Phillies, Eagles are each other's biggest rivals
Let's take a look back at some of the "coincidences" involving the Phillies and Eagles battling for front-page coverage.
The Eagles public relations department was raucous with the news, shouting it out over every social media outlet and watching it be lapped up by fans and journalists, who ran with the story, firing out over-saturating analysis and breakdowns that keep such a simple story on tongues and finger tips for days.
The team is growing more powerful, stable, and impressive, rather than the cracking and imploding that had capped off the 2012 season and ultimately led to the firing of head coach Andy Reid.
For the entire winter, baseball teams and the sites linked to them generate empty, space-filling content, breaking the occasional interview or trade, but for the most part, there's a lot of pulling hair out due to the lack of content and then wondering if the preceding hair-pulling was worthy of a morning post.
The answer is, almost always. And it's getting difficult to ignore.
"As champagne sprayed in celebration of the team's first postseason success in 15 years, one high-ranking member of the organization giddily shouted, '[Obscenity] the Eagles!'"
It's an odd, unspoken dynamic that only exists in snickers and apparently, jubilant, drunken shouting by an anonymous millionaire. But many writers will tell you it's there, whether you want to hear or care about it or not.
Let's take a look back at some of the "coincidences" involving the two teams battling for front-page coverage since the Phillies won the World Series just over five years ago:
+ The Eagles took DE Brandon Graham with their first pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, and four days later, while the internet filled with Graham analysis, the Phillies announced they had picked Ryan Howard to be their first baseman for the next seven years, in what was nationally recognized as one of the most oddly-timed overpays in baseball history. The Eagles countered with the announcement of their $12.5 million contract extension for Kevin Kolb, which had its own flaws.
+ 2012 Eagles training camp opened in the wake of the lukewarm Phillies' biggest news of the season - a $144 million, six-year extension for Cole Hamels, announced a day after full team workouts began at Lehigh.
+ Obviously, the "Nnamdi Asomugha" thing didn't work out, as did neither the Eagles in 2012 nor Andy Reid. The Eagles replaced their head coach with Chip Kelly, who was scheduled to oversee his first ever NFL preseason game against the Patriots on August 9. It would have been the gem of the sports page, had the Phillies not announced the contract extension of their beloved second baseman Chase Utley on August 7 – something they could have announced pretty much anytime.
+ On May 22, 2013, the Phillies made their annual Alumni Weekend announcement: Curt Schilling would be going on the Wall of Fame, and Brad Lidge would retire as a Phillie and throw out the first ceremonial pitch to kick off the celebrations on August 1. The Eagles had some alumni news of their own days before on May 14, when Donovan McNabb announced on the radio that he would be signing a contract to retire as an Eagle.
It was widely assumed that the one-day deal and ensuing ceremony would occur when the Eagles faced the Chiefs in September. But the Eagles, having known all summer the Phillies' plans for that weekend, abruptly announced on July 28 (a Sunday), that McNabb would sign his deal to end things as an Eagle the following day, despite the fact that their ceremony to honor him and retire his number wouldn't come until September, when the Eagles played the Chiefs. That left only two days between McNabb's and Lidge's retirements, just enough time for video of Riley Cooper using a racial slur at concert to hit the web. We'll chalk that up to another "coincidence."
Though with confirmation, we wouldn't get to speculate wildly about every little thing.
Can you think of any examples that we missed? Leave them in the comments section below.