A nation of non-wusses
The Eagles finally get their snow game...and it was worth the wait.
The last time the Eagles were SUPPOSED to play a snowstorm, it was a life-changing experience. On Dec. 26, 2010, the Birds famously wussed out and postponed a would-be snow game against the Vikings, ruining the karma of what had been feeling like a Super Bowl-bound season. I wrote a front-page piece the the Daily News on "the wimps who stole Christmas" and ended up tag-teaming with Ed Rendell, who so loved the phrase that he coined to describe the cancellation -- "a nation of wusses" -- that he used it for the title of his book. I was also inspired to write a book -- an Amazon Kindle single called "Give It to Steve" that showed the mid-20th-Century American grit that allowed the great Steve Van Buren and the 1948 Eagles to win the NFL championship in a raging blizzard at Shibe Park.
Today, they played (perhaps because the forecasters got it wrong, but still...). And it was a thing of great beauty. The Eagles beat the slip-sliding-away Detriot Lions 34-20, with a furious 4th quarter comeback. And how's this for full circle?..Shady McCoy rushed through the white stuff for 217 yards to set the team's all-time single-game rushing record, eclipsing...Steve Van Buren.
The Super Bowl will be played this year in the Meadowlands in North Jersey -- and could be the first one to ever be played in snow.
Do you believe in karma?
Bonus: Celebrate both karma and the life of the great John Lennon, taken from us 33 years ago today: