For My Love Of The Game

I'm not sure where this love came from and how it got so big but I have this love for the Philadelphia Eagles that cannot be altered by any means. It's been since 8th grade so were talking 18 years now, but each year it gets bigger. I am what they would call a superfan. I "Bleed Green" as they say. When it's not football season I morph into someone else, sure all the memorabilia is still up, the autographed photos and footballs, the wall hangings and yes in off season I still use my Eagles cutting board. But the passion and the fire that burns in me is doused come February, and honestly most of the time, before February but this year feels like a miracle year. On December 21st we played the Redskins and had a humiliating loss. It seemed like that was it for us. No one was saying "Oh they still have a chance!!" At that point we were 8-6-1 and in 19th place out of 32 teams. I watched that game at work and had trouble pulling myself together...that’s right I said it, I cry over football. The eagles team literally feels like a group of my closest friends. Year after year they have the ability to take me to my highest level of happiness and euphoria and they do, but they also break me. Most people in my life think I must have some mental problem that causes me to be so attached to a team but Philly fans understand. We are known to be the craziest, rudest, most passionate fans in the league and although I probably wouldn't throw a snowball at Santa(unless of course he was wearing a Dallas Jersey) you can include me with the rest of the uncontrollable fans. Ok back to our 'Miracle' season. We are 8-6-1 and the day after Christmas I get a text from the Eagles Fan Zone that says "In order to achieve wildcard status the Oakland Raiders, who were 4-11 at the time, had to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who were 9-6, AND either the Giants had the beat the Vikings or The Texans had to beat The Bears AND we had to beat the Cowboys who only needed to beat us and they were in the playoffs. That Sunday the 28th, magic was in the air. Our game was the 4pm game and the other 3 games that determined our chances all played at 1pm. I was home for Christmas still and although the Giants/Vikings game was televised the other two were not. My mom doesn't have internet access so we spent our morning watching the updates on the corner of the screen to find out if dreams can come true. Little by little as fate would have it everything seemed to fall into place. The Oakland/Buc's game was a tight game and they were tied 14-14 in the 3rd quarter...for what seemed like an eternity. But in the 4th quarter the Buc’s scored first and it was 21-14, then every time that score would pop up it seemed like someone had added points. In the 4th qtr the Raiders scored 17 pts, the Buc’s 10, the Raiders won in the last few seconds of the game! What a great feeling. And to add to that guess what, it couldn't be more perfect because as a diehard fan it's hard for you to pull for someone within your conference so as fate would once again have it the Giants lost BUT The Texans won!! Both of the wins that gave us a second chance ending score was 31-24. Maybe that will be our ending score in the Super Bowl? ;-) Oh but wait, we still had to beat our arch nemesis the Dallas Cowgirls, a very tough team. It was a home game and earlier in the season when we played them it was a battle and the ended up on top, 41-37. That game was crushing and we really had something to prove on 12/28/08. And prove it we did. This game may have been the most beautiful game I have ever seen. I don't know if it was because at the last minute we were reborn playoff wise, or if it was the hate for the cowboys, or if it was some Christmas miracle but it was the game of a lifetime. We started out 3-3 our defenses' both seemed strong and then it happened. Donovan scored on a sneak to put us up 10-3 in the 2nd quarter. In the final 2 minutes of the second qtr we scored 17 pts, one was a 4 yard pass to Buck, then Sheldon Brown intercepted one of Romo’s under thrown passes which eventually led to a TD by Celek. It was 27-3 at the half and we were playing like we hadn't played since the last Cowboys match up. We were on fire! At one point Donovan ran toward the Eagles' sideline and suddenly stopped. He turned around toward the Cowboys bench and flexed, and pointed to his name on the back of his jersey! In the second half another magical moment...Dawkins sacks Romo and Clemons picks up the fumble and runs 73 yards for a TD that gave us a 34-3 lead!! Just minutes later Hanson returned another fumble by Marion Barber 96 yards for yet another TD!!! The final score was 44-6 EAGLES. Lots of happy tears and moments of pure joy were had that day. I just need to ad that the Cowboys not only lost its regular-season finale for the ninth straight season in a row BUT the 38-point loss was the Cowboys' largest margin of defeat since 1988!!! So here we were, in the playoffs. It truly felt like a miracle. Like the Red sea parted for us! Round one, Wildcard weekend we played the Vikings. To be honest we did not play very well but we pulled off a win with two game changing plays. Asante Samuel had 44-yard interception return in the second quarter which got us a TD and we finished the half 16-14 Eagles. Then in the 4th Westbrook caught a short pass and managed to zigzag through the Minnesota defense for a 71-yard TD. So we made it past Wildcard weekend and then the past week I had to live through hundreds of people saying there was no way we would beat the Giants. "They might as well not even show up to Giants Stadium. Well my 'friends' it's a good thing we did. Although the Giants had a bi-week, it was another road game, the Giants were 12-4 regular season and last years Super Bowl champs we went there and took them out of contention!! It was a tight game the 1st 3 qtrs we went in at the half 10-8. The Giants had two Field Goals and a Safety which was a bad call. We had a Quarterback Sneak TD and an Akers kick. We stopped the Giants on two 4th and inches plays they decided to go for and they were 2-10 and 3rd downs. Their kicker missed 2 field goals in the game and Asante Samuel and Quintin Mikell both had interception that led to points. The Giants scored zero TD's and the final score was 23-11!!! And that’s were I end this blog. But I am here to say we are one game away from the Super Bowl and I couldn't be happier. This year may be the end of an era with rumors of Andy, Donovan and Dawkins among others leaving, maybe this is the year we get our ring and prove to all the Philly naysayer’s that this is the greatest team in Philadelphia Eagles history. The last 10 years this team has found a home in my heart, I will back it till the day I die and I would give my left arm to see them go all the way. And even though I have always thought getting a team or a band tattooed seems kind of lame I have vowed if we make it to this Super Bowl and we win I will be the new proud owner of some Eagles INK! FLY EAGLES FLY!