McNabb is more than gaffe on tie

That wasn’t applause coming from Philadelphia Eagles fans, but the sound of a million palms slapping foreheads.

The Eagles on Sunday tied Cincinnati, 13-13, in a game that might as well have been a loss for both. The Bengals are out of the playoff picture, and the Eagles -- some people’s Super Bowl pick -- are probably headed that way too.

McNabb has played poorly lately, and he made a mistake in the postgame news conference that will probably haunt him for the rest of his career -- at least as long as he’s in Philadelphia.

He admitted he didn’t know the rules of a tie. He thought that if teams were tied after regulation, and after the overtime period, the game continued until somebody won. It doesn’t work that way in the regular season. A tie at the end of overtime is just that, a tie, and there hadn’t been one of those in the NFL since 2002.

McNabb, no doubt tired and frustrated, then compounded his error by revealing he didn’t know that postseason games are, in fact, played until someone wins.

“I hate to see what happens in the Super Bowl, or I hate to see what happens in the playoffs,” he said. “You have to settle with a tie.”

(It’s worth noting that several of McNabb’s teammates were also unclear on the rules of a tie.)

The sad part is McNabb simply was being honest, just like we want our athletes to be. He wasn’t being defensive, or immature, or spouting cliches. He was giving a candid answer about a very rare occurrence, and he got it wrong.

Should he have known? Yes. Will he ever forget the rules of a tie? No.

Say what you will about his play of late -- he’s had five interceptions over the last three games -- but he has been a tremendous player for the Eagles over the years. He got them to four consecutive NFC championship games, and to the Super Bowl in 2004. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in wins and touchdowns, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection, and was runner-up to Marshall Faulk as the league’s most valuable player in 2000.

True, McNabb has seen better days. But great days they were.

And now his legacy is he didn’t know the rules?

It will be interesting to see how people remember his gaffe a decade from now, through the distorted lens of time.

Take that old story about Philadelphia fans booing Santa Claus and pelting him with snowballs during halftime of a 1968 game at Franklin Field. That urban legend was twisted, tweaked and torqued over 40 years of telling and re-telling. Some people say he was a shopping-mall Santa. Others remember him as a drunk in a tattered red suit.

Turns out, he was neither.

It was Frank Olivo, a skinny 20-year-old who had worn a Santa suit and fake white beard to the team’s last home game for several years. He was pulled out of the stands before halftime by the Eagles’ entertainment director, who asked him to replace a hired Santa stranded in the snowstorm.

The snowballs did fly, and there were lots of boos. But, as Olivo told the Associated Press in 2005, he didn’t take it personally -- nor should St. Nick. Those Eagles were headed to a 2-12 finish.

“The fans carried on like that because the Eagles were horrible,” Olivo said.

So, if this season’s Eagles continue to struggle, how will people recall McNabb’s mistake? How will time amplify the story? Will he one day be remembered as the quarterback who didn’t even know the plays?

Truth is, the Eagles’ offensive problems run way deeper than their quarterback. Their play-calling is predictable. They were 0 for 3 on third-and-one, throwing all three times. They either can’t or won’t run the ball; they threw 58 times Sunday, and rushed 18. (And, even after holding the Eagles to 68 yards, Cincinnati’s run defense is ranked an unimpressive 23rd.)

There have been times over the years when McNabb played like that No. 5 on his chest was Superman’s S. Now, we know he’s human. Maybe we forgot that. Or maybe we just didn’t know the rules.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com