We all knew the truth. Eagles fans weren’t comfortable being the swaggering nobility of the NFL, or even the NFC. Oh, they’ll tell you loudly enough when the Birds, or any Philly team, is good. But it’s at such a volume that it’s easy to sense the insecurity hidden within. Maybe they don’t throw batteries at Santa anymore. Maybe they’re the people who got behind Alec Bohm and and Trea Turner when it was expected they would boo them all the way to Delaware (and they did at points, don’t be fooled). But they knew who they are, what they want to be.
And here they are now, with the Eagles backing up and looking like they want to cede the division to Dallas, and losing pretty much any chance of gaining a first-round bye. Jalen Hurts hasn’t been good in a month, the defense suddenly doesn’t have too many answers and their run, as the standard in the conference, is now disappearing into the night.
And this is where Eagles fans are happiest. Sure, they have a recent Super Bowl win and another appearance, and they need that to still be prominent and relevant. If the Eagles sucked all the time, they’d just fade into the background or be a true laughingstock, like yours truly and his Blue and Orange. And Philly sports are never going to stand for being more derided by the outside than they can manage themselves.
No, this is right in their pocket. Still a story, still getting the attention they can’t live without, their collapse and misery front and center. Pretending on missing out on the glory and fun that the Eagles looked to be promising only a few weeks ago is painful, when it was the desire. Missing out allows them to scream and yell more than another Super Bowl would have. In fact, another Super Bowl win likely would have robbed them of their status as tortured. I can show you tortured. It’s in my mirror every Sunday.
No, this is home for Eagles fans. Being able to put their angst on display for everyone, telling everyone they knew it was always going to end like this and they never really believed when they were the same guys telling you the Super Bowl was already in the bag. That kind of crash only ups the intensity of their self-flagellation.
Isn’t this better, Philly? Don’t you feel right? You played the big bad, the protagonist for a while, and maybe even you enjoyed it for a minute. Just a glimpse of how the other half lives. But it doesn’t fit you. Leave it to the Kansas City peeps. Or even Dallas, who never stop acting like this even though the Cowboys have been part of the NFL aristocracy in 30 years or close to it. Niners, too, they do it better.
You’re home now. Even if you can’t freeze your ass off in the 700s of the Vet anymore, you can still act like you are. And now you’re free too.
And another helluva way to go
It wasn’t a great night for the Detroit Red Wings, as they lost to the Anaheim Ducks at home. It was their third loss in a row and sixth in the last seven. One of their goalies, Ville Husso, had to be helped off the ice in the first period. But he didn’t go before making this save, which if it’s to be his swan song for a while, it pretty much worth it:
