Posted on 01/24/2005 6:26:36 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
The Eagles' faithful suffered through three consecutive losses in the conference championship game, and when their football team made it to the Super Bowl on Sunday for the first time in more than 20 years, they erupted in joy.
"I've been to all the championship games, and this, I can't explain," said Easton resident Felipe Garcia as he sniffed back tears. "It's priceless. We deserve it."
Garcia was one of about 200 Lehigh Valley residents who rode one of four Trans Bridge Lines buses to the landmark game at Lincoln Financial Field.
"This was history today," said Jack Trimble of Bethlehem Township. "It was long overdue."
Fans counted down the seconds as the game clock expired to a thunderous cheer. Strangers high-fived outside the stadium as cars blared their horns.
Bethlehem Township resident Pat Wagner was there. He hasn't missed a game in the past four years.
"Finally, we won something," Wagner said. "It was awesome. There isn't much else to say."
Snowfall from the previous day and a half didn't affect the bus tour. The group traveled in style. One busload consumed six pizzas and an unspecified number of cases of beer while watching a DVD of Super Bowl highlights.
Wagner is following the Eagles to Jacksonville, but he won't be traveling quite as luxuriously. He will be one of 40 people crammed into two recreational vehicles.
"It only sleeps about five, so I'll be sleeping on the kitchen counter," Wagner said. "Go Birds!"
Wagner's sister, Julie, was "sick as a dog" but braved the frigid temperatures and made the trip.
"I'm proud of them," Julie Wagner said of the Eagles. "Finally, they broke the curse, or whatever it was."
Fans wore layers of clothing to brace themselves from the fierce winds and low temperature.
"It was very cold, but the energy kept us warm," said Scott Wolbach of Walnutport. His 9-year-old son stood on his seat for the entire game and postgame celebration.
"There was all kinds of fireworks and confetti flying around," Scott Wolbach said.
What a change from the past two years.
"I didn't eat solid food for a week the first year," said Denny Snyder of Macungie, who was referring to his diet after the Eagles lost the NFC Championship Game to Tampa Bay in 2003.
Garcia said he was offered $1,000 for his pair of tickets, but he turned down the offer and has no regrets. The longtime fan in the green and white wig said he's going to frame one of the ticket stubs and hang it on the wall in his garage.
"I cried at halftime," Garcia said. "I cried at the end of the game. I had a great feeling inside me that they were going to win this game."
We can answer that with Jim Chones broken foot ... Red Right 88 ... The Drive ... The Fumble ... The Shot ... TWO Game 7 losses in extra innings ... ART MODELL ... losing our football team for THREE years ... when it comes to "most tortured sports city", ESPN2 ranked Cleveland Number 1 and it wasn't even close (Philly was 2nd, and THEY had a Dr. J Championship 19 years after our last one). Even when Buckner blew it, you had the Celtics at the time and the Patriots had just won the AFC. All you have to bitch about now is the hockey strike and a bunch of blowing & drifting snow. (You can also be upset about your Senators, but you inflicted those disasters on yourselves -- and the rest of us).
Many of those "experts" were probably Falcons' fans, and since their Falcons lost to the Eagles, they probably don't care who wins the Super Bowl this year so they're not posting any comments on the subject.
Ditto that Owl. I had a run in with him about a week or so ago. Not worth the time!
The Eagles will be a surprise on the field. Folks aren't accounting for the passion part of the game. The Pats are a really good team, so are the Eagles. How many teams can stay on top of the league for three or four years in today's football economy? Not many. That said, the Eagles better show up, and if they lose, I hope that at a minimumm, they make a game of it.
McNabb and co. will be as ready as any team can get!
Cheers!
Yeah, they did it!. The monkey is off their backs. Truly I believed they would. As one of the Eagles said (can't recall which), "football isn't a one man sport - if you want to play a one man sport, play golf". How true -- echoed my sentiments exactly.
Stats on paper seem to favor the Pats, but they include the last 2 games, which the Eagles basically threw. I wonder how hungry the Pats are for it, considering they've been victorious several times in recent years. They Eagles are definitely hungry for it, and judging from yesterday, they are playing with a quiet confidence. The penalties have got to be reduced -- they can kill a team.
Sorry to hear about Chad Lewis. They will miss him. Gives somebody new a chance to be a hero.
Don't think Tyrell will play, but he if there's the slightest chance he can, the Pats have to be prepared for it. I think Reid's playing mind games with the press (and the Pats) about Tyrell. My bet is that Tyrell will suit up, and be on the sidelines doing jumping jacks, stretches, running sprints, etc., but will never see a play in the game. But the Pats won't know that. Even if Reid puts him in with no intention of involving him in a play, it will throw the Pats out of kilter and open up chances for other receivers.
Reid is clever like a fox and a very understated master of the psych game.
It will be an interesting two weeks.
Not ready to put the Eagles on a pedestal yet. Including yesterdays game they've only faced four teams with winning records all season, and only beaten three.
That's gotta be some kind of NFL record for weakest schedule of a Superbowl team.
Belichick will have his boys ready.
The Eagles deserve to win simply to sadden John fn Kerry.
I'm not talkin about "fans". . .I'm talking about competitors. ..real competitors. . .men who PLAY THE GAME. . .Eagles are acting like LOSERS as COMPETITORS because they think by winning the conference championship, the "can't win the big one" monkey is off their backs. . .but they are WRONG. The "can't win the big one" monkey is only removed by WINNING THE BIG ONE!! The BIG ONE is on February 6, not January 23rd. . .and by February 6th, that monkey will weigh in at about 3000 lbs. . .just ask the Buffalo Bills. . . .Probably mid-way through the second quarter the Eagles will begin to notice that it is hard to play football while carrying an additional 3000 lbs that they thought was off-loaded on January 23rd and by the way. . .in case you are unfamiliar with the demeanor of Philadelphia fans, there is not a more nasty bunch of miscreant neanderthals on the face of the earth.
Pats 41-10. . . and the only "gravy" these Phillie fans will deal in is the gravy dripping down the side of McNabb's house after it has been pelted by 300 chunky soup cans!
I think his favorite Patriot player is Tom Dillon.
He'll fake it.
I don't notice our players acting any different than the NE players. In fact, I think we showed a lot more class in not breaking out the Championship caps and shirts before regulation was over, unlike the Patriots.
The Patriots seemed mighty happy to have beaten the Steelers. And they should be.
So how did New England manage to knock off "The Greatest Show on Turf"? How did the Broncos knock off the Packers? Heck, Carolina would've probably won last year had they kicked the extra points instead of going for two unsuccessful duece conversions thus forcing New England to go for one successful one.
Anything is possible in the Super Bowl.
While they helped build things up and it is too bad they are missing out after 4 years of coming close, as Brian Dawkins noted in the aftermath of the loss last year to Carolina, the painful message from the game to that team was "You are not good enough." Given the lack of accomplishment of these three (and Emmons) in their new endeavors because of injury, its a good thing they are gone.
Rush actually had the gall to repeat his assertions on Monday's show. What a loser.
No he wasn't.
Both then and now, the Eagles have had the best team win-loss record in the NFL since McNabb became the starter in 2000.
As to Lott's work, what he doesn't really account for is the overall paucity of black QB's to begin with. Only the very best get the charge of a team's offense. In 2003, for example, eight blacks - McNabb, McNair, Culpepper, Carter, Brooks, Vick, Leftwich, and Blake - were playing as starter. Of those, only Blake could truly be said to have had a terrible season (more INT's than TD's and a losing record as starter) while Carter was just so-so - both also no longer playing as a starter in 2004. By contrast, with a larger pool of white QB's, it is far more likely that they played on a team that sucked and therefore got more bad press. Look at it this way. 16 teams were 8-8 or better in 2003, and 7 were led by a black QB. 16 teams had losing records and 1 was led by a black QB. In 2002 McNabb, McNair, Culpepper, Carter, Brooks, Vick, Peete, Stewart, and Blake started. Those numbers were 19 teams at 8-8 or better, with 4 led by blacks and 13 teams with losing records, with 5 led by blacks at least part of the season (Carter, Stewart, Peete and Blake were all benched to no significant effect in improving their teams' record).
However, look at the bigger picture again and consider who Rush picked on. Rush picked on the black QB with the best winning record in the conference over the prior three years and the best per game indidivual record of achievement at that point of those black QB's playing and accused the media of overhyping him because he was black. He didn't pick on Culpepper or Carter, both of whom could have been much more validly criticized. He didn't pick on McNair for frittering away several good seasons with a below par performance. He picked on McNabb, and he picked on him precisely at the one point in his career, coming back from a broken leg the previous season, where he looked a little shaky for a couple of games, and just as he was about to go on one of the most amazing tears of QB performance (Week 8, 2003 to present) ever, in which McNabb is 25-3 as a starter with 51 TD's and just 16 INT's in 28 games, 63% completion percentage, with a 118.5 QB passer rating.
That is why Rush and his defenders on this topic are such idiots.
what he doesn't really account for is the overall paucity of black QB's to begin with. Only the very best get the charge of a team's offense. In 2003, for example, eight blacks - McNabb, McNair, Culpepper, Carter, Brooks, Vick, Leftwich, and Blake - were playing as starter.What Paucity of Black QB's are you talking about?
Eight out of thirty-two is 25%. Given that blacks make up around 15% of the population , seems to me there's a OVER-representation of Black QB's.
We need affirmative action for Asian QB's!
the Pats and Sox have given Boston enough to crow about for years to come. It's our turn this year.Sorry, but after facing the Colts then the Steelers, the Eaglets will be the sacrificial lamb for the DYNASTY!
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