graceland's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Eagles Have Landed Essentially, I spent the entire day today rehashing my favorite moments of yesterday's game for everyone around me. Whether or not they wanted to hear it. I added our NFC championship game photos from the newspapers to my growing shrine of Eagles clippings surrounding my desk at work. I don't have one personal photo at work, that's never been my style. Now, my area is buried under clippings of the Eagles. I clicked through pages of online photos of yesterday's game, streamed today's Eagles press conference live on my computer and transcribed it on e-mail for everyone who couldn't watch it. I can't even imagine how insane I would be if I lived in Philly right now. I love that a fan ran out onto the field. It just adds to the hype that Philly fans are insane. We are insane. We will do anything for a championship. We haven't haven't had a championship in any sport since 1983. The last one I remember is the Phillies winning the 1980 World Series; that was a great year because that was also the year that Jaws took us to the Superbowl. And now we are going again. I welled up at the end of the game yesterday. I was fine until about 3 minutes left, when we knew we had it and Donovan's out on the field, flapping his arms like T.O. had been doing the whole game, gesturing to the crowd to get louder, get excited, we were going to Jacksonville. It was real! It was really happening. Suddenly the camera panned to Jaws on the sideline. There he is, like so many other great players who worked hard for the city of Philadelphia but weren't able to get us a ring, and he's supposed to be an impartial commentator but there he is with this giant smile on his face. Like the victory was a little bit his as well, as much as it belonged a little bit to every Philly fan. A tear slid down my face as my friend clenched my arm and started chanting, "this is it, Grace! We're going. We're going! We're going to Jacksonville!!!" I just sat there in the bar with my Eagles t-shirt on shaking my head in disbelief. It's still hard to believe. Dorsey propelling himself over into the end zone to score. Chad Lewis bringing it home and breaking his foot in the line of duty. Akers with a bloody nose. Westbrook ruling the roost. They were warriors yesterday. And then Andy Reid breaking character with a giant smile when the Gatorade came splashing. Trotter crying and hugging his teammates. T.O. whipping his towels and jumping up and down on the bench. Say what you will about Philly fans and our teams. Like Dawkins said today, We're back in the position of no respect but we're used to it. Philly teams and fans haven't gotten respect for as long as anyone can remember, we're used it. Belicheck is a guru. 31-2 for the last 33, is that what I heard? His team is tight and experienced, the Eagles are going to have to fight for their lives. I like being the underdogs. 6.5 pts? Make it 9. We have something Vegas hasn't counted on in their point spread. The Eagles have heart. They want it bad. And like McNabb and Dawkins said, we're not going to the Superbowl to lose. 8:06 p.m. - 2005-01-24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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