The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT April 7, 2009

As soon as the Super Bowl ends, I begin looking forward to this week for many reasons.

Whether it's the NCAA championship game, the start of the baseball season or the Masters teeing off on Thursday morning, there is never a dull moment in the sports world.

But considering the NFL blockbuster deal that sent Donovan McNabb from the Philadelphia Eagles to division rival Washington for draft picks, there will most certainly not be a dull moment the rest of the NFL offseason.

McNABB HELPED lead Philadelphia to five NFC championship games in his 11 years as its starting quarterback, getting the Eagles into Super Bowl XXXIX, where they lost to the New England Patriots.

Although he didn't win the big game, McNabb led the team without a big-time wide receiver for many of those years, eventually finding some success when Terrell Owens and DeSean Jackson joined the Eagles' roster.

In the years that McNabb was injured, the Eagles had to fight to make the playoffs, getting there once when Jeff Garcia filled in four years ago and having the season end early the other three years.

Now, the team wants to get younger and will turn over the reigns to Kevin Kolb, a third-year player from Houston, or Michael Vick, someone who hasn't started a game in three years.

THE IDEA of the Eagles getting younger and sending McNabb on his way is one thing, but to send him to another team in the division is insane.

Imagine what could have been had Green Bay given Brett Favre his wish and sent him to Minnesota two years ago, instead of him playing for the New York Jets.

Not to say Favre still doesn't throw the late interception in the NFC title game and the Vikings go to the Super Bowl, but I'm guessing that his courtship to the Vikings may have been saved.

Now the Eagles, the only team that McNabb has played for, will have to gameplan against him twice a season now.

If I had to guess, the drama surrounding that first game in Philadelphia will be comparable to when Favre returned to Lambeau Field last October.

IRONICALLY, McNABB joins Mike Shanahan, who was forced out in Denver two years ago as coach.

Shanahan helped show John Elway how to win a couple Super Bowl titles, and the idea of bringing a player of McNabb's capability could bring one back to the Redskins in the coming years.

Don't get me wrong, the more baseball the better and when Tiger Woods takes his first swings in the Masters on Thursday, I'll be watching.

When it comes to drama on television, I'm tuning in as much as possible.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by phone at 664-0239 or via e-mail at jelliott@cdapress.com.