That date is NASCAR’s cornerstone. The second most important date in the sport’s history could be Tuesday, May 11, 2010, the day the NASCAR Hall of Fame opened its doors to the public in Charlotte, N.C. Not only is this a hallowed hall of honor, it’s also a place where the past comes to life.

After several years of planning and working out logistics concerning city and state requirements, a crowd of hundreds of people attended the groundbreaking for the $195 million facility on Jan. 25, 2007. Many of NASCAR’s past champions and most popular figures stood before an army of media members who recorded the occasion in words and pictures. Unfortunately, a few of those NASCAR legends died before seeing the hall completed.

By May 2007, excavation and site work began, followed by foundation work in October of that year. Over the next 30 months, construction continued on schedule and announcements of its future opening were in the headlines. In conjunction with NASCAR’s first “Strictly Stock” race held in Charlotte, N.C., on June 19, 1949, an announcement on June 19, 2009, established May 11, 2010, as the official opening date. That day finally came and once again, dignitaries gathered and heard speeches from those key to its creation, such as Winston Kelley, the hall’s executive director, former Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Pat McCrory and North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue.

Those in attendance for the May 11 opening were the first to see artifacts and interactive exhibits spread over 40,000 square feet. A 275-person state-of-the-art theater, Hall of Honor, a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, a NASCAR Hall of Fame Gear Shop and a NASCAR Media Group-operated broadcast studio are located inside the complex. The five-acre site also includes a privately developed 19-story office tower and a 102,000 square-foot expansion to the Charlotte Convention Center, highlighted by a 40,000 square-foot ballroom. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is owned by the city of Charlotte, licensed by NASCAR and operated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

Finally, a dream has been transformed into a beautiful 150,000 square-foot multilevel facility full of interactive exhibits that educate as much as they entertain. Those new to the sport as well as longtime enthusiasts can spend hours studying the historic roots of the Southern-born phenomenon to the nationally recognized prominence enjoyed in 2010.

When visitors enter the Hall of Fame they are issued a card that works interactively with displays that offer information through computerized likenesses of drivers at various exhibits.

Next, an informative 11-minute film is shown in the High Octane Theatre on a series of interacting screens that present the sport’s history up to the present, leaving fans with a feeling that they are as close to the action as possible. From there, visitors are at their leisure, ready to go deep into NASCAR’s past or enjoy present-day technology at their own pace.

Glory Road, located just inside the main entrance, features race cars that won numerous races and championships. It’s also a great display of how race machines used in NASCAR competition have evolved over the years. Whether looking at Herb Thomas’ Hudson Hornet, Fireball Roberts’ Holman-Moody Ford, David Pearson’s Wood Brothers Mercury, Darrell Waltrip’s Junior Johnson and Associates Buick or Jeff Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, they’re among a sea of color positioned on a display designed to show the actual degrees of banking (14 and 33 degrees) on present-day super speedways. There are 18 cars in the section that are of various shapes and sizes that conform to NASCAR rules of that era.

The section called “Race Week” gives the fan an up-close look at what goes into getting a race car ready for a race weekend. In this section, fans can feel what it’s like to fill a race car with fuel or jack a car and change a tire. The post-race inspection area shows what should and shouldn’t be on a race car, as well as a breakdown of engine parts and how they interact as a working unit.

A full-size Hendrick Motorsports hauler from Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 team gives fans a firsthand look at the rolling shop taken to the track each week. There are compartments, storage areas for springs, tools – virtually everything needed to rebuild a race car at the track. In the event the primary car is heavily damaged, there’s room to haul another race-ready car off of the truck. There’s also a plush lounge area for meetings between crew chiefs and drivers or simply relaxing.

Fans can also wave flags like a NASCAR official in a flag stand and feel forced air simulating the experience of towering over one of the actual tracks on the 36-race schedule.

A replica of Red Vogt’s Atlanta garage shows an era gone by, just as it was when he built race cars there in 1948. On the wall close by is a telephone with the voice of the late Raymond Parks, NASCAR’s first multicar team owner, telling the ace mechanic the cars he wants taken to the next race.

The hall also houses the Pontiac Ricky Craven drove to victory at Darlington on March 16, 2003. It’s special because it represents the closest finish in NASCAR history, over Kurt Busch by a mere 0.002 seconds.

During the induction ceremony in May the inaugural class – Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, Bill France Sr. and Bill France Jr. – were formally given their coveted places in the hall by way of vote by a panel of respected motorsports representatives. More of NASCAR’s iconic figures will be added in years to come.

Petty is genuinely appreciative of being named to the first class of inductees.

“Being in the Hall of Fame is something,” Petty says. “When you really go back and look at all the people, from promoters to drivers to mechanics, that have gotten NASCAR along this far and you are just one of the thousands that make it happen … [to be] chosen out of all those people is a heck of an honor. I am sure there were a lot of people that were more important to the overall deal with putting up money and taking gambles to make NASCAR what it is today.”

Today’s drivers in top rides with lucrative contracts have hundreds of drivers who competed in NASCAR to thank. Those before them made many sacrifices to help build the sport from its Southern roots to a professional sport followed internationally.

“A lot of us old-timers look back and hope that the guys that are doing it now appreciate what the guys did who laid the groundwork,” Petty says. “It makes you feel good that you can look back and see how much our sport has grown. It grew from the first year we ran in 1949, when my dad was racing; there were only eight races. It was so new that nobody would gamble on committing themselves to it.

“After those eight races they started to expand it. Every year they ran it got a little bit bigger and a little bit better. It took so many people to make that happen. You just hope that the guys now appreciate the guys that laid the groundwork and set the foundation.”

Petty says he enjoys seeing the hall as a fan more so than as a driver or champion. Like so many of the fans he races for, he loves to relive the sport’s past.

“There are so many different things and there’s something for everybody,” Petty says. “The first floor and second floor give the fans a glimpse of what they know today. But the third floor is where all the history is. Going on that floor jogs my memory to say ‘I remember this’ or ‘I remember that.’ Or ‘I remember getting caught with that piece over there.’ It rejuvenates me from that standpoint. It gives the new fan a look at where we started and what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

Rick Hendrick, a nine-time Sprint Cup championship team owner with drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Jimmie Johnson, is excited to see the hall opened.

“It is unbelievable. I can’t put into words how overwhelmed I was when I walked in,” Hendrick says. “I think a lot of it is because of how much I live this sport. It’s kind of like sacred ground to me. The new fans coming along now may have heard stories but never got a chance to see these guys race. Now they can take their time and come through here and be a part of it and feel it.

“I think if you don’t hold onto history in anything it doesn’t mean much. The fact we can showcase our sport in such a fashion is so great. Fans should know about Buck Baker and Bobby Allison and Donnie Allison and be able to see their old cars. The Hall of Fame allows them to come and enjoy the history and heritage of our sport.”

Former Charlotte Motor Speedway track president Humpy Wheeler thinks the NASCAR Hall of Fame gives Charlotte an even stronger identity among its residents and visitors.

“I guess the NASCAR Hall of Fame is Charlotte’s Statue of Liberty,” Wheeler says. “We’ve always needed an iconic something down here. They’ve done a fantastic job on it and I think it will be a grand success. They will have to change things around as people see it and go through it. It’s a majestic building and it will bring people in from all over the country.

“As far as the layout and content, it’s extremely creative. My favorite exhibit in the whole place is Junior Johnson’s moonshine still. And another personal favorite for me is Red Byron’s 1939 Ford. It’s just a remarkable place where you could get lost in all the NASCAR history they have there.”

Two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett won 50 races during a career that spanned from 1953 through 1966. To him, the hall is almost beyond belief.

“Seeing the NASCAR Hall of Fame come to fruition is very special, no question about it,” Jarrett says. “It’s taken a lot of hard work and a lot of dreams have come true as a result of this. The sport deserves it. It’s come a long way from its humble beginnings. When I was driving race cars, I had no idea we would ever see something like this. Back then, we were racing just to try and make a living and had no idea where the sport might go. NASCAR’s founder, Bill France Sr., might have been the only one to dream big enough to see something like this.

“I think NASCAR will continue to grow. I think all businesses have suffered because of the economy being so bad over the past couple of years. But I think having the Hall of Fame will help the sport rebound. There’s no telling what the future might hold.”

Hendrick believes the NASCAR Hall of Fame has the potential to play an important role in the sport’s future.

“I hope someday we can crown our champions at the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” Hendrick says. “I would love to see it. I think it would be so neat to have a big gala and have those (past champions) come. That’s what the championship should be about. That would really be neat to do it right in the Hall of Fame.”

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is indeed a dream come true for everyone whose life stock car racing has touched.

Serving Size

When looking at the food label, first look at the serving size, a standardized serving portion that the manufacturer put on the label. The information listed on the nutrition label applies only to the portion of food listed as the serving size; this may not be the entire content of the package. The number of servings per container is also listed; this indicates how many serving portions are available within the entire package. Diabetics should note that the serving size is not measured as a diabetic serving or exchange of 15 carbohydrate grams per serving. Also, the grams listed in parenthesis is the weight grams of one serving of food, not the carbohydrate grams.

Calories

(and Calories from Fat)

Next, look at the calorie amount from one serving of the food item and the calories from fat listed at the right side. All the information listed can help you determine how many portions of this food you are going to eat. In this food item, for example, almost half of the calories come from fat. This information can help you determine that you need to stick with the 1-cup serving size or less if you are trying to watch your weight and that your other food choices at this meal should be low in fat to help balance it out. According to the Food and Drug Administration, many Americans consume more calories than they need without meeting recommended intakes for a number of nutrients.

General Guide to Calories

• 40 calories is low
• 100 calories is moderate
• 400 calories or more is high

The Nutrients:

How Much?

Total fat, cholesterol and sodium are listed in the upper portions of the food label.  These are nutrients that should be limited in the diet to help prevent chronic diseases like heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and some cancers. Total fat is further broken down by listing the saturated fat and trans fat. Saturated and trans fats are indented under the total fat to indicate that they have already been calculated in the total. You do not need to count them in addition to the total.

The different fats are listed for the consumer’s awareness of the amount and types of fat that are present. Total fats per day will differ for different diets, but for a 2,000 calories-per-day diet, which the nutrition labels are based on, this would equal to about 65 grams of total fat per day (based on 30 percent of total calories coming from fat). Saturated fat should be limited because it has been shown to increase your risk of heart disease. Of the 67 grams of total fat, saturated fat should be limited to about 20 grams per day or less, and trans fat should be as close to zero as possible. Trans fat has been shown to be more damaging to your arteries than saturated fat.

Cholesterol and sodium should also be limited for heart health. A dietary goal would be to limit cholesterol to 300 milligrams per day and limit sodium to less than 2,400 milligrams per day. This information is noted under the “*” section just below the food label. If you have a history of heart disease or increased edema or kidney disease, you may need to decrease your sodium intake to 1,500 to 2,000 milligrams per day.  Keep in mind that 1 teaspoon of regular table salt contains approximately 2,400 milligrams of sodium.

It is easy to get carried away with our sodium intake, even if we do not use table salt, because prepackaged and canned foods are loaded with sodium. Shopping for food on a sodium-restricted diet can be difficult. An easy aid for label reading with regard to limiting sodium is: Use 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day and divide it by three, for three meals per day. That comes to 800 milligrams of sodium per meal; save some sodium for snacks, and a healthy limit would be about 600 milligrams of sodium per meal. If you were shopping for soup, a can with 900 milligrams of sodium per 1-cup serving is above our goal of 600 milligrams, but a lower-sodium soup with 560 milligrams of sodium per 1-cup serving would be within the guidelines.

Get Enough of These

Most Americans don’t get enough dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron in their diets. Eating enough of these nutrients can improve your health and reduce the risk of some diseases and conditions. For example, getting enough calcium may reduce the risk of osteoporosis, a condition that results in brittle bones as one ages. Eating a diet high in dietary fiber promotes healthy bowel function and may reduce your risk of certain cancers. Additionally, a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and grain products that contain dietary fiber, particularly soluble fiber, and low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.

Understanding the Footnote

The Percent Daily Values (%DV) are all based on a 2,000-calorie diet. (If the label is large enough, sometimes a 2,500-calorie version is also listed.) This information does not change from label to label; it will always read the same since it is the amount recommended based on a healthy diet.  The %DV are based on these recommendations.

Many times I hear people say that they don’t believe what is written on the nutrition fact label is true. The nutrition label is regulated by the government and the information on it is documented as factual. However, the information on the front of the package might be written in a misleading way. When in doubt, read the nutrition label; it does not lie.

It used to be that the manufacturer could write anything on the front label and have it mean whatever.  For example, “light bread” could mean a variety of things.  We might assume that the phrase implied the bread was lower in fat or calories, when really it was lighter in weight.  All that has changed, and what is written on the label must mean only one thing.

For those who want to get started on the right path to wingshooting perfection, special instruction is recommended. In Illinois we are fortunate to have free wingshooting clinics offered by the state Department of Natural Resources.

Two types of clinics are offered. The youth/women clinics are for beginners, with a focus on firearm safety, basic firearm handling and shooting fundamentals. Hunter clinics are for advanced shooters.

The first clinic was offered in June 1999 and 38 students were trained. Each clinic is taught by National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA)-certified wingshooting instructors.

The primary goal is to “teach students the fundamentals of hitting a moving target with a shotgun with reasonable reliability.” Having taken the course myself several years ago I can say it definitely helped with my technique. My 12-year-old niece recently went through the course and was busting clay targets within the first few moments of instruction.

To reduce uncertainty about recoil for those unaccustomed to guns, the clinics use semi-automatic gas-operated 28-gauge shotguns. Youth classes are limited to 10- to 15-year-olds.

Hunter clinics, open to men and women 16 years or older, are designed to enhance the wingshooting skills of hunters. NSCA-certified instructors work with a squad of four hunters with similar skills, refining and enhancing the techniques used by each participant.

If your state does not offer wingshooting clinics, there are other options. Most sporting clay ranges offer private instruction. To find a range near you, visit the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s website and click on “Find A Range,” or go to www.wheretoshoot.org/Find_Range. This site enables you to access a state-by-state directory to find a range near you.

If you are looking for a place to wingshoot, visit Wingshoot-ing USA’s website at www.wingshootingusa.org. There are about 1,000 bird hunting preserves in the United States.

The Microsoft Internet Explorer icon on your desktop (desktop is computer geek speak for the main screen) or found on the Start menu (left side of your screen) connects users to the Internet. There are other options to explore the Internet, like Firefox and Safari, but Explorer is a standard program. I recommend using it until you are more familiar with the Internet.

In most cases, your computer will default to the Microsoft home page. You may also be prompted to register the computer and update your software. Go ahead and do it now or you will keep being prompted every time you open up Explorer. The updates are easy; just a few clicks and you’re done.

The next thing I would recommend is setting up an e-mail account. But first let’s break down how to get there. At the very top of the new window, you will find the address bar, which normally starts with “http://www” and ends with “.com.” Type the address of the website you want to go to in that box. Do not worry about the “http://,” start with the “www.” For example, “www.

hotmail.com.”

You need to completely type in the “www.” and “.com” parts so that your computer can assign the right protocols to find the address on the World Wide Web. “Www.” stands for World Wide Web and “http” is short for hyper text transfer protocol. This knowledge may come in handy for a trivia question, but otherwise you do not need to know it.

The “.com” is also part of the address, kind of like a ZIP code. There are many variations of these codes. For example, “.com” usually indicates a business entity, (www.google.com), “.org” usually indicates an organization (like the Boy Scouts), and “.gov” is a government agency (www.irs.gov).

So go ahead and type in “www.hotmail.com” and this will bring you to our first stop on the Internet. Next month we will set up your e-mail account so that you can receive “electronic mail.”

For previous Tech Talk columns type “www.ptcchallenge.com” into your address bar and look for the Tech Talk link on the left of the page.

The Coast Guard, which celebrated its 220th birthday on Aug. 4, is the most overlooked branch of the United States military despite its importance in protecting America’s maritime borders and rescuing its citizens in danger at sea. Most recently, the Coast Guard has provided relief to Haiti following the earthquake in January and is overseeing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Challenge Magazine spoke with Boatswain’s Mate Stephen Smith, who has served in the Coast Guard for 22 years, to gain a better perspective on what this branch of the armed services does and what it means to be a member.

Coast Guard Missions

Smith enlisted in the Coast Guard at age 17, right out of high school. His great-uncle had been in the Coast Guard during World War II and served as an inspiration to him.

The men and women at the helm of Coast Guard boats, cutters – boats that are more than 65 feet long – and aircraft come from all walks of life. There are several paths to becoming a member of the service, including the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., which graduates about 200 new officers each year, and the Training Center in Cape May, N.J., where enlisted recruits go through an eight-week basic training boot camp.

Smith completed boot camp at the Training Center, where recruits receive instruction in seamanship, firearms and swimming, among other subjects. Smith lightheartedly refers to his boot camp experience as “unpleasant.” He recalls that the heat was so severe the summer he spent there that a heatstroke warning was in place, indicated by a black flag, restricting outdoor physical activity. However, after several weeks his drill sergeant informed the recruits that the restrictions no longer applied to them, to forget about the black flag and to get back to work.

After graduating from boot camp, Smith fulfilled assignments on several boats and cutters at Coast Guard stations in Boston, Florida, Alaska and the Great Lakes. According to its website, the Coast Guard “protects the maritime economy and the environment, defends our maritime borders, and saves those in peril.” At one point or another in his career, Smith has performed all of these missions and he is not alone. More than 42,000 active duty Coast Guard members carry out these broad responsibilities in environments that are often dangerous or hostile.

Maritime security is an important component of the Coast Guard’s mission and it includes defending America’s borders from unauthorized migration, whether refugees or migrant smugglers. In 1991, while stationed in Florida, Smith participated in the interception and return of Haitian citizens following a military coup. The ship he worked on transported nearly 1,000 refugees back to Haiti. Smith adds that when migrants are found, often traveling on overloaded, unseaworthy vessels, they receive medical attention before they are returned to their country of origin.

Drug enforcement is another aspect of maritime security. The Coast Guard seizes a startling 1,000 pounds of cocaine on its way to the United States each day. Smith was part of a tactical law enforcement team for four and a half years in Virginia that performed drug operations around the Caribbean. Smith says this assignment caused him to “spend all my time in Central and South America.” The boats he served on routinely seized several tons of illegal drugs.

Smith also served with the Coast Guard’s International Training Division (ITD) in Yorktown, Va., which provides technical training and consulting services for countries with waterway law enforcement programs. He sums up the program’s mission, “We went to other countries to teach them stuff the Coast Guard did.” During just eight months with the ITD, Smith traveled to Japan, Taiwan, Greece, Yemen and several other countries.

Life in the Coast Guard

So what is it like to work on a Coast Guard boat or cutter? Smith says that you start at the bottom. “When you’re on the lower rungs of the ladder you ‘sir’ the officers and clean the bathrooms and you do all the grunt work,” he explains.

“When I was in Alaska,” he continues, “we were the workers. We were the ones that cleaned the buoys and changed the lights.” Crewmembers eat, sleep and work alongside one another for days or weeks at a time. Although there is a clear separation of duties between ranks, women and men serve alongside each other in the Coast Guard as equals. All officer career fields and enlisted ratings are open to women in the Coast Guard, which is unique among the American armed services. Vice Admiral Sally Brice-O’Hara is currently serving as second in command of the Coast Guard.

Once Smith became the commander of his own boat, he assumed a more egalitarian management style. “On my last boat we all washed dishes; we all cleaned the boat. We all lived there.” He continues, “I treat my guys and girls like I would want to be treated.”

When his patrol boat and crew head out for a four- or five-day trip, they are focused on a number of duties, including managing buoys and waterways, enforcing commercial fishing regulations, preventing drug and weapons smuggling and search-and-rescue operations. As the commander of the boat, Smith has added obligations. He explains, “I’m responsible for (the boat’s) operations. I’m responsible for all the crew. I have to make sure the boat can last and that we finish our mission.”

When asked how common it is to come across illegal activity when they board a boat, Smith says there is a “75 percent chance of finding something” on any given day, which keeps them busy. Penalties for infractions range from citations to detaining suspects for other federal agencies, like the Drug Enforcement Agency, to arrest.

Despite the long hours and erratic schedule, Smith declares, “I still enjoy my job. I could retire now, [but don’t plan to].” He explains the satisfaction that his work with the Coast Guard provides. “Unlike the other services that train for something that might happen, we do something every day.”

Search and Rescue

Every year the Coast Guard saves thousands of lives. In fact, according to their website, Coast Guard personnel save on average 13 lives at sea each day. Although the emergency situations range from dramatic to mundane, to those whose lives are saved, the men and women of the Coast Guard are heroes.

Smith has participated in a number of search-and-rescue missions that received national attention. One such mission occurred in March 2009 in the Gulf of Mexico when Smith was commander of the Coast Guard Cutter Crocodile, an 87-foot coastal patrol boat out of St. Petersburg, Fla. Smith’s boat was one of several that participated in the search for four men, two of them NFL players, whose fishing boat capsized in rough seas off the coast of Florida. Smith states, “We found all their gear. We were the first boat on the scene and it was 16-footers (waves) that day.”

Although the search effort covered 60,000 square miles, only one member of the fishing party, a former college football player named Nick Schuyler, was rescued. Schuyler’s three companions were never found. Smith explains how difficult it is when a search-and-rescue mission isn’t successful. “We don’t want to come back in. We don’t want to say, ‘We can’t find them.’”

Coast Guard members place themselves in harm’s way every time they perform a search-and-rescue mission, when severe weather can trigger rough seas and low visibility. Smith relates one terrifying experience on Lake Ontario. “We were on a rescue and I was driving this little 44-foot surf boat. We were looking for a sailboat that broke its mast in 29-foot seas. I was driving and the waves were hitting the windshield so hard, it actually sounded like somebody was standing on the front of the boat with a two-by-four hitting the windshield as hard as they possibly could. I just used my training, but they (the crew) were all looking at me with scared faces. We ended up finding the boat. It was a very long night.”

Coast Guard search-and-rescue missions often involve sailboats, which are less expensive than motorboats, but vulnerable in rough seas. Last summer 16-year-old Amos Jones and his dad took their old sailboat out overnight off the coast of North Carolina. Late at night a storm blew them into a hidden sandbar, damaging the keel, which broke off and tore a large gash in the bottom of the boat. Jones says, “It wasn’t just a little hole. The hole was 6 feet long. It wasn’t something we could just fix.”

Soon waves were breaking on the deck. Realizing the danger they were in, Amos and his dad called the Coast Guard for help. As they were waiting to be rescued a fishing boat pulled up. They jumped in the water and swam to it. Moments after the Coast Guard cutter arrived, they watched their sailboat capsize and sink. They boarded the Coast Guard cutter and were transported to the nearest rescue station. “We would have been swimming if it wasn’t for the Coast Guard,” Jones says.

The Coast Guard search-and-rescue mentality is changing. Smith says that since the 1980s and 1990s, the unofficial rescue motto has evolved from “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back,” to “You don’t necessarily have to go out, but we want you to come back.” He says, “It’s a different mindset now.”

Overlooked and Undervalued

Since the Coast Guard transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, it has received more attention, though it still flies mostly under the radar. Although it is the largest agency within DHS, it lacks the clout of the Department of Defense. Smith believes that explains why the Coast Guard’s budget is smaller than that of the Army, Navy or Air Force. “We’ve always done more with less,” he says.

Even with the obstacles, limitations and difficult missions Coast Guard personnel face, the service is often lauded for the excellent job it performs. A 2005 article in Time magazine after Hurricane Katrina describes how the Coast Guard’s flexibility, decentralized command structure and willingness to take risks allowed it to operate much more effectively – and save more lives – than other rescue agencies on the scene.

Smith believes the Coast Guard attracts recruits who want to serve others and not necessarily fire a weapon or go to war. He says, “You’d have to be the kind of person that wants to help other people because that’s really what our service is all about.”

            Only those very close to McNabb truly know how the Pro-Bowler felt about the trade. Guesses ran the gamut from relief to have been given a new start to disappointment at being stabbed in the back. On the outside it certainly looks like he is making the most of his new beginning. As the saying goes, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Looks like McNabb might be drinking a lot of lemonade this season in Washington, D.C.

            Washington Redskins fans will have to agree that in recent times their team has been a disappointment. With a record that includes just two winning seasons in the past 10 years, bringing McNabb onboard, plus the expertise of Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Shanahan (Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII), surely has plenty of Redskins fans hoping to recapture some of their lost glory in the near future.

            One thing that stands out in the McNabb move is his ability to adapt to his new environment. From all reports he immediately adopted a leadership position, but not in an obnoxious way, and took to his new team as if burgundy and gold had always been his colors. He appearance at the optional preseason mini-camps demonstrated his eagerness to gel with his new team. His positive attitude about starting the upcoming season is commendable. It is difficult to find any negative comments that McNabb has spoken about being “stabbed in the back” or “jilted.” Our cover story this month (Page 24) highlights McNabb’s career and move to the Redskins.

            You can’t help but admire those who find the positive side of every situation. For example, author and professional truck driver Toby Bogard (Page 30) uses his downtime on the road to write books. I’m not proud to admit that I sometimes am unable to contain my frustration and become angry when a situation isn’t working the way I planned it. For example, when my rugby team performs poorly or below the expectations, choice words are often shared about the players’ lack of commitment or inability to follow directions. Surely more benefit would come from using these situations to find learning points or develop different strategies from those that are obviously not working.

            The ability of some people to find the positive in situations when frustration or anger could well be justified is admirable. Their ability to “squeeze the lemons” and make lemonade is amazing. Some of us need to remember that life isn’t always going to work out the way we planned it.

Five years ago the professional truck driver was at a truck stop where he ran into a rookie driver selling movies to earn money for meals. Bogard bought the man dinner and as they talked he learned the rookie was “running good miles but not making any money” because he was taking so much in advances.

“I explained to him that an advance was a loan against miles you may not run for a variety of reasons,” Bogard says. “And that if you didn’t run the miles to cover the ‘loan’ the company was still going to take the money out of your check.”

The chance encounter got him thinking. “It caused me to notice a gap in the training that students receive at truck driving schools and training academies,” he says. “I began speaking to veteran drivers about tips and such that could help a rookie driver out – little things that would help their chances of success from the beginning.”

Turns out, he and other veterans had a lot to share; enough to write a book, which is exactly what he did. “I wrote ‘On the Big Road’ to help pass what I had learned from veteran drivers and my own mistakes on to the next generation of drivers in hopes of filling that gap,” he says.

Sharing the Road

Several years later, another conversation – also in a truck stop, but this time with a non-professional driver – inspired his second book, “Semi-Aware.” “A lady walked up to me and asked, ‘Why can’t truck drivers stop faster than cars, as they have 18 pieces of rubber in contact with the road compared to a car’s four or six?’” Bogard says. “I looked at her and realized she was serious, and since she was, I took the time to explain why to her.

“It was then that I realized again there is a gap in driver education, but from a ‘normal’ motorist’s point of view. And so in an effort to fill that gap I wrote ‘Semi-Aware.’”

That book is for anyone who drives a noncommercial vehicle, but especially young and new drivers who haven’t yet formed “bad or even dangerous habits,” he says. “The goal is to keep everyone as safe as they possibly can be.”

Bogard’s three teenage children – all of whom will be behind a wheel within a couple of years – can’t have been far from his mind as he wrote “Semi-Aware.” His son Walker is studying for his learner’s permit now. In lieu of a formal driver’s education program, Bogard is teaching him himself in a “rather large but very safe” GMC Yukon.

So far, Bogard’s version of driver’s ed involves talking Walker and his younger brother and sister through basic maneuvers like changing lanes or merging onto the interstate. “I explain why I do it the way I do it, and they’ve been very receptive,” he says. (Here’s betting that “Semi-Aware” is required reading for Bogard’s course.)

Getting it Done

A master of time management, Bogard wrote and published both of these books in the downtime of his day job as a driver with the sixth-largest trucking company in the United States. He’s committed to writing at least an hour every day, more if his schedule allows. “It keeps me busy and it keeps me occupied. There’s not a whole lot of free time,” says Bogard. “I try my best to constantly be working on something, whether it be driving or writing.”

Several more projects are in the mix now, including a Christian self-help book, a full-length nonfiction book and a novel. He’s also close to completing work on a CD/DVD diet-and-exercise program he designed for truckers (all of the exercises can be done inside a sleeper berth). His website, www.truck-writer.com, offers information on these and related items, such as Truck-Writer.com T-shirts and hats, which should be available by the end of the year.

He attributes his impressive productivity largely to “ProMiles” truck-routing software. “Because it is so accurate I know my out-of-route is going to be low and that I can find time to write and exercise on a daily basis,” he says. “I owe them a big thank you.”

It’s clear that his self-discipline and ambition deserve some credit as well. In his nine years as a professional truck driver – seven with his current company – he has logged more than 950,000 miles. “I would like to drive at least another two years. I’ve got a goal in mind and that’s a million miles with one company,” he says.

Part of what he appreciates about his current company, which he calls “a class act,” is that its scheduling flexibility allows for time with his family. “I’m very fortunate that the company I work for allows me to go home any time I need to, so although I am gone quite a bit, it’s not a worst-case scenario,” he says. “I can get home fairly often and be with my kids a few days. I’m very grateful.”

Bogard tries to follow what he calls the four R’s of driving: respect the road, respect yourself, respect your vehicle, and respect other vehicles and their drivers. “I’ve based my career on these,” he says, and they are a key to his success and longevity in the business.

Life After Driving

He’s on track to hit his millionth mile while his children are still in high school. “I was raised by my grandmother, who worked quite a bit and was not around a lot. I was a latchkey kid growing up,” he says. “So I strive to be not just a good father but a great father. My relationship with my children is paramount in my life. If I’m really, really lucky, I’ll spend the last two years they’re in high school just being Dad.”

As much as Bogard enjoys the trucking profession, “I will have a life after driving,” he says. The April 2008 death of his oldest son, Zachary, prompted him to take a hard look at his life – where he was and where he was going. As he evaluated things, he determined “to finish my million miles, and in the process work as hard as I can toward becoming a life coach and mentor.” This, he says, is his ultimate goal.

“I love to teach; I love to help people,” he says. “I’m a firm believer you can accomplish anything in life you want to accomplish if you’re willing to sacrifice. You do not have to settle. I am living proof that if you are willing to work hard and strive toward your goals, you can achieve them.”

Welcome to the world of driving doubles and triples. Long story short, it’s truck driving times two or maybe three. Driving doubles or triples (hauling two or three trailers with a semi-tractor) is like driving a standard 53-foot trailer but with a lot more rules and precautions; it’s like flying a Boeing 747 rather than a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, sailing a three-masted schooner instead of a Sunfish, or building a three-tiered wedding cake instead of making muffins.

Just how big is big? First let’s take a look at a standard rig, the likes of which populate America’s highways daily. The trailer is generally 53 feet long, maybe a little shorter. Hook that up to a standard-length semi with a sleeper and you’re looking at an overall length of about 70 feet. The standard maximum load for a rig like this is 80,000 pounds.

Doubles and triples are designated as LCV’s or “long combination vehicles.” A typical double rig consists of the tractor and two trailers. Of the tractor and double-trailer combinations operated on public roads in the United States, the trailers are most often each 28 feet long, coupled by a dolly, to total about 63 feet end to end. Some states permit “turnpike doubles”: two 48-foot trailers with a maximum weight up to 147,000 pounds. “Rocky Mountain doubles” consist of one 40- to 53-foot trailer and one 28.5-foot trailer with a maximum weight up to 129,000 pounds.

Triples are used for long-distance freight hauling in the West and consist of three 28.5-foot trailers with a maximum weight of up to 129,000 pounds and an overall length of more than 100 feet. Triples are typically marked with “Long Load” banners in the front and the rear. In some countries triples are referred to as “road trains.”

What makes driving doubles and triples so much more demanding than a standard rig? What makes sailing a supertanker so much more demanding than sailing a dinghy? Just like any larger vehicle, doubles and triples require special skills and extra care. Loads have to be more carefully calculated and multiple trailers are far more susceptible to the “crack the whip” effect, a dangerous condition caused by rearward amplification that is hard to correct. The driver of doubles or triples has to be extra aware of maneuvering in highly congested traffic situations and tight areas such as parking lots, freight yards and truck stops.

Old Dominion Freight Lines of Thomasville, N.C., is one of the carriers seen regularly hauling double loads throughout the United States and Canada.  Old Dominion handles a variety of freight, both industrial and commercial, and the double rig is a mainstay in its fleet. Ralph Hamilton has driven for Old Dominion for more than three decades and is also a driver trainer for the company. In 2003 and 2004 Hamilton served as a team captain for America’s Road Team, an organization of professional drivers with superior safety records. Created by the American Trucking Association in 1986, America’s Road Team is a group of 36 drivers who represent the best of the best, according to ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.

With more than 4 million miles of accident-free professional driving experience, it’s likely Hamilton has forgotten more about trucking than most of us will ever know.

Hamilton has garnered more than 20 years of practical experience driving doubles and concludes that for most driving situations, driving a double is not much different than driving a standard rig with a 53-foot trailer. There are, of course, some exceptions. “The first thing I tell my students,” he says, “is to steer the rig with both hands, not with one.” A driver who steers with only one hand has a tendency to saw the steering wheel back and forth. It may not be that big a deal in a standard rig, but in a double it creates that crack-the-whip effect. “I tell my students to keep both hands on the wheel and that takes care of the problem.

“The key to pre-tripping a rig,” Hamilton says, “is to repeat every step exactly the same way each time.” He says that developing a routine that the driver never deviates from will increase safety. “You’ve got more tires, wheels, hoses. If you create a good safety routine, you will be less likely to overlook the details.”

Hamilton continues, “Probably the hardest part of learning to drive a double is hooking up the second trailer. It’s a short distance to back under the second trailer, but because of the short tongue length the ‘converter’ or ‘pup’ [the extra axle and fifth-wheel assembly the second trailer rests on] is liable to turn very quickly.

“Once it does you’ve lost it,” says Hamilton.  “I tell my drivers that if they lose sight of the pup, stop, don’t try to guess where it is.” He cautions, “Equipment gets damaged when drivers try to guess where the pup is.

“The biggest danger to doubles [and triples] is wind, rain and snow,” Hamilton says. Inclement weather increases exponentially the danger of a jack-knife or loss of control and the possibility of flipping the trailers. “When the weather gets bad, I just park the rig.”

Clarence Pennington Sr. is another driver who’s piloted doubles and triples for many years. With 22 years behind the wheel and 2.5 million miles behind him, Pennington tells plenty of tales about his experience, especially with triples, but he accounts for his years of safe driving by saying, “I treat every trip like it’s my very first time.”

While Pennington agrees with Hamilton that under normal circumstances driving triples is not that difficult, he also believes that in a pinch driving triples can be riskier than driving doubles. He asserts that a driver should “never jerk the steering wheel” on a triple rig.

Pennington once was confronted with a wheel and tire that had come loose from an oncoming truck and was hurtling down the highway in his lane. “There was nothing I could do, I just held the truck on course and applied brakes (another thing that leads to disaster is slamming on the brakes on doubles and triples). The wheel went under my truck and wrecked my radiator.” This was a small price to pay considering what could have happened if the wheel had bounced into his windshield.

Even though operators of trucking companies know that the heaviest trailer is always the first in line and followed by lighter trailers, in Pennington’s experience it pays to double-check trailer weights. Being at speed on the highway is not the time to discover the heaviest trailer is the last in line. The chances of a wreck are increased dramatically in such situations.

“Then there are designated routes and special permits most states require for triple rigs,” Pennington says, noting that triples are not permitted in all states. “Put that together with pre-tripping your rig and double-checking lights, brakes, hoses and placards, and it’s a whole lot more work.”

In some instances, companies pay drivers a combination of hourly wage and mileage to compensate triple drivers for the extra work. A driver who is looking into  driving triples should ask the company about compensation for extra duties. Otherwise, pay per mile does not vary greatly from the rate for a standard 53-foot rig.

“I’ve heard of guys who claim they have backed a double or triple the length of a football field,” Hamilton laughs. “I’ve got a $20 bill that would like to see that.” The driver of doubles and triples has to think far ahead when contemplating maneuvering in tight areas. Finding out too late that you can’t pull through openings or around obstacles is setting yourself up for a lot of coupling and uncoupling and potentially even more dangerous stunts. Hamilton says it’s possible to back up a double rig a few feet, but no more. “Once that second trailer gets out of line, you’ve lost it.”

Of backing triples, Pennington simply says, “Oh, you can’t back them up!”

Pennington and Hamilton say their best safety tip is to maintain more than adequate following distance and to be courteous toward other drivers, trucks and four-wheelers alike. By being courteous, the driver of any truck automatically employs safe driving practices that will help keep him or her out of harm’s way.

These veteran drivers say driving doubles and triples is rewarding work but requires drivers who are willing to go to extra trouble to make sure their rig is safe, and to make safety their top priority.

Lindsey acknowledges that the story behind the song “You Only Call Me (When You’re Drunk)” is a little more mundane than it appears. He explains, “My cousin Dave – I won’t say his last name to protect the guilty – called me about 2:30 one morning and he was so drunk I couldn’t make out a word he was saying. After about 10 minutes I said, ‘Dave, I love you. I pray that you get home. Please take a cab and I’ll call you in the morning and check on you.’”

Cousin Dave did get home safely that night, but Lindsey’s wasn’t the last number he dialed. Lindsey continues, “About 10 or 15 minutes after that my buddy Jody called me and he says, ‘Did your cousin call you?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Man, seems like he only calls me when he’s drunk.’”

That’s when the light bulb came on for the two friends, who ended up writing most of the song over the telephone right then.

Musical Roots

Lindsey was born and raised in Ohio County, Ky., the heartland of traditional country and bluegrass music. In the town of Rosine, right down the road from his childhood home in Beaver Creek, music legends like Bill Monroe and the Everly Brothers got their start. Growing up, music was a part of Lindsey’s life. As a Kentucky native, he assumed that “everyone played music and basketball.”

In Lindsey’s family there are plenty of musical standouts. His cousin Paul Moseley is in the Thumbpickers Hall of Fame. Lindsey’s dad, Mike, is an accomplished singer and songwriter whose band, Stardusters, has played in local honky-tonks and opries, as well as Nashville clubs.

Mike Lindsey once was invited to perform for Loretta Lynn at a birthday celebration at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. He also was a good friend of the late Tommy Collins, a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, who worked with such artists as Merle Haggard and Buck Owens during his long career. Collins was a frequent visitor to the Lindsey home.

Collins’ presence influenced Scott Lindsey at a young age. Lindsey says, “With Tommy Collins being around writing with Dad, I really got into writing. I was writing my little ‘I love you, you love me’ songs and bringing them out. Tommy would critique them and send me back to my room. All that going into my youth, it’s a real learning experience that a lot of people would pay for and I got it for free and I didn’t even realize it until I got older.”

Growing up in a home rife with different styles of music, it is no wonder that Lindsey’s own sound is so eclectic. He describes a typical collaboration between his dad’s band, Collins and Moseley. “They’d be doing an Eagles song and you’d have a thumbpicking solo in it, you’d have a rock solo in it and then you’d have a bluegrass solo in it. It was very interesting.”

Lindsey’s father explains that the family’s musical roots are deep. “My uncles always played music,” he says. “Anytime we had get-togethers anywhere, there was always music involved … we didn’t realize it at the time, but there was a tremendous amount of talent in that little huddle of people, friends and family.”

That includes Mike’s mother and Scott’s grandmother, Rava Moseley Lindsey, who at 90 years old still sings at the opry in Rosine on occasion.

Scott’s aunt Shirley Lindsey Ashby is a talented singer and songwriter as well. Mike Lindsey says of his sister, “I learned a lot from her. Every song she ever wrote is just complete. It always tells a story.

“She was very influential of all of our writing because we critiqued each other. We studied songwriting. … We would dissect songs line by line just to see how they built their story. This is how we learned.” The brother-and-sister team have written several songs together.

The Rosine opry has showcased local talent in the area where Lindsey grew up for years. Mike Lindsey says, “It’s quite amazing because of the local talent that has been across that stage and still is. You will see kids up there at 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 [years old] and they got an instrument. Some guy that came through here just last summer, he walked over and asked some people, ‘What do they do here? When a kid is born, they hand him a mandolin and a violin?’ That’s basically the truth.

“Some of these old-timers up here, I’m telling you, they’re as good as anybody in Nashville. They love what they do, but they never had the big time in mind. They just want to play local.”

Musical Aspirations

Scott Lindsey says that while the music bug bit him early on, the desire to be a performer came later. “I would go to some of Dad’s gigs. I just loved that feeling of the crowd. I didn’t really know that I wanted to do it for a living until I was probably 16, 17, 18 years old, but up till that point I knew I loved it.”

The college basketball fan adds that around this time “I realized I probably wasn’t going to be tall enough to play, or quick enough to play, basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.”

He continued practicing and improving under the guidance of his dad and Collins. He says, “I spent a lot of my childhood in my room practicing guitar or practicing songwriting or singing. Dad taught me how to sing like Conway Twitty and Keith Whitley and all those guys. I took what Dad taught me about singing and … I practiced along with Randy Travis’ album ‘Storms of Life.’ And Elvis, of course.”

He continues, “So what I’m getting at is that I spent a lot of my childhood in my bedroom either practicing my guitar or practicing singing or practicing songwriting just to be able to come out into my own living room!”

Lindsey is a former teacher who left education to pursue his country music dream. Over a nine-year teaching career he taught history, physical education and music, among other subjects. “I was low man on the totem poles,” he explains.

He looks back on teaching fondly, but admits that at times it was a difficult job. “Everything’s got its highs and lows … it was always a struggle.”

He continues to respect educators, stating firmly, “I’m speaking from experience when I say that teachers are underpaid. Way underpaid.”

Paying His Dues

Now that he’s concentrating on music full time, Lindsey continues to draw on lessons from his father. Mike Lindsey says, “I’ve always taught Scotty that there’s two sides in life in country music. There’s the singer/songwriter/musician; then there’s the entertainer. The entertainer is the winner. You gotta have all these other assets, but you must be an entertainer and it takes all those things to complete yourself as an entertainer.

“That’s why they say in country music, ‘I paid my dues.’ You cannot be an entertainer until you’ve paid your dues and you understand all that.”

He continues, “I think Scotty has paid his dues. He understands now all the different aspects that go into being an entertainer. He is definitely good on stage. That is his best and when you’re the best on the stage – the live stage – then you become that entertainer.”

Many in country music have already taken notice of Scott Lindsey, whose voice has been compared to Trace Adkins’. In addition to “You Only Call Me,” another of Lindsey’s songs is getting positive reviews from critics. “Teardrops,” the ninth track off his album, was written by Mike Lindsey many years ago. Reviewer Jan Duke of About.com: Nashville writes, “‘Teardrops’ is a classic smoky honky-tonk, crying-in-your-beer, got-the-blues song that takes one right into the honky-tonks of Lower Broadway – you can almost see Ole Hank sitting there smiling on this one.”

Mike Lindsey admits that having his song mentioned in the same sentence as Hank Williams is high praise. Despite being approached several times by interested buyers, he is proud that he held onto the song for his son. “I feel like I made a good choice. In time that song will be heard. As a father you put everything into your kids and what if it turned out to be ‘the’ career song and you gave it to someone else?

“I know if the traditional side of country music ever comes back, we got a winner in that song … I’ll take my chances with my song. I don’t have to be rich; it doesn’t matter to me.”

Family Support

If there’s one thing Scott Lindsey has in abundance, it’s the support of his family. His mother, Teresa Lindsey, has also been a guiding force in his life and supporter of his country music aspirations.

His father, one of 11 children and perhaps his biggest fan, says, “We believe in him. I just think his music needs to be played and heard.”

Another of Scott Lindsey’s cousins, Barry, is a long-haul truck driver. Lindsey sees similarities between the demands of that job and the work he does. He explains, “Truck drivers and musicians are close kin because of all the traveling you do. We’ll be on the road for a week, two weeks at a time and then we’ll be home for a week. Kindred spirits, that’s the word I’m looking for. I know my cousin loves seeing new things; he loves being on the road. But he loves being at home, too. It’s a double-edged sword.

“It’s the same way with musicians. I love being on the road. I love performing. I love meeting new people and seeing new things. But I also love being at home with my wife and baby girl. I love both.”

Looking Ahead

Lindsey has ambitious goals for his music career. “I want to be a star,” he declares. “I want to be one of those guys like Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw or Brad Paisley. It’s been a lot of work to get here and I just want to go to the top.”

He also mentions that he could see himself writing and singing with other artists in the future. “I’d love to write with Randy Travis and Rodney Crowell. I think Rodney Crowell might be the best songwriter ever to hit this town [Nashville],” he says, adding, “I’d love to duet with Patty Loveless. She’s an amazing vocalist.”

With a jam-packed schedule coming up that includes radio and television appearances, concerts and festivals, Lindsey’s star seems certain to keep rising. He jokes about all the publicity, saying he plans to be “as exposed as legally possible.”

McNabb wasn’t shocked, says Rich Burg, who represents the veteran NFL player at 5 Star Unlimited, but he was surprised when the Eagles finally pulled the trigger. “The rumors had been out there,” Burg says. Rumors started surfacing back in 2007 when the Eagles drafted quarterback Kevin Kolb, who has now slipped into McNabb’s spot on the team. Despite the rumors, “Donovan always acted as if he would be with the Philadelphia Eagles forever,” Burg says.

In 1999, when McNabb was a first-round draft pick by the Eagles, the team had just come off of a discouraging 3-13 season. During McNabb’s reign on the field, the Eagles averaged 10 wins per season. The club won the NFC East Division five times and played in five NFC Championship games. In 2004, McNabb had arguably his best season (he completed 64 percent of his passes) and led the Eagles to the 2005 Super Bowl, where they lost to the New England Patriots.

McNabb, who tries not to focus on the trade, was equally caught off guard when the Eagles decided not to bring back NFL Pro-Bowler safety Brian Dawkins for the 2009 season. “He has given everything that he has and for you not to bring him back kind of opens up the door to let everyone know that we’re all replaceable,” reflects McNabb. “I’ve been a part of it this year, but neither one of us are going to hang our head low. We’re going to continue to keep our heads high for the teams on which we’re playing.”

The 2010 season marks a new beginning for the Washington Redskins. Not only has the team added a new quarterback but it has also brought in a new general manager, Bruce Allen (formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and head coach, Mike Shanahan (formerly of the Denver Broncos), who has under his belt two back-to-back Super Bowl wins along with two conference championships and four division championships.

Shanahan didn’t have the opportunity to meet McNabb until the day after the trade was announced. He says that a “quick kinship” evolved. “Here are two guys from Chicago, two guys starting out with a fresh start – it’s better than being fired,” he quipped in an April press conference. The two “team newbies” have a mutual goal: to win a Super Bowl. McNabb certainly has the drive. “I’m excited to have him as our quarterback,” Shanahan says. “He’s an excellent leader. He’s everything that you look for in a quarterback and I’m not just talking about the physical attributes. [It’s everything from] leadership, how he carries himself and what he’ll do in his community to the way he’ll lead this football team.”

McNabb began his football career at Syracuse University, where he was a starter all four years. A well-rounded athlete, he also played on the school’s basketball team for two seasons. Even today, when he’s away from football he enjoys hitting the basketball court. “He was a pretty good player at Syracuse,” Burg says. “If he was taller, he would have been a [professional] basketball player.”

A former Eagles employee, Burg remembers one of his first encounters with McNabb after he was drafted. The two were in a limo with one of the coaches when McNabb started thumbing through his three-inch-thick play binder. “He was studying plays that he would have to run in a few days at Veterans Stadium,” Burg recalls. That’s when Burg knew this new quarterback would be “tireless and committed.”

Burg had met McNabb before the draft when the Eagles brought in several players who were potential first-round picks to meet with the coaches and owners. “I knew without a doubt that Donovan would be the one who could do what was needed in Philadelphia,” he says. “There was no question in my mind that he was the guy.”

McNabb stepped into a leadership role immediately. “He was being asked to rescue this franchise and there was no doubt that he was going to be able to do that,” Burg says.

Fast forward to the present. McNabb has joined a team that finished last season with a 4-12 record. Is this yet another rescue mission? Many Redskins fans are wondering if the seasoned player can bring home a winning season or, better yet, a Super Bowl bid. “He’s a professional,” says the Redskins’ new offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan (Kyle, son of head coach Mike Shanahan, previously was with the Houston Texans). “He’s very poised out there. He knows what he’s doing. But, he’s rusty just like everyone else, even though he’s running some plays that he’s run before. Everybody runs similar plays but everyone coaches them different.”

Mike Shanahan is known for his run-heavy variation on a West Coast offense, in which he uses the running game to facilitate the passing game. McNabb is no stranger to a West Coast offense, a strategy that dates back to Bill Walsh’s coaching days with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s. “The offenses are somewhat similar, but very different,” McNabb says, referring to both the Eagles’ and Shanahan’s offense. “There will be a change but I look forward to going back and studying and making sure I have this thing second nature to me.”

Washington’s offensive line will be different for McNabb in more ways than one. “I’ve been looking back for years seeing [Brian] Westbrook doing everything,” he says, adding that he feels confident about fitting into Shanahan’s system. “We will run the ball here [in Philly there was an emphasis on the passing game]. We have got three solid running backs that are very effective and have done well with their given teams, but we also have some talented wide receivers and tight ends here, as well. I think it’s important that we are able to spread it around and get guys involved and give them the opportunity to make plays for us. And for me, [I] just have to be the guy that orchestrates everything, make sure everybody’s confident and ready to go and ready to make that big play for us.”

The veteran quarterback embraces his leadership role on the field. “He’s not put in a position to be above anybody else but [rather] to bring people to the level that they can achieve great success,” observes Burg. “Donovan wants to be part of a team that wins.”

McNabb understands the responsibility of being a franchise quarterback, being the face of the franchise. He tries to keep things on an even keel without drama, even in the face of angry fans and commentator barbs. He knows that his actions and statements reflect positively or negatively not only on himself but also his family, teammates, coach, owner and fan base. “I think he gets that,” Burg says. “He understands that his voice holds a lot of weight. He knows that every word he says will be analyzed, sometimes overanalyzed.”

Burg feels there are times that McNabb has been misjudged by the press, especially when the media bring up controversial topics, such as an incident with talk show host Rush Limbaugh where he implied that McNabb was given more attention because of his race. “Donovan has been accused of being thin-skinned and I’ve always felt that was unjust. Donovan has moved on from many of the controversies that he has been party to. However, many interviewers doing profiles on Donovan feel the need to ask about them. He’s only responding to their questions. It’s always brought up by the interviewer. Sometimes he won’t respond or he will respond politely. He lets things go. There’s not anything that he dwells on.”

The moral foundation that McNabb draws from was formed early in his life in Chicago. He grew up in a loving, nurturing environment. His father, Sam, a retired electrical engineer, and his mother, Wilma (“Char”), a registered nurse, instilled in their son a sense of responsibility and community. “Early on in his career, Donovan would say ‘My parents are my No. 1 fans and also my biggest critics.’ They are the ones who are the most honest with him,” Burg says. “They are a close-knit family.”

His parents have been supporters throughout his career. His mother, who has become a celebrity herself because of her NFL mom Campbell’s Chunky Soup commercials, is now president of the Professional Football Players Mothers Association. McNabb’s father heads the National Football Players Fathers Association, which he helped found in 2000. Both organizations help families of NFL rookies deal with the life changes that occur when a family member joins the league.

McNabb’s father, who has diabetes, was the impetus behind the Donovan McNabb Fund, which pledges support to raise awareness of the disease. The fund has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Diabetes Association and has provided scholarships to many students. Likewise, McNabb served as the inspiration for his dad, who created SEADO Enterprises, a nonprofit that helps “support, assist and mentor young student athletes.”

In his own family, McNabb is a doting father. He met his wife, Raquel, at Syracuse University, where she was a star basketball player. The two married in 2003. The couple now have four children – a 5-year-old daughter, Alexis; 1-year-old twins, Sariah and Donovan Jr.; and 6-month-old Devin James. “Donovan has two sides,” Burg says. “He’s Donovan, a fun-loving dad, and also Donovan, the football player who is relaxed, a jokester and a smart guy. When he’s with his kids, he’s a jungle gym. They are in his arms and on his lap.”

Even though his professional life is in the glare of the camera, McNabb keeps his personal life private. The family quietly splits its time between northern Virginia and the Phoenix area. McNabb’s competitive spirit, however, isn’t lost on his daughter Alexis, whom he encourages to score goals during soccer matches. Once McNabb challenged her to score at least four or five goals. Each time the 5-year-old would get a score, she would hold up her finger and say “That’s one. That’s two,” and so on. “She ended up getting a prize,” Burg says. “She got a little motorized car that she could sit in.”

McNabb’s family also plays into his philanthropy. In October 2009 he and his wife announced a partnership with Virtua, a multi-hospital health-care system headquartered in Marlton, N.J. The couple’s twins were “preemies” and had to spend about a month in a Virtua hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. That positive experience prompted the McNabbs to make a six-figure donation to help with the construction of a new NICU at the Virtua Voorhees replacement hospital, which is scheduled to open in spring 2011. The couple will also help raise $2.5 million in additional funding. “Donovan and his wife made a commitment,” Burg says. “They wanted to make sure that many other parents would be able to be treated as well as they were.”

McNabb is used to handling tough situations, off and on the field. That’s a quality that Shanahan likes. “I know the press can be pretty tough on you when you are a quarterback no matter what team you are with,” Shanahan says. “He’s been in a situation that I think he has handled himself as well as any quarterback I’ve seen.”

Being a franchise quarterback, McNabb “has found out that you are going to get more credit than you deserve and more blame than you deserve,” Burg adds.

McNabb is looking at this year as a new opportunity. “I love the challenge of being able to present and display your talents and to gel with a new group of guys,” he says.

He minimizes the fact that he will be playing the Eagles twice during the 2010 season. “I don’t look at it any differently than playing the [New York] Giants or Dallas [Cowboys],” he says. “It’s an opportunity to play against another team, and for us to hopefully try to bring a win home.”

Not many people could play for a team for 11 years and not feel some type of loss when they leave. Looking back on his time in Philly, McNabb says that he was treated fairly when he was with the Eagles. During those years, he made it a point not to let anything – fans or the media – distract him from the game. “You have to understand in this game in which we play there are so many distractions and if you allow [them] to affect what you do and what your team relies on you to do, you’re never going to accomplish anything,” he says.

There is one thing that McNabb wasn’t able to accomplish in Philly: winning the Super Bowl. Maybe he can change that in Washington. “If that happens, that’s outstanding and I’ll be looking to try to win another one,” he says. “But again, that doesn’t happen just from one person. I think a lot of times we focus so much on just one person instead of the team. This is a team game. One person can’t do it by himself. There are 11 guys on both sides of the ball out there and we’re all trying to do it together.”

Even though he hasn’t always been in the good graces of Eagles fans, McNabb says he wants to say “thank you” to those diehard fans “for giving me an opportunity to come in and display my talents and be able to be put in a position to get drafted when they were 3-13, going to 5-11, and to averaging nine or 10 wins a season. We didn’t win but it was a great ride. It was a ride in which every time we stepped out on the field the fans felt confident we could win that game … I look to bring that here to Washington.”

For right now, McNabb is happy that all the hoopla regarding the trade is behind him and that he can focus on the future. “I’m here starting a new chapter in the book of Donovan,” he says, “and I look for great things to happen.”