Former NFL wide receiver Freddie Mitchell and Donovan McNabb played together for four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, but they were never able to establish much chemistry. Mitchell insists that was not due to a lack of effort on his part.
Although Mitchell was not all that talented, he always insists McNabb simply didn’t like him. In an interview with Anthony Gargano on 97.5 The Fanatic Wednesday, Mitchell claimed he went above and beyond to get on McNabb’s good side, even offering to babysit the quarterback’s kids.
“The things that I would do for him to try to win him over… I would damn near try to babysit his kids,” Mitchell said, as transcribed by Andrew Kulp of The 700 Level. “Stay in Friday nights and babysit his children so he could go out and have fun and come back home.
“Just throw me the ball, that’s all I want. It was that bad where I didn’t know what to do.”
Mitchell went on to say he was sort of joking with the babysitting offer, but he insists he moved close to McNabb in an attempt to develop a relationship with him.
“I did all the things that it took to establish a great relationship, but the fact that the fans loved me more than they loved him, it pissed him off,” Mitchell said.
Keep in mind, this is a guy who caught a career-high 35 passes and two touchdowns in 2003. But we haven’t even gotten to the best part. Mitchell also said he wasn’t even aware McNabb disliked him until he was at a strip club. And guess who told him? The dancers, of course.
“It’s funny. I was sitting up in the strip club at Delilah’s. I had strippers coming up to me and ask, ‘Why does he hate you?'” Mitchell recalled. “I’m like, damn. I’m trying to have me a nice gentleman’s drink, and they say, ‘Why does he hate you so much?’ I’m like what, ‘What are you talking about?’ Everybody knew it but me, and that’s what the problem was.
“When the strippers know there’s a problem, it’s time to move on to different things.”
Mitchell, who later did time in prison, isn’t exactly the most credible source. It’s more likely that he didn’t get the ball much because he simply wasn’t that good, but his story is much more fun. We’ll leave it at that.
