Fly Eagles, Fly

A change of pace is always a good thing. I have memories and stories of my life, and it’s weird writing about it now because I have children that are my age when I was a totally different person. But their lives have played out way different than mine did. The one common factor in all of our childhoods were love. Everyone was loved and loved in return. This story is about my love for the Philadelphia Football Eagles. I can’t remember when exactly I fell in love with them, some say that I was born with it, but I can remember when I began to hate the Dallas Cowboys.

The year was either 1980 or ‘81 because we were playing them in the National Conference finals on our way to eventually lose the Super bowl to John Madden and Kenny “the snake” Stabler’s Oakland Raiders. Even though we beat Dallas that year, when Tom Landry and Roger Staubach were in their prime, I hated that blue star on a silver background! I was kind of obsessed with football.

When I was 5 years old, in kindergarten, I knew the head coach of every NFL team in existence in 1981. I used to test myself nightly. My brother and I shared a room with bunk bed and hanging on our closet wall, (where Ozzy Osbourne was hiding to get me because the rest of the room was decorated with Ozzy's Diary of a Madman poster, among others), we had a picture of all the teams, divided by conference and division. The Philadelphia Eagles were in the same division of the Phoenix Cardinals, I suppose they started out St. Louis, and, still do, but the Dallas Cowboys?

I wish I could remember them all but Mike Dikta was the Chicago Bears, Don Shula in Miami, Dick Vermeil and then Buddy Ryan for the Eagles, Tom Landry and then Jimmie Johnson was at Dallas, Joe Gibbs in Washington and Bill Parcells at the New York Giant. Bill Walsh and Joe Montana were the coach and quarterback, respectively, for the San Francisco 49ers, and then George Seifert and Steve Young kept that dynasty rolling. The Atlanta Falcons was one of my favorite teams growing up. They had a cornerback, #21, (Neon) Deion Sanders. Quarterbacks beware. Don't try to overthrow it because he would chase it down, intercept it like a wide receiver, and then turn around and go 90 yards the other way for a pick 6. And then he danced, high stepping his way into the endzone. He danced three little 3 step moves and then spiked the ball.

Celebrating became another entertaining thing before the league turned the rules. There was the Icky shuffle. A few players even went as far as planting props outside of end zones. I remember a player producing a sharpie from out of nowhere and signed the camera or something. Another ran over to the cheerleaders and got his pompoms and started cheering with them. Fans were either outraged or tickled. I loved it. It was a bit of a distraction but it sure looked fun. But players start getting a little nuts with it. I remember a cell phone celebration. At first the league allowed no celebration. And then they allowed some celebration. I don't have the foggiest notion of what the rules are today. I think they are allowed an organized celebration in a timely manner. That's the NFL for you. They denied that head injuries were related to football as science was discovering just the opposite. They later were forced to admit the truth.

Anyway, my love for the game of football probably roots back to my brother teaching me how to play as kids in the snow. I can't remember having more fun. Then, as I grew older, I found that I was a little bit good at it. So you can imagine my anguish throughout the years and saying, “Well, there’s always next season”, at the end of every single season. Thirty five seasons. The Eagles had Randall Cunningham, #12, a man ahead of his time. Had he been surrounded by a smart offensive department, he could have been the best quarterback of all time. His arm was a precision cannon. He was tall, lean and elusive. He ran for almost a quarter of what he threw. He once punted the ball during play and it wound up going like 74 yards or something. I think he once did a quick kick, when that was still a thing (google it). The only thing that he lacked was organization. The head coach at the time was Buddy Ryan and defense was his main priority. It was said that Buddy left the offense solely on Cunningham due to his exceptional talent. Buddy’s defense was legendary. Gang green. Reggie White, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Eric Allen, Andre Waters, the late, great Jerome Brown, Wes Hopkins, Mike Pitts, Mike Golic, Byron Evans… how they never won a Super bowl still boggles my mind.

I think it was 1990 when they had their best chance. The team was healthy, seasoned and hungry. First game of the year, #12 gets injured and is out for the season. Party’s over They eventually fired Buddy Ryan and replaced him with, wait for it...Rich Kotite. Who’s Rich Kotite, you may ask. Exactly. His highlight as our coach was the game where it rained and his game plan got wet and unrecognizable rendering him pitifully unprepared. His tenure was too long. Funny story; after he left the Eagles he got a job as the New York Jets coach. I bet against him every game. I think they won 2 games that year. The Eagles meanwhile went through seasons with Jim McMahon and Rodney Peete filling in for an injury plagued Randall Cunningham.

The changing of guards. Jeffery Lurie bought the team and hired Ray Rhodes, another defensive specialist, as the Eagles head coach. More importantly, someone hired a young man named Jon Gruden to be our offensive coordinator, so they remained contenders. That era of Eagles football highlight was a division wildcard playoff game that my dad had got us tickets to see. It was incredible. We were like eight point underdogs going against the Detroit Lions and nobody was giving us a chance. We wound up blowing them away by 30 points! From our vantage point in the stadium, it was art work to see Gruden’s play calling develop and succeed in real time. It taught me a lot.

So, Lurie is the boss now and people are talking about Gruden being coach, (incidentally, the movie Any Given Sunday was rumored to be based on these events), possibly moving the team to Los Angeles if they didn’t improve and then, finally, a commitment to excellence. Lurie hires little known Andy Reid, a Holmgren protege, quarterbacks coach of Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers, to be our head coach. Andy hires Jim Johnson, a defensive coordinator of legend. The team is in shambles. Reid’s first draft, he passes on a young running back who many believe will one day be Hall Of Fame status, and is booed as he drafts quarterback Donovan McNabb. Everybody already knows that this is now going to take a few more seasons of,”well, there’s always next year”’s. Andy hire another unknown, to most of us at least, out of Green Bay to start as quarterback while the new kid, #5, learns the ropes. So Doug Pederson signs on to his first starting position since he entered the NFL. Not many people can make that claim. I certainly couldn’t.

Eventually McNabb takes over. It’s bumpy at first but the team starts to get better. Jim Johnson’s defense was in a class of its own. He invented the 4-3 scheme and blitzes like never seen before. His personnel included Hugh Douglass. Brian Dawkins, arguably the best safety of all time, Jeremiah Trotter and Jevon Kearse.

Meanwhile, the Eagles under McNabb and Reid start becoming contenders. They always had good running backs. Between 2000-2004, they made it to 4 consecutive NFC Championship games. They overcame their fourth because they had acquired Terrell Owens in his prime. But it wasn't to be. We lost to the New England Patriots and said, well, there's always next year.

Unfortunately, Johnson passed away, so his defense were left in inexperienced hands and we suffered some more. We came close again in 2009 but lost the 5th NFC Championship game that we made it to in that era. We waited for next season for almost another decade. We endured the Chip Kelly experiment.

Then, Lurie chicks Kelly and hires who else but Doug Pederson. I thought to myself, he just hired Andy Reid lite. Then the Eagles draft Carson Wentz. After a year things look promising. Nick Foles comes back to the team in a back up capacity. He ran the offense really well one year during Chip Kelly's regime, was traded for what was supposed to be a blue chip quarterback that didn't fit Kelly's style.

Now, it's 2017. Nobody expects much from the Eagles but the GM, Howie Roseman, has acquired some real talent. A few seasoned big, fast running backs mixed in with a talented undrafted rookie. Alshon Jefferies, a college mate of Wentz, is added. Suddenly, the team clicks. #11 leads the league in TDs and is disappearing from sacks to throw touchdowns. Then, tragedy strikes. #11 goes down for the season to injury in the last weeks. Nick Foles to the rescue.

He doesn't play great but manages to win the games that he has to. He leads us to the Super bowl.

Now, we've been here before so we are cautiously optimistic. We're playing the Patriots, again, and word has gotten around that they cheat so it's almost like us against the world.

There were many great plays in that game. The rocket that Rookie Corey Clements pulls in at the back of the endzone. The famous "Philly-philly" play that Foles catches a touchdown on and it's the same play the Patriots tried to run earlier, unsuccessfully. My highlight is seeing the ball fall harmlessly onto the field as time expires and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick's team were out of options and had been outscored and the game was over.

WE WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! FINALLY!!! No more, there's always next season, we finally did it!!

Two years later and our beloved eagles can take first place in the Eastern division with a losing record. They blew it. But that's fine... now. We won one. The stars lined up for us and it finally happened. It's okay that they suck right now. There is always next year. So let's enjoy our recent victory because now I can remove the part in my will to have players from the Eagles team to be my pallbearers, so they can let me down one last time. Now it will read "Flyer players", instead.

Fly, Eagles, fly

To road of victory

Soar, Eagles, soar

Get a touchdown 1-2-3

Hit em low

Hit em high

And watch our Eagle's fly

On the road to victory!!

E-A-G-L-E-S

Eagles!!