I was too young to really remember the World Series in 1980 and 1983, but I'm told I sat on my dad's lap while he cheered for the Phillies. Schmitty, Rose, Luzinski, Maddux, McGraw. His favorite was Lefty. Harry and Whitey were the soundtrack to my childhood summers.
May 31, 1983 - I vaguely remember knowing the Sixers had won, but I was only five...nothing really impacted me about the game, but I remember my friend Adam had a poster of the team in his room.
May 31, 1987 - the Flyers loss to the Oilers at the end of my third grade year seemed dark from a distance, but even though I liked to play floor hockey after school, I wasn't really a fan yet, so this loss was not much different from the day the stock market crashed in October of my fourth grade year. Just a dark, cloudy day.
December 31, 1988 - Eagles got eliminated at Soldier Field on New Year's Eve. I was at home. It felt unfair.
November 12, 1990 - it was Monday night when the Eagles injured nine Redskins in the body bag game. My Dad was a Redskins fan, born and raised in DC, but to his credit he raised his kids to root for our home teams. I still think I have a skewed perspective on the "Body Bag Game" from him. It was a Monday night and a school night, so I didn't stay up for the whole thing anyway.
Then I remember countless Sundays in backyards and playground fields, playing football while listening to Merrill Reese broadcasting Eagles games from somebody's boombox on the sidelines:
"Randall under center, down on the ball, takes the snap, rolls right, looking, scrambling, fires downfield... complete to Kieth Jackson for the first down!"
This is when I started to love the Eagles... I remember my Dad taking me to the Vet and we were close enough to see how big the players were. My dad told me that Jerome Brown brings his family into the game for free by smuggling them under his shirt.
Jerome Brown died on June 25, 1992. We wanted so badly to bring it home for Jerome that fall.
Then the Phillies got hot for one amazing season.
October 23, 1993 - I was at Jon & Jim Delise's house watching Mitch Williams give up Joe Carter's walk-off homerun, dashing our dreams.
I played backyard football with neighborhood friends at Adam Schupack's house when Rodney Peete was our QB. Norman Braman owned the team. We suffered through Rich Kotite. I rooted for two Detmers in Eagles jerseys. Two.
The team went 3-13, but I was at Penn State and distracted by having the greatest time anyone could have anywhere, but it still made me jealous of half the campus celebrating Steelers wins at the same time. I remember having to watch Randall finally go to a SuperBowl... with the wrong team.
May 26, 2000 - the Flyers lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the hated Devils, and it was the end of an era, Eric Lindros' last game.
I graduated, got married, and moved away from home. Living in Vermont, I felt a strong connection to home whenever I'd get to watch a nationally televised game with one of our four major teams. I'll never forget Iverson stepping over Tyronn Lue and putting up 48 points when the Sixers won game one of the 2001 NBA Finals. But Destiny's Child (other than Kelly Rowland) wearing Lakers dresses in Philly?!? Booo!
June 15, 2001 - watching with our neighbors, Dave and Melissa, in the apartment next door, as the Sixers lost the last game to the Lakers.
Then the Eagles started a great run in 2001. Living in VT, Giants games were televised, but that's around the time the Birds started to own the Giants... got to watch some good wins.
Jan 27, 2002 - sitting on my couch in my Vermont apartment. They had a lead at halftime, but couldn't outlast the Greatest Show on Turf. I knew they'd be back.
January 19, 2003 - I was back in my home state, working my first adult job, living in an apartment in PA, for this great season. We were chaperoning a ski trip somewhere in VT when the Eagles lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the one that really got away. As a Penn Stater, I had previously loved and cheered for Joe Jurevicius, but never again. Never. That was the end of Veterans Stadium, too.
January 18, 2004 - I was chaperoning a ski trip to Whiteface, NY. We were in a TV room of the lodge where we were staying when the Panthers upset the Eagles and we dealt with the third-straight NFC Championship defeat by going outside in the snow and playing a very rough football game under the parking lot lights to take out our aggression and frustration.
T.O... T.O. T.O. T.O.... Things got really exciting throughout the 2004 season. I cut out articles from the Philly Inquirer and Daily News and hung them up on the my classroom door as they cruised to a 13-3 season.
There were so many great Eagles memories this year, but nothing like...
January 23, 2005 - I jumped up and down in the den of my new house, and called Adam Schupack on the phone and boldly declared that the curse was lifted!
I was wrong...
February 6, 2005 - at a bar called Blue Horse, with Jon Simpson and Scott Long. We had a shot at winning this one, but the Patriots went down the field late in the game and took the lead, and the Eagles couldn't answer. We cried in the parking lot.
August 8, 2005 - McNabb is on the cover of Madden 06. Great. We're cursed.
The 2005 season just sucked, from the loss in the opener against the Falcons on Monday night through all the miserable T.O. drama... this season just plain stunk.
January 13, 2007 - The Eagles came out hot. I was at Scott Long's house as Reggie Bush got destroyed by Sheldon Brown. But I would drive home in stunned silence that night after the Saints knocked us out, 27-24.
April 27, 2007 - I was driving over to Scott Long's house when I heard the Eagles drafted Kevin Kolb. People started talking about the "Kevin Kolb era" and how they couldn't wait for it to start. The town started to turn on McNabb and Reid. I guess we're still waiting for that Kevin Kolb era, though...
July 16, 2007 - I woke up my infant son from a nap and held him on my chest as the Phillies lost the franchise's 10,000th game. Just as my father had held me for the Phillies World Series games... I just wanted him to know what being a Philadelphia fan was all about.
Then the day that chnaged everything. I was at a bar in Philly with Scott Long, and Cole Hamels was on the mound, but it got delayed after seven innings. Then there was freezing rain and snow... it was as if hell had to freeze over before our city got a damn championship!
The long drought finally came to an end on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. I drove to York, PA, and saw my cousin Kristin. Her husband Roger had attended the first 7 innings, but wasn't planning on returning for the end of the game, and was willing to let me use his ticket if I just drove a few hours to get it, and promised it's safe return in a nice World Series lanyard. Brad Lidge threw the last pitch and it was over!
Pandemonium everywhere. I tucked that lanyard in to my sweatshirt to protect it and left the stadium immediately because I wanted to be on Broad Street where the party would be. I ran to Pattison and caught the train up to City Hall, high fiving everyone I passed. I somehow ran into Gavin Villacorta, Scott Long, and I think Dave Cissne and Jason Karasow on Broad Street. I watched people climb light posts, and even ride around the streets on the back of firetrucks. Late night cheesesteaks tasted better than anything I had ever tasted.
Then there was the parade and "World (bleeping) champions!" But whispers, everywhere, were about how amazing it would be when the Eagles, someday, finally, have their parade. Now THAT would be the ultimate celebration.
November 16, 2008 - The Eagles and Bengals tied. I was watching in my den, standing up and yelling at the TV. McNabb didn't know the gane could end in a tie.
January 18, 2009 - The Wild Card Eagles made it all the way to the NFC Championship. I watched with Jon Simpson at his house as McNabb drove them down the field and gave them the lead, but the defense couldn't hold on, and they lost 32-25 to end the season.
August 14, 2009 - the Eagles signed Michael Vick. I was playing a show with my band, BeatnikBrown, upstairs at Kildare's in Manayunk, when it scrolled on the TV, and I had to walk closer to the TV to make sure I was reading it right.
November 4, 2009 - I was at home, watching the last Phillies -Yankees World Series game in my den. I had watched a few previous games fromt he series with my Dad, but I was alone for this one. After the Phillies lost, I went into the driveway and plugged in a worklamp and did late-night yardwork to get the loss - and that damned Jay-Z and Alicia Keys song - out of my head.
January 9, 2010 - McNabb played an air guitar that looked more like a banjo, and the hated Dallas Cowboys took all the air out of our season, eliminating the Birds in a blowout, 34-14. I don't remember where I was for this one. I don't want to remember.
April 4, 2010 - McNabb got traded to the Redskins. I was mowing the lawn and listening to the news on my headphones. They traded him in our own division!?!
June 9, 2010 - I had just played a show with BeatnikBrown and the guys that would be in my next band, Hot D, who had shared the billing with us at The Rox Box in Roxborough when we watched the Flyers win Game Four the previous Friday night. We thought they really had a shot if they could just win game six and come home to host game seven... but Patrick Kane had other thoughts, scoring an overtime goal with an assist from Brian Campbell to dash those hopes. On a positive note, I joined the guys in Hot D, and played for seven years with one of the most fun, Philly party bands around!
These were good days in Philly. In 2011, we had 99 problems, but a pitch wasn't one! The Phillies went 102-60, and had the best record in baseball. They were finally ready to get back to the World Series and solidify their place as a dynasty...
October 7, 2011 - we had been with cousins, Paige and Ian Wasti, watching the Phillies win a few nights earlier, but I was alone in my den for the moment the dream of the season came crashing down, with Ryan Howard's achilles. I called my brother, Greg. We didn't know, yet, that sound... was the window slamming shut.
December 30, 2012 - The season had ended with "Fire Andy" chants. I hated to see this era come to an end. We came close so many times, but never won the big one. It was time for a change, and the Eagles fired Andy Reid.
February 5, 2013 - Chip Kelly yelled "Yo Philly" at Wing Bowl. Could this be the guy who leads us to the promised land?
January 4, 2014 - I was playing a show with Hot D at Finnegan's Wake when the Chip Kelly-led Eagles, with Nick Foles at QB, lost to the New Orleans Saints. We had to go back on stage after that game. I was impressed by how hard our lead singer, Matt, fought to be energetic and positive on stage after that huge disappointment.
December 29, 2015 - after the tailspin that followed that first season, the Eagles fired Chip Kelly. Where was I? Somewhere feeling relieved. That went so far south so fast.
April 28, 2016 - Eagles draft Carson Wentz. We all scramble to find North Dakota State football game footage.... but after a few flashes of brilliance, the 2016 Eagles still finish last in the NFC East
Then there was this year.
The year Jake Eliott made that unbelievable kick against the Giants.
The year everything seemed to line up.
The year everyone got injured, and the next-man-up won the game anyway.
The year St. Nick came back.
This year is special.
This year could be the year, the one... the day that doesn't necessarily erase so many of these other days I remember... but makes them all worthwhile.
This year, this day, this could be the one we'll remember over all the rest.
February 4, 2018
