Two stories about last night -- the victorious and the Eagles fan

Hawg73

Mediocre with flashes of brilliance
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The story of the 2004 season is finally over and when you think of all the events, challenges, and people involved it can be tough to wrap your mind around it.

We beat the three best teams in the league to get to where we are. The three best. We won the Super Bowl in a manner consistent with Patriots football. You want fireworks and spectacular plays then watch the bleeping Falcons. You want to watch text-book winning football then watch the New England Patriots drain the fire out of everybody that crosses their path. In the end, the teams and the colors they wear are different, but the looks on their faces always seem the same.

As the game ended and the players celebrated the best thing I saw was Belichick, Weis and RAC doing a group hug. These guys were a formidable team and in the end of their particular fellowship of the ring they went out in the best possible way. Victorious. If the world was a more inherently fair place then everybody that does their job in such an outstanding manner would be recognized their achievements and then rewarded with better opportunities and all the requisite perks and benefits. It doesn't happen as often as it should.

Romeo and Charlie had nothing left to prove and now have used their stewardship under the great master as a springboard to their futures as heads of two venerable football institutions. Well deserved, boys.

Together they achieved, were rewarded and went out at the very top and that is a beautiful thing.

****************************************************

I need to watch the game again before I can comment on the specifics too much. Good company and much beer made seeing the details kind of tough, but a few words about my friend Bob.

Bob is a Philly guy by birth and was raised in a Rockyesque row house and bleeds Eagle green. He relocated to the Boston area to raise his family and has coached the game and understands it very well.

We planned to go to Jacksonville, but had to bail on those plans and decided to watch it together instead. He arrived at my house with his game face on and it was pretty interesting to watch the Pats and also try to see the game through his eyes.

The pain and frustration of Eagles fans is a very real phenomenon and during the first half you could clearly see in his face the same kind of excitement that was probably etched on my mug back in 2001. A championship is a rare thing in sports and something Philly people haven't tasted in a very long time and he wanted this one badly.

The game began with bad omens a-plenty-- Mike Chiklis got his ass kicked by Will Smith in the introductions. The crowd was all Philly. BB ran to the wrong frigging bench before the game, which made me think about how Albert Einstein used to forget where he stashed his lunch.

The WWII people honored before the game were known as the Screaming Eagles. The initial karma was so bad it was comical and it carried over into the game.

It is rare that I get a chance to watch a game with an actual former coach and he saw very early on that Johnson was using the blitz way too much. I told him before kickoff to forget about blitzing Brady-- that never works.

The two drives near the end of the half showed the Pats were getting a feel for the game and were starting to see some cracks. It was all Philly early and we went into halftime with the game tied scorewise, but the momentum had shifted.

Sometime during the 2nd half Bob's mood began to get dark and he looked like a typical New Englander wating for something to go wrong, while cursing McNabb profusely. DMac seemed to return to his form of several years ago and was way off target at times, helped of course by some substantial pressure by our D.

While I was considering that the Pats would not put the ball in the air on their final drives and had gone deep into their prevent offense-- meaning Philly still had a shot with Wilson out of the game and the hapless (yes, it's true) Dexter Reid at safety, he had shut himself down and abandoned hope. During the onside kick he remained slumped in his chair while I was still nervous and on point.

He was so disgusted with the clock management, McNabb and Johnson's blitzing that his normally unflappable manner had soured and he became stony and silent. I think he was doing what fans of our opponents frequently do-- they view us as beatable and get their hopes up until we grind them to dust by not screwing up at meaningful junctures. With a game on the line we just shine. We wear people down with solidity and efficiency and leave them shaking their heads.

We shook hands after the game, but he was in his own little world of pain. His world was the world of the also-ran, the loser, the defeated and it was an all-too familiar place for him. He made a quick exit and as I watched his tail lights heading out of my driveway I thought about how that used to be me.

That used to be me-- a long time ago.

Thank you New England Patriots.
 
Great read Hawg, as usual. :clap:



Hawg73 said:

The game began with bad omens a-plenty-- Mike Chiklis got his ass kicked by Will Smith in the introductions. The crowd was all Philly. BB ran to the wrong frigging bench before the game, which made me think about how Albert Einstein used to forget where he stashed his lunch.

I'm thinking Dennis Leary would have given Will a run for his money.

And BB running to the wrong sideline was classic. I was cracking up. Literally, I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.



Thank you New England Patriots.

I wholeheartedly second that. :thumb: :toast:
 
Good read Hawg thanks for sharing...

Thank you New England Patriots :thumb:
 
Hawg73 said:
.....BB ran to the wrong frigging bench before the game, which made me think about how Albert Einstein used to forget where he stashed his lunch.....

When that happened, I immediately thought of an old Far Side cartoon:
 
Re: Re: Two stories about last night -- the victorious and the Eagles fan

dropKickMurphy said:
When that happened, I immediately thought of an old Far Side cartoon:


:LOL:

That's always been one of my favorites!!!

And you are soooo right. That fits so perfectly. :thumb:
 
Excellent job Hawg. It must have been very special seeing the game from his perpective.

There were two Eagles fans and about 40 Pats fans where I was.. and they pretty much curled up into the fetal position, waiting for the impending doom by the end of the third quarter.

Good times!!!

:D
 
Hawg73 said:


We beat the three best teams in the league to get to where we are. The three best. We won the Super Bowl in a manner consistent with Patriots football. You want fireworks and spectacular plays then watch the bleeping Falcons.

That was a terrific read. Thanks for that.

One small point about what you said. This morning at work when people asked "whaddyathink?" I said something very similar to what you said.

The NFL is a TV show. Therefore TV focuses on the spectacular, and misses what actually wins championships. They love the high risk/reward play, the 60 yard bomb, the scrambling QB, the Blitz.

Let's all try to remember this next October when TV is falling all over itself in awe of the next great gunslinger, whether it's Manning, McNabb, Vick, Palmer or the other Manning. Winning is about minimizing mistakes, taking care of the ball. Give me 240 yards passing and no INTs, you take 335 yds and 3 INTs. You'll get the highlights, I'll get the parade. Every damned time.
 
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