So, it was a Sunday afternoon, and I turn on the TV, pop open a Yuengling, and settle in for an entire day of NFL goodness. The Eagles were playing the Titans at 1pm, and I was looking forward to McNabb and crew finally getting back on track after a lousy three game stretch. I flipped to the local FOX affiliate and discover they’re showing a Redskins game instead of the Eagles. Despite my initial anger, this was probably the best thing that happened all day.
If you follow football at all, you know that during the Eagles/Titans game, Donovan McNabb went down with a torn ACL. That’s bad. The collision that led to the injury didn’t even look like a bad one, but as soon as I saw the replay of it during a game break, I knew McNabb would be on the shelf for a while. When you’re an Eagles fan (or a Phillies, Flyers or Sixers fan, for that matter), you always expect the worst.
With McNabb out for the rest of the season, and possible a good chunk of next season, there was no hope for my beloved Eagles to even come close to competing for a wild card spot in the playoffs, right? Wrong. This past Monday night, the Eagles, led by former pro-bowler, Jeff Garcia, beat the Panthers to pull into a tie with everyone else in the NFC for a wild card spot. Hope lingers on in the city of Philadelphia. Thank goodness the NFC really stinks.
The funny thing about sports in Philly, is that there’s always a glimmer of hope. A small, frustrating, excruciating glimmer, when the Eagles look like a Super Bowl team for a four game stretch, or the Phillies put together a run at a wild card spot that falls short. It would almost be better if there was NO hope, year after year. Then there would be no inevitable let-down.
But watching sports is more fun when you think your team could win it all. Even though a Philadelphia pro-sports team hasn’t won a championship since 1983, the longest drought of any city with all four pro-sports (football, baseball, basketball and hockey) franchises, there’s always a little bit of hope that this might be the year. That hope keeps me glued to the TV on Sunday, yelling, swearing and occasionally doing a little victory dance.
The Eagles won’t win the Super Bowl this season. But, there’s always next year when, hopefully, a healthy McNabb will return, and the defense will be shored up a bit. And the Phillies, with young MVP Ryan Howard slugging away, might be able to break through one of these years. And the Sixers and the Flyers … uh … well … ummmmm …
So, how ’bout them Eagles?
