there probably also weren't a lot of people that anticipated Bernard Hopkins, just days before one of the biggest fights in his storied boxing career, ruthlessly laying into McNabb.
That's exactly what happened, though. Hopkins, a Philadelphia guy and avid Eagles fan, invited the press to a workout Tuesday. He was asked about Michael Vick playing for his hometown Eagles, and Hopkins went off on McNabb in a brutal, racial way. Here's a snippet from Marcus Hayes at Philly.com:
According to Hopkins, McNabb had a privileged childhood in suburban Chicago and, as a result, is not black enough or tough enough, at least compared with, say, himself, Michael Vick and Terrell Owens.
"Forget this," Hopkins said, pointing to his own dark skin. "He's got a suntan. That's all."
Hopkins also implied that, while Vick and Owens remained true to their roots, McNabb did not, and that McNabb was rudely awakened when the Eagles traded him to the Redskins last year.
"Why do you think McNabb felt he was betrayed? Because McNabb is the guy in the house, while everybody else is on the field. He's the one who got the extra coat. The extra servings. 'You're our boy,' " Hopkins said, patting a reporter on the back in illustration. "He thought he was one of them."
For more context on the "house vs.�field" thing Hopkins is talking about, you can peruse this Wikipedia entry (strong language present there) or read the original quote from Malcolm X.
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It's not the first time Bernard Hopkins has ripped into McNabb, either. He did it back in 2007 when he said McNabb didn't have Jeff Garcia's heart, and again in 2008, when he said McNabb wouldn't sacrifice to win and had no killer instinct. Last year, he said he was going to have a party celebrating McNabb leaving Philadelphia.
Some people believe this all stems from an incident where Hopkins showed up to an Eagles team function and McNabb snubbed him.
Nothing that's happened between the two in the past comes close to Hopkins' most recent comments, though. Those cross entirely different lines.
Through his publicist, McNabb already said about the only thing he could say -- that he won't have any response to Hopkins' comments.
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