Looking back on the Vet, a decade after Eagles left

Back in the day, they ran this survey: Pick the greatest homefield advantage of all time. Veterans Stadium finished sixth. Sixth!!! Sixth???

Besides Hell, where visitors are required to play barefoot on 100 yards of burning coals, where did they find four other tougher places to play than the cold, bleak, incessantly loud, incredibly hostile ballyard at Broad and Pattison?

A treacherous playing surface, hard as concrete, hard as the hearts of the lewd, crude, rude zanies in the 700 level. Booze in the parking lots, transformed into boos in the stands. Who needs frozen tundra when you have a courtroom in the basement, with Judge Seamus McCaffery handing out instant justice to the really, really drunk and disorderly on the premises?

Where do we begin on this nostalgic trip down memory lane? You could start with those late-morning tailgating orgies. Beer and barbecue and skewering anyone wearing enemy gear. No exceptions for women and children.

Inside the octorad (honest, that's what they called the lopsided circle shape of the stadium), the acoustics amplified the noise, creating additional problems for the visiting quarterback.

Ah, but it was the brutal surface of the field that put the real fear into the minds of visiting players. A thin layer of AstroTurf atop that concrete, dangerous soft spots around the sliding areas of baseball's bases.

Two serious injuries exactly six years apart. On Oct. 10, 1993, Wendell Davis, Chicago's wide receiver, got his cleats caught in a seam running a slant pattern. Double jeopardy! He tore both his patella tendons, career-ending injuries.

And then, exactly six years later, Oct. 10, 1999, a hard tackle left Dallas' Michael Irvin sprawled on that brutal surface with a serious, career-ending neck injury. Let the record show that the fans cheered and the Eagles rallied to win the game.

Eventually, in 2001, they installed NexTurf, a much softer surface. Problems remained, causing one wag to nickname the place "Field of Seams."

"Field of Screams" would have been an apt choice, because that's what Baltimore coach Brian Billick did, when he took a pregame stroll before a preseason scrum on Aug. 13, 2001. Billick screamed about unsafe conditions, especially around those dreaded sliding areas. The game was cancelled.

Every game against the Cowboys was memorable. Some were more memorable than others. Take the "Bounty Bowl" game in 1989, played out against the storm clouds of controversy, Buddy Ryan accused of putting a bounty on kicker Luis Zendejas two weeks earlier.

It had snowed the day before, leaving patches of ice and snow in the stands. Eagles won, 20-10, and Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson scampered off the field with a police escort and a flurry of snowballs aimed at his frozen hair.

Time out for a pleasant memory, the 1980 NFC Championship Game against the Cowboys. Wilbert Montgomery, on his way to a 26-for-194-yards day, darts 42 yards for a touchdown and the Eagles win, 20-7.

The fun started earlier in the week when the Eagles chose to wear white jerseys. That forced the Cowboys to don their unlucky blue jerseys. And, oh yeah, before the game ended, the field was surrounded by police horses and dogs, recreating the scene when the Phillies beat Kansas City to win the World Series.

Who can forget the 1990 "Body Bag" game against the Redskins? Nine Redskins injured, including both Washington quarterbacks lugged to the sidelines. Running back Brian Mitchell was recruited to finish the game, plays on a wristband, fear in his heart, handoffs on his mind.

And one more wonderful memory, the time Barry Switzer ran the ball over and over and over again, fourth-and-1, and the Eagles defense stuffing Emmitt Smith over and over and over again.

Back to reality and the herd of lean, mean cats that inhabited the ballpark. The cats were there to kill the rats.

Not all the nightmare moments belonged to NFL games. During the 1998 Army-Navy game, a platoon of West Point cadets jammed into the front rows to show their loyalty to a cameraman. A support rail collapsed and eight cadets were injured then the mob tumbled to the field. It wasn't long after when serious talks began about new ballparks for the Eagles and the Phillies.

The first game the Eagles played at the Vet ended in a loss. Highly forgettable against the circumstances of the last game they played there, Jan. 19, 2003. This one was against Tampa Bay, the Eagles favored to win the NFC Championship Game, partly because they had more talent and partly because the Bucs were 1-and-22 when the temperature dipped below 40, and it was a frigid 26 that fateful day.

Brian Mitchell, uh huh, the same guy who was the emergency quarterback for the Redskins in that infamous "Body Bag" game, took the opening kickoff back 70 yards for an Eagles touchdown.

It plummeted downhill from there. Perhaps you remember Joe Jurevicius trundling 70 yards for a touchdown? Or Ronde Barber turning a Donovan McNabb pass into a pick-six?

The Eagles lost, 27-10. They imploded the stadium on March 21, 2004, with the mayor of Philadelphia botching the countdown. What else?

Contact Stan Hochman at stanrhoch@comcast.net.