The Philadelphia Eagles head to the desert this week in one of the two games featuring undefeated teams on the docket. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb is facing the team that traded him away for conerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a second-round draft pick.
This is such an obvious and compelling storyline that we're surprised how little attention it has received nationally. Kolb has only good things to say about his experience in Philadelphia. It taught him to try to ignore the noise.
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"The biggest thing I took is when it's high there, when things are going good, you can't buy into it because there is a lot of hype," Kolb said via The Arizona Republic. "Everybody is patting you on the back. And when it's low, good gosh, is the sun going to come up tomorrow?
"Although it's not quite like that here. It is the NFL and that's the way it is nowadays. As a quarterback especially, you have to be able to ride those waves and stay level-headed with every experience."
Kolb hasn't had to worry about too many pats on the back in Arizona. He pulled off a game-winning drive as a relief pitcher in the team's opener against the Seattle Seahawks, but the Cardinals won despite his play against the New England Patriots. Kolb has watched his old team from afar. He's been in the shoes of both rookie Nick Foles as the cool kid on the block and Michael Vick as the embattled starter. Vick and Kolb stay in touch as friends.
"It's probably good for Nick to feel (pressure) early on just to understand there's no time to take off," Kolb said via the Philadelphia Daily News. "And also to see what Mike has to go through as a starter, because we've been there. We've watched Donovan (McNabb) go through that. ... For Mike, it's going to push Mike to go harder than he is. I've heard some of his comments on TV. Knowing him well, I know bad he wants it."
Kolb would love nothing more to make Vick go through a little more controversy by beating the Eagles on Sunday. We think Kolb can pull it off, with a generous amount of help from the fearsome Cardinals defense. After the year Kolb has had, wouldn't this be the most unlikely turn of events?
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
