The combination of Reid wanting to do right by McNabb and McNabb not wanting to languish in obscurity clearly accomplished one thing: Donovan was sent to a team that both men thought could be a contender. Heckert describes the natural reaction many people had to the trade, which is that they wouldn’t have sent McNabb within the NFC East.
Perhaps if Heckert had still been in Philly, then McNabb would be in Oakland right now, but it’s tough to say. Is Reid really that sentimental that he would sabotage his own team’s chances of winning? Much of the circumstantial evidence suggests that he might have cared about McNabb enough to do just that.
But what if that’s not true?