Pinch us, we’re dreaming — Part 2? | Editorial
There are many things that divide us, but no city lives and dies more with its football team than Philadelphia. For the next two weeks, at least, we are all Eagles fans.
Can this really be happening again?
When the Eagles won their first Super Bowl in 2018, many longtime fans figured they could die happy.
Yet here we are, just five years later and the Eagles are going to another Super Bowl.
Could it be déjà vu all over again?
This is not how the sports gods normally operate in Philadelphia.
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Fifty-one Super Bowls were played before the Eagles won a Lombardi trophy. Before the epic 2018 victory, the last Eagles’ championship came in 1960.
Back then, gas was 31 cents a gallon, Chubby Checker performed “The Twist” on TV for the first time on American Bandstand, and the Berlin Wall had not even been erected.
So Eagles fans — like Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers fans — know that decades can pass between victory parades. Just ask any long-suffering Eagles fan that has lived through the Joe Kuharich, Mike McCormack, Marion Campbell, Rich Kotite, and Chip Kelly eras.
Surely, the green comet was a sign that the Eagles’ time has come again.
Come to think of it, 2018 really feels as if it were a lifetime ago.
Since then, the country has endured a pandemic, lockdowns, homeschooling, rampant inflation, endless police killings, countless shootings, opioid overdoses, social media conspiracies, two presidential impeachments, and an insurrection — just to name a few cataclysmic events.
It has been a traumatic and exhausting time.
For a while, even sports were played in a bubble, when they were played at all.
Like the world itself, the Eagles team has been turned upside down. Since the last Super Bowl run, the Eagles have a new coach, a new quarterback, and essentially a new team. In fact, only five players remain from the 2018 “Philly Special” team.
Even the team leaders on and off the field have been through highs and lows.
General manager Howie Roseman has gone from whipping boy to boy genius.
Sports talk radio callers spent the summer debating if quarterback Jalen Hurts was the future. Now, it Hurts so good.
A year ago, rookie coach Nick Sirianni’s flower analogy nearly got him laughed out of town. Now, Sirianni’s trash talking has reached such an elite status that he would have been right at home in the 700 level of the old Veterans Stadium.
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No city lives and dies more with its football team than Philadelphia. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lamented that “11 a.m. on Sundays” — when many religious worship services are held — “is our most segregated hour.” By the Eagles’ kickoff time, the city is one.
Philadelphia is getting ready to elect its 100th mayor. Nine people are running — so far. The race is sure to divide the city by neighborhood, race, age, gender, and political interests.
But for the next two weeks, Philadelphia will be united.
In 1980, the city experienced a rare grand slam. All four major sports teams went to the championship, and the Phillies won their first World Series.
This is shaping up to be another golden age in Philadelphia sports. Last fall, the Phillies took fans on an unexpected and joyful ride to the World Series. The Union went to the MLS final.
The Sixers are also playing like championship contenders. Now the Eagles are going back to the Big Game.
Another Super Bowl parade could lead straight into spring training in Clearwater, Fla., where the Phillies will be gearing up for another World Series run.
So forget your troubles and grease the poles. It’s a great time to be a sports fan in Philadelphia.