Happy Easter from the Novacare Complex!

Forget Roy Halladay’s debut or Tiger Woods’ “press conference”; the Philadelphia Eagles have an announcement!

The beautiful Sunday evening was shattered by the news that Donovan McNabb, Andy Reid’s chosen one and the scapegoat of the Eagles’ failure to win a Super Bowl in the past decade, was traded to the…Washington Redskins.

It wasn’t UNHEARD of—after all, FOXSports.com’s professional Matt Leinart MMA partner Jay Glazer floated the idea the other day. We all laughed it off, though, for good reason. After all, the Redskins ARE in the NFC East and ARE one of the Eagles’ biggest rival. The Eagles couldn’t be that arrogant, could they?

In short, yes. If nothing else, the McNabb trade has taught us not to underestimate how highly the Eagles esteem themselves. The organization is constantly accused of arrogance, egotism, and narcissism in how they conduct their affairs. Trading the franchise’s best quarterback within the division fully displays every one of those traits.

Granted, they did get good value for McNabb; no one can doubt that. An early second-round pick in a deeply talented draft is a quality return for an 11-year veteran quarterback who’s had his share of injury problems. If there is a lockout after in 2011, this trade will look even better—provided the Eagles use the pick properly.

Still, the fact McNabb is now the starting quarterback of the Washington Redskins fails to give the Eagles fan base a sense of closure. Per usual, the Eagles could not make a clean break, but rather needed to get cute with how they made a McNabb trade. The wrinkle was the division rival, and now we must bear the burden of cheering against McNabb twice a season. Maybe it won’t be that hard once the initial reactionary feeling wears off, but for now the prevailing attitude makes it hard to root for the Eagles because of how they repeatedly conduct themselves.

And now it ends. McNabb is gone, for better or for worse, after 11 years of mostly winning football. It hasn’t been entirely exciting watching the Eagles the past five seasons, regardless of the three playoff appearances and four wins, which makes McNabb’s departure less “I can’t believe they traded him” than “They finally traded him”.

The McNabb trade was no surprise. Few can blame the Eagles for it, beyond the fact it was made with a division rival. The intentions behind its timing, however, will remain dubious so long as the Phillies upstage the Eagles in this city. Little reason remains for why this trade had to be completed tonight, on Easter Sunday and the eve of the Phillies’ opener, except for the opportunity to get the Eagles in the local and national spotlight for a few days.

With this attention-starved gang in charge, it is no surprise. Regardless of how good Kevin Kolb turns out to be, the Eagles will run second to the Phillies for the not-so-near future, and need to time their big announcements to coincide with knocking the Phillies down a few pegs.

But that’s business as usual with the Boston Baked Beans in charge.