My Trial By Erosion Of Words

First of all, I’d like to say congratulations to the Green Bay Packers fans that follow me. I can only imagine how you feel right now.

With that being said, when I watch the post-game ceremonies for the Super Bowl every year, I get a little bit sad.

It reminds me of that fact that my team, the Philadelphia Eagles, have never won a Super Bowl and I’m not sure that I will ever see them win one.

It takes me back to February 6, 2005, when I was in Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, FL watching the Eagles take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.  The Eagles lost that game 24-21 and I told myself that they’d be back very soon with the core of Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook, and Terrell Owens.

Everyone knows how that turned out. T.O. was gone by the middle of next season and McNabb and Westbrook lasted five more seasons, only making it as far as the NFC Championship in the 08 season.

That was the thing that hurt the most about McNabb getting traded. The Eagles hadn’t and weren’t going to win a Super Bowl with him at the quarterback position. I would have bet all of the money I had that they would have.

When I think about the Eagles and their chance to win a Super Bowl, it makes me sad because I just don’t see it happening soon.  I love Michael Vick and I do hope he is the QB next season and beyond, but do I see him leading the Eagles to a Super Bowl? Maybe, but probably not. Certainly this season and being unable to make it out of the first round wasn’t Vick’s fault. The blame mostly goes to the defense. But I don’t see the Eagles getting the issues on defense corrected while Vick is still in Philadelphia.

There are only two occurrences in sports that could make me cry tears of joy: The South Carolina Gamecocks winning a National Championship in college football and the Philadelphia Eagles winning a Super Bowl.

For some reason, mostly because it is the more likely of the two happening, seeing the Eagles win a Super Bowl is what I want the most.

If the Penguins won another Stanley Cup- great. If the Mets won a World Series- awesome. If Carolina wins another National Championship in baseball or happens to win one in basketball- amazing.

But I want that Super Bowl.

That loss in February of 2005 gets more and more worse as the years pass by. When it happened, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the three NFC Championship losses that had happened in the three previous years, but it has definitely surpassed the 02 loss to the Rams and the 04 loss to the Panthers. I’d still argue that the 03 loss and the eventual 08 loss was much worse, because the Eagles would have won the Super Bowl had they made it those years. You can’t convince me that the Eagles wouldn’t have beaten the Raiders (the Bucs easily beat them) or the Steelers (the Eagles dominated them that same year in the regular season).

Then again, a few more years without a Super Bowl and that loss could surpass those two games.