I know a lot of people hate the New England Patriots. I hear it, the arrogance, the constant winning, allegations of Spygate, Deflategate. Bill Belichick is a genius, Tom Brady is a god, etc., etc. They get accused of cheating, but then while under the microscope, they go ahead and win some more. They’ve been penalized and have had key players suspended, but then they come out and win some more. I get why lots of sports fans (fake, fairweather or otherwise) love to hate the Patriots.
But there was absolutely zero chance that I was going to cheer for the Philadelphia Eagles. Now I’ve never really had any problem with the Patriots, and I respect the sustained success of the organization, in spite of all the allegations, so it was a no-brainer that I’d prefer the Patriots over the Eagles, but we’re in a delicate timeframe right now where Eagles fans are insufferably but justifiably overjoyed right now, and anyone who was supporting the Patriots are either hiding, pretending like they didn’t care, or doing whatever it takes to not have to eat the crow of a demoralizing defeat.
However, I can admit the defeat. I’m not really a Pats fan, but I am definitely an anti-Eagles fan, and despite the fact that Super Bowl LEE was actually a really good game, it makes me feel queasy to accept the reality that the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions.
The Eagles deserve congratulations, but they won’t get any from me. Fuck the Eagles. They won a really exciting game, and they made pretty much no mistakes. I loved Doug Pederson’s play calling, and he went for it in manners that made my inner Madden giddy, and his ballsy shot calling is undoubtedly led the Eagles to the victory. The fact that the game had one punt and over 1,100 yards of offense was a testament to how high-octane it was.
It reminded me of the Colts-Saints Super Bowl from 2010, where Peyton Manning and Drew Brees went off on a second half shootout, where neither quarterback seemed to blink and it was as close to perfect football as there could be. But instead of Brees elevating himself to Peyton Manning’s level, Super Bowl LEE felt more like Tom Brady sinking down to Nick Foles’ level; sure, Foles played the game of his life, but Brady was playing far below the excellence that he’s tends to ascend to during Super Bowls. The Eagles’ D was holding strong, but Brady was just making some bad throws that weren’t even coming close to being catchable by the usually reliable hands of Gronkowski, Amendola, and Hogan.
The thing is, whenever big games like this have time to build hype and interest, I couldn’t help but feel this pit of concern, that the Eagles had a chance to win this game. After all, they’ve been deemed pretenders and underdogs ever since Carson Wentz went down, and they were forced to “go with” the “backup,” Nick Foles. People conveniently forget that Foles was the starting quarterback for the team just a few years prior, and was a pretty damn good one at that, and only lost his job because the NFL is so results driven, a few bad games is all it takes to cement an entire career and it’s agonizingly difficult to get back up once thrown down to the ground.
And a team can only be told that they’re going to lose so much before defiance and the shoulder chips grows and becomes efficient motivation. Subsequently, the other team can only be told that they’re shoe-ins or layups for victory before seeds of complacency take root. The Eagles embraced the underdog status and ran gangbusters with it, and I’ll be the first to admit my jealousy that of all the teams to have been called Cinderella stories that fell short and broke down right before the finish line, it’s the fucking Philadelphia Eagles that actually shattered the glass ceiling and completed the ride.
And now we live in a disgusting reality where the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions. The sheer thought of it makes me feel disgusted and quickly seeking out a change in subject. The whole reputation of a city whose sports teams always fall short, to those keeping count, that’s a Super Bowl championship win in 2018, and a World Series ten years prior. To those underachievers who think a decade is too long of a gap between celebrations, just consider Atlanta, who hasn’t seen shit in 23 years, and if I had to put money on it, won’t ever. And that just adds to the disgust that of all those cities out there that used to be lumped in with Atlanta as cities that never win, Philadelphia gets to break out of that cell, and stand tall among cities that actually have a championship in the modern era.
Fuck the Eagles. The NFL is garbage anyway, and this is legitimately one of three full games I watched all season, and I don’t feel like I’ve missed out in any way, shape or form. Good riddance to the season, and I’ll see them next season as much as I did this one.
