McCaffery: How the Eagles proved it’s best to try to win
As the last pass of Super Bowl LII dripped onto Minneapolis grass, a long, long, long Philadelphia wait was over. Finally, there was an answer to the tank-ordon’t-tank debate.
Don’t do it. Do not. Don’t do it because, every 57 years, there can be a reward for determination. Don’t do it because, some year, when not scheduled, things that happened around the 2017 Eagles can yield a world championship.
The Eagles weren’t lucky. It was the opposite, actually. They lost many significant players, including their MVP-candidate quarterback, to injury. And their 16 victories came through their work, their experience and the unwillingness of their front office to surrender.
No, luck wasn’t the word.
But law of averages? OK. That.
Who could have seen the disintegration of the NFC East, the Ezekiel Elliott suspension, the Giants hiring an inept head coach, the Redskins failing? And who could have seen the Eagles breezing through that mess to favorable pennant-race positioning? And who could have seen them winning the home-field advantage through the NFC tournament on a tie-breaker, in large part because they won one game with a franchise-record 61yard field goal from their second kicker at the buzzer?
Who could have seen Julio Jones, a receiver long onto the Hall of Fame production line, being unable to catch a pass at the end of a playoff game? And who would have imagined that, in an NFC final, the opposing quarterback would be a career backup who had strung together a few big games? And who, exactly, could have projected that, in the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots, still a dynasty, would pass for 505 yards and never punt, yet still lose the game? And what were the odds that three Eagles touchdowns in that game could have been deemed debatable, yet none would be overturned?
Should the Eagles have to apologize for any of that? No. No. Never.
Should other franchises, in any sport, apologize for not having the Eagles’ guts, their ability to continue to strive through the tough decades, their inner belief that someday everything just might break their way? Yes. Yes, they should.
The Eagles could have quit many times, positioned themselves for better drafting position, and claimed to have had the league’s best young quarterback and a sparkling future. Instead, they kept trying to win. And for that, they were rewarded.
Remember that whenever any other franchise tries to sell the lie that the only way to fulfillment is through misery.
They’re speed bumps. They’re not “speed cushions” as the road signs now say. And I will never get them.
The best thing about sports is that no event, no game, no play or shot or swing, ever looks exactly like anything that has ever happened before.
On the other hand, there are the Winter Olympics.
Not that the athletes aren’t gifted, or that the stakes aren’t high, but hours and hours of people sliding down hills for the purpose of winning a race by less than a second provides exactly what sports should avoid: Sameness.
The Winter Olympics have even managed to ruin hockey, turning it into a mysterious mash of unknown semi-pros playing just to play. Whether it was Soviet pros clobbering amateurs, or American amateurs shocking Soviet pros, or NHL AllStars playing for national pride, Olympic hockey always mattered. No more.
So desperate for attention is the network that pushes the Olympics that there is an endless televised curling loop. A few Olympics cycles back, curling became something of a cult sport because, well, because it was goofy. People laughed at it, not with it, and that worked for a while. But that joke is tired, too. Curling was considered goofy for a reason. Show it often enough, and that reason is underlined.
OK. The old-timers can stop whining that the Eagles no longer wear Kelly green uniforms.
The fight within the fight will be the theme of the “Rumble for Recovery,” a March 31 celebrity-style boxing card at the Marple Sports Arena.
The event will feature area boxers in recovery, according to promoter Damon Feldman. Some proceeds will go, too, toward that cause.
“We’re trying to start a new epidemic to help people get off a bad epidemic,” Feldman said. “We want to change people’s lives here, get fitness into their lives and help people. That’s what I want to do.
“They will be fun matches. We’re not looking to get anyone’s head knocked off. But to them, it means a lot, just stepping into the ring.”
■ Somewhere on the list of Delaware County sports legends to have performed at a championship level was the late Phil Jasner, the longtime Havertown resident whose work in the Philadelphia Daily News, the Norristown Times-Herald, Pottstown Mercury, Trentonian, Montgomery Newspapers and the Philadelphia Jewish Times, was an example of how sports writing can simultaneously inform and entertain.
Wallingford author Andy Jasner, Phil’s son, re-presents that excellence in the book “Phil Jasner: On the Case.” In area bookstores, and on Amazon, the compilation of Phil’s best writing reads as like a Julius Erving sky-walk through Philadelphia sports history.
To Eagles fans, the best part of the Super Bowl was the game. Around the I Don’t Get It Lodge, it was that seven-layer bean dip at the party.
A British firm was commissioned to estimate the number of spectators at the Eagles championship parade. It estimated 700,000. With that, the push-back began. Seems winning a world championship wasn’t enough for the EA-G screamers. They had to win the competition for world’s largest parade, too. They wanted an estimate of 3,000,000. OK. Estimates are only estimates. Pick a number and own it.
For its time, the Eagles parade was perfect. Doug Pederson walked the Lombardi Trophy over to the spectators. Jason Kelce dressed like a mummer. The spectators were as well behaved as possible. The weather was football-appropriate. The Art Museum backdrop was Hollywood. Andy Reid wasn’t there.
But that was not the most raucous parade in Philadelphia history. That one happened in 1974, back when people were allowed to have fun. That’s when the Stanley Cup champion Flyers took all day to travel north on Broad Street because their adoring fans simply blocked the parade flow.
Then, people enjoyed events. Now, they video events.
Then, things happened. Now, they happen when TV says they will happen.
Then, people had to go to something to see it. Now, they know that they can stay home and see it all on 4K television.
Then, people celebrated. Now, people have been conditioned to remain behind barricades.
If fewer revelers attend championship parades than in the past, there are reasons. And if there are reasons, well, maybe that 700,000 estimate was accurate.
You get Amy Shumer?