In retrospect, Chris Kluwe should have never given his No. 5 jersey to Donovan McNabb. For starters, McNabb was absolutely no help to the Vikings. He quickly became a bench-warmer in Minnesota and Kluwe got on the field more regularly than he did. In addition, McNabb has not held up his side of the bargain to this point. As you may remember, McNabb was supposed to mention Kluwe’s band five times in press conferences and donate $5,000 to the Kick For A Cure charity. So far there have been two mentions and no donation.
“That would be the major thing,” Kluwe said according to Scout.com’s Vikings page. “Tripping Icarus got the publicity we needed. That was fine. Two mentions is more than enough. The $5,000 for Kick For A Cure would definitely be appreciated by them.”
The Vikings released McNabb three weeks ago. He’s made plenty of money throughout his career. It’s time to pay up. Perhaps McNabb took Kluwe lightly because he’s always messing around, but Kick For A Cure is an important charity to Kluwe that raises money for Muscular Dystrophy. To make matters worse, Kluwe may have to wait until 2013 to get his No. 5 jersey back.
“I think the NFL’s policy is you have to wait another year after the year you change your number,” Kluwe explained. “So I’d have to go all of 2012, but I think you can make an appeal and I’m planning to because the ruling is so that guys don’t change their numbers every year and the league gets stuck with jerseys they can’t sell. Since I don’t have any jerseys in the store, I’m going to be like, ‘Look, why can’t I just change my number?’”
It truly is time for McNabb to retire. Look at all the hassle he’s caused over the last couple seasons. He can blame poor teams all he wants, but Donovan hasn’t had anything to offer in a few years. If he signs with another team in the offseason, I hope any other No. 5’s around the league have learned a lesson from Kluwe.
