Crossing Broad
Ol’ Dirty Bastard once famously said “Wu-Tang is for the children.”
This Eagles Super Bowl? This one is for the children.
Did it really happen? Did the Philadelphia Eagles really demolish the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX? Did Nick Sirianni really take Andy Reid’s fat head and grind it into the Super Dome turf on the grandest stage of them all? Did Jalen Hurts really outplay one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time for the second time on the Super Bowl stage and finally cast aside any doubt that he’s an elite NFL quarterback?
It happened, it really happened… but as I was sitting on my couch last night, watching one of the greatest Philadelphia sports performances of all time, I realized that this championship wasn’t about me. It’s not about fans my age, in their 40s, only seeing the second Eagles championship they’ve ever witnessed in more than four decades.
Nah. It was great, but wasn’t about us. We had OUR championship in 2017. We had our Super Bowl win to fill in the many, MANY cracks caused by heartbreak after heartbreak, each one widening with each horrendous moment. That one? That was Joe Jurevicius picking off Donovan McNabb in the NFC Championship and blowing past the landmonster that was Levon Kirkland for a heartbreaking pick six. Those other big ones? Those were the other NFC championships that Andy Reid forgot to make any halftime adjustments in, thus dooming us to irrelevance yet again.
Sure, there were plenty of cracks over the years, but they never really threatened the foundation of our fandom… but god were they eyesores.
But this Super Bowl? We didn’t need a win to help us this time. It was great, there’s nothing like it, don’t get me wrong, but this one wasn’t about us.
This one was about the kid I watched the Super Bowl with. My eight-year-old son, who for the first time in his life was TRULY invested in the Eagles. He didn’t care two years ago, didn’t even stay up for the game, but who this year asked me prior to the divisional playoff games against the Rams “Why is my chest is so nervous before the game even starts?”
Because you’re a fan, son. And watching you dance around the living room, pound your chest after DeVonta Smith reeled in a perfect 50-yard touchdown, screaming “Let’s go!” again and again, made me happier than any Super Bowl championship could have.
Because his fandom gets to be built on positivity, on great memories instead of heartbreak, and I think that’s what makes me the happiest about this Super Bowl.
You won’t have to wonder whether you’ll ever get to see a Philadelphia team win a championship. You’ve already seen two.
You won’t have to talk with your buddies in school about your favorite Philadelphia sports memories that DIDN’T end in championships. You won’t have to sigh as you finish each story with, “damn, if only they had won...
