Donovan McNabb is now the best quarterback never to have won a Super Bowl.

As if the guy needed any more pressure on him.

Until the Colts beat the Bears in Super Bowl XLI on Sunday, Peyton Manning held that distinction, and seemed destined to retire into the “Dan Marino/Dan Fouts” Wing of the Hall of Fame in Canton.

But now, Peyton is off the schneid. He’s won the big one. He is a world champion.

And as a result, he is no longer the best quarterback currently playing in the NFL to have never won a championship.

That distinction now belongs to #5.

Now, I don’t say that to put any added pressure upon the already-burdened shoulder pads of Donnie Mac. Heaven knows he’s got enough Philadelphians breathing down his neck for things that are out of his control.

When he’s bad, he’s criticized. When he’s good, he’s criticized. When he’s somewhere in between, he’s criticized.

Heck, the guy gets criticized when he goes to the bathroom.

Despite all that, Donovan McNabb is a five-time Pro Bowler, was NFC Offensive Player of the Year in 2004, and led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl in 24 years that same season.

No matter what he does from here on out, Donovan McNabb is one of the greatest players in Philadelphia Eagles history. He does not need a Super Bowl win to validate that.

However, now that Manning has shed the “choker” label and won the big one, the mantle of “best active quarterback never to have won a Super Bowl” falls to Donovan McNabb.

It is a mantle no athlete wants.

And make no mistake; #5 enters the 2007 season at a crossroads. He has missed major portions of each of the last two years with season-ending injuries, and three out of the last five, with the latest being the most severe. No one knows how Donovan’s knee will respond to his rehabilitation or whether he’ll even be ready to go by the start of the ’07 season.

At 30 years old, he most likely has more years behind him than ahead.

Time is running out.

Still, when healthy, he is one of the five best QBs in the game. The window of opportunity for him to win a Super Bowl is still wide open. And ironically, the only way that’s going to happen is if Andy Reid and the rest of the coaching staff realize that winning can’t be all about Donovan McNabb.

For far too long, this franchise has relied too heavily on McNabb to win football games. It took his catastrophic injury last season for the brain trust to realize that a balanced attack and a stout defense are just as important as an incredibly talented QB throwing the football all over the field.

The only way Donovan McNabb will finally be able to break through and pull off what Peyton Manning did on Sunday, and what John Elway accomplished before him, is for the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles; coaches, players and front office, to step up and realize that Donovan McNabb can’t do it alone.

So Mr. Reid, Mr. Banner and Mr. Lurie… hear my cry.

Re-sign Donte Stallworth. Revamp the linebacking corps. Draft a bigger complimentary back to Brian Westbrook. Stay with the balanced offense. Get tougher and bigger on defense. Adapt. React.

Relieve the pressure that squeezes itself around Donovan McNabb’s neck like an anaconda and give him what he needs to finally deliver this town the championship it so desperately craves.

Do whatever needs to be done to aid Donovan McNabb in his quest to win a Super Bowl.

Because perhaps more than any other quarterback in the NFL, he deserves it