Let’s see where do I begin with this? So during last year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, my girlfriend asks me:
“What if the Eagles are in the Super Bowl next year?”
I, claiming to be the rational know-it-all of everything Eagles and football reply:
“That won’t happen, not next year. In the next couple of years probably, but next year they’ll probably make the playoffs. But yeah.”
So here we are now a year later and it turns out she was the expert the whole time because the Eagles are going to the Stinkin Super Bowl. While my expectations for the 2017 Eagles season weren't that high, how can you blame me for trying to be humble and realistic?
As they entered the season the Eagles were coming off a 7-9 season with a rookie quarterback and head coach. They were a team depleted with offensive talent after their previous head coach tyrannically got rid of talented players. They had no solid running game nor much talent with receivers. They had a decent defense but had weak cornerback play.
In fact, here’s an article I wrote about the Eagles after the 2016 season to show how I felt:
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/review-eagles-201...
Comparing my mood after last season to what I’m feeling right now is so night and day that I almost have to laugh at wrong I was.
And here’s an article I wrote half-way through this season after starting 8-1:
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/eagles-stunning-f...
In fact, when Carson Wentz tore his ACL in December I literally wrote a draft for an Odyssey article titled "The 11 Worst Moments in Eagles History" with the injury being in at least the Top 3. I was saving it for when the Eagles we're elimiated from the playoffs. Now it looks like I might have to scrap that one.
I was excited but cautiously optimistic considering their past. And where did this insecurity and caution all come from me personally?
It happened to come from the last time the Eagles were in the Big Game. Super Bowl 39 against the New England Patriots in Jacksonville, Florida. It was February 2005 and I was a 10-year-old wide-eyed kid who got hooked on the Eagles the year before when I watched the team’s dramatic playoff win over the Packers with my entire family in what is known as “The 4th-and-26 Game.” From that day on I was hooked, and the 2004 season was a magical ride where the Eagles dominated nearly every game. This team rightfully made it to the Super Bowl after losing the last three NFC Championship Games, I ran in circles screaming “We’re Going To Jacksonville!”
Forget Oedipus Rex, THIS was a tragedy
When the game itself finally happened, I witnessed a slow and painful process in which the team made a slew of mistakes, and I couldn’t comprehend the fact that that Eagle team could lose the Super Bowl let alone a game at all. So yeah, I was distraught and shed some tears the way any kid Eagles fan would be. But I at least knew that the Eagles were good, and were good enough to get back to the Super Bowl. And I hoped they would get a shot at revenge against the Patriots. (Funnily enough, I rooted for the Patriots in previous Super Bowls when they played the team that beat the Eagles in the NFC title game.)
Well, what do you know? We finally got that Super Bowl rematch, and it only took 13 long and bizarre years.
Odysseus himself took no envy of what Eagles fans went through in our own version of Homer’s Odyssey.
Where do we begin?
The T.O. vs. McNabb drama in the off-season after the Super Bowl with contract disputes and him working out in the driveway.
A disastrous 6-10 2005 campaign following a Super Bowl berth.
The fallout of the T.O. saga with his release and him joining the Cowboys of all teams.
The 2006 season featuring crushing losses to the Giants and the Buccaneers on a 62-yard field goal, a season that backup quarterback Jeff Garcia rescued that ended in a close loss to the Saints.
A magical ride to the playoffs and the NFC Championship Game against the Arizona Cardinals, only to have another NFC title game loss to a small-market team that never made the Super Bowl before.
A 2009 season that ended in back-to-back blowout losses to the Cowboys.
The trading of Donovan McNabb to the Redskins in 2010.
The Joe Webb Game after the Miracle at the New Meadowlands.
Tramon Williams ending the fun 2010 season in the playoffs.
DREAM TEAM.
No SI Cover has aged worse
Going from 3-1 to 1-11 in the ugliest of ugly 2012 season.
Finally firing Andy Reid after 14 bitter seasons of no Super Bowl title.
Hiring Chip Kelly and the Saints spoiling an exciting 2013 bounce back year.
The release of Desean Jackson
Going from 9-3 to 10-6 in 2014 while in need of Desean Jackson
Chip Kelly becoming a tyrant and letting go of talented players like Shady McCoy.
A Frankenstein’s monster 2015 team going horribly wrong leading to Chip’s firing.
The rise of the internet and an endless cesspool of jokes and memes about the Eagles never winning a Super Bowl. The Eagles aren’t the only team without a Lombardi trophy, but it feels like one.
Number 5 will always love you!
All of that pain, humiliation, grief, has amounted to a turnaround a typical nihilist Philadelphia fan never expected to happen this soon.
It was all thanks to the unlikeliest people, people we fans criticized:
Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman, Doug Pederson, these powerful figures brought their heads together and created a team and culture that has blossomed like an exotic flower.
It happened in ways you just can’t describe.
The Eagles got to the Super Bowl with the emergence of one Carson Wentz who, in just his second season, became one of the best players in the league while having the greatest season by an Eagle quarterback in franchise history.
The Eagles got to the Super Bowl with a tough and aggressive defense where the young corners rose to the occasion and the defensive line lived up to their billing.
The Eagles got to the Super Bowl with one of the best offensive lines in the league and All-Pro seasons from Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson and a Pro Bowl season from Ron Brooks.
The Eagles got to the Super Bowl from workmanlike performances from Alshon Jeffery, Jay Ajayi, LeGarrette Blount, Nelson Agholor, Jake Elliott, Fred Barnett, Jalen Mills, Chris Long, Fletcher Cox, Timmy Jernigan, Patrick Robinson, Nick Foles, and so much more.
They got to the Super Bowl from unexpectedly masterful coaching from Doug Pederson, Frank Reich, John DeFilippo, Jim Schwartz, Duce Staley and excellent drafting, trades, and signings from Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas.
And, most impressively, the Eagles got to the Super Bowl overcoming devastating injuries to the likes of Chris Maragos, Darren Sproles, Jordan Hicks, Jason Peters, and Carson Wentz himself.
It has been a long 13 year Odyssey and that innocent 10-year-old boy is now a weather-beaten and restrained 23-year-old young adult. So when asked if they’d be in the Super Bowl a year ago, I try to stay on even ground. Not too close to the sun but not too close to the water, cautiously optimistic.
While the wait has been long, it also feels as though last 13 years have been just 1 day. One long compacted day that has led the Eagles facing the exact same team, the exact same quarterback, the exact same coach, on the same stage.
Even though I won't feel safe from the Patriots in the Super Bowl regardless of the score until the clock strikes 0:00, I have a good feeling that the Eagles are going to win. And If they win this time it would make everything before worth it, a moment of pure joy that only a little boy could carry, and a parade for the ages.
If they lose, oh well, they have a great core and culture and are more than capable of doing it again.
One thing’s for sure is that even though they have good chances, I’m not taking this Super Bowl experience for granted again.
Go Birds! Time for Revenga!
