though i gripe about football season on the west coast (they only show shitty games, our teams here pretty much suck, you’re watching the 1 o’clock game in your pajamas), the sunday night game is ideal in that it starts at 5 and is done by 8:30, so you’re not burning the midnight oil if it goes into overtime – as last night it should have.
so i found myself in a predominantly stumbling drunk Irish bar in North Beach (?) last night, in my unending quest to find a quintessentially pure Eagles bar here in the Bay Area. i may not find it yet this season, but last night i found some fluttering support in the eyes of generic football fans who are fed up with the notion of a New England dynasty. “i’m rooting for Philly in order to save football,” one guy said. “and to throw off the odds. i mean what the fuck? a 23-point spread? nobody deserves that.” others were general Tom Brady naysayers: “I grew up with him,” muttered a drunk Filipino guy (Brady is from San Mateo). “Nice guy, but always a bit of a prick. I want to see them stick it to ‘im.”
not the kind of unwavering support i had hoped for, but nonetheless a nice antidote to the prevailing Pats sentiment that pervaded the bar ever-more increasingly as the evening progressed (can you say “bandwagon?”)
and they almost pulled it off. i know you’ll be quick to say ‘almost’ doesn’t cut it, but in this case, it may have helped save the season and boost Philly’s hopes and reputation in the world of football and beyond. aside from the obvious (the ‘quarterback controversy’ is starting to fade into the realm of the all-too obvious), here is what i mean:
1. The Eagles have always been a polarizing team. Perhaps this can be attributed to the abrasive impression most people (mistakenly) have of Philadelphians in general. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. The impression I obtained from more than a few die-hard football acolytes last night, as well as national sports coverage this morning, helps paint the picture that the Eagles, despite their loss, came the closest anyone has come to unseating an undefeated team on course for being the greatest in football history. They have given the rest of the league hope that it can – and may very well – be done, and this hope trickles down to the fans seeking playoff glory.
2. This is why no matter where I wind up, I stick by my team and my city. Philadelphia is being soured by a blight of violent crime the likes of which have not been seen in the city or even nationally since the 1980s. Recently the escalating violence spilled over from the neighborhoods of West Philadelphia into Center City, forcing (white) residents to notice that something is horribly wrong. For us Philadelphians, the decades-long drought of any sort of national sports championship contributes to this sort of second-city inferiority complex that until recently we shared with Boston. Nascent research suggests that a Super Bowl victory may have economic impact, boosting the GDP of city and area residents, perhaps; but most of all it would help us to realise that anything is possible, and improve the morale of the community at large. Increased economic growth and community sense of self-worth (which, I agree, we shouldn’t have to wait for a Super Bowl victory to acknowledge) tend to correlate to better community relations and a less nauseating crime rate.
3. Most importantly, A.J. Feeley, though he did make some mistakes last night, proved to the city and the nation that the Eagles are not beaten. Who knows how this will play into the rest of the season and beyond? We’ll have to wait and find out. In the meantime, Eagles, good effort, we salute you.
