Eagles: January 2005 Archives

Poor Eagles. Jinxed again.

I am guessing there is a Patriots fan who works at Sports Illustrated who decided, once again, to throw a jinx our way.

Not only do we have The Curse of William Penn, but now the SI Jinx to double our chances of losing the Super Bowl.

If you are unfamiliar with the Philadelphia Jinx, the William Penn Jinx, its fairly simple. For a very long time there was a gentleman's agreement in Philadelphia that stipulated that no building would exceed the height of City Hall - so that the William Penn statue would grace the skyline unimpeded atop City Hall.

In 1984, Liberty Plaza was the first skyscraper to break that agreement and since then no major sports team in Philadelphia has won any championships (I guess Villanova in 1984 doesn't count, since its a college). Plus, we get a lot of "oh so close moments".

The Flyers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1985, 1987 and 1997. Lost. Lost. Lost.

Phils were there in 1993...but that was the Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams Jinx.

The Sixers were in the NBA finals in 2001, and were swatted by the Lakers.

Then there is the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx.

The claim is that when someone, or team, is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, there is a "demonstrable misfortune or decline in performance following a cover appearance roughly 37.2 percent of the time."

Also note that this article was written in 2002 and they wanted to put KURT WARNER on the cover. Look at Kurt now, the towel holder for Eli Manning on the Giants. Just the THOUGHT of putting Kurt on the cover jinxed him. Poor Jerimiah Trotter, I liked that guy.

This figures about our luck in Philadelphia. I'm guessing that right now the anti-fans are running under ladders, smashing mirrors and carrying around black cats while wearing Eagles jerseys for the next 2 weeks.

I do have one story about "The Jinx of Jinxes".

Finally over the hump - the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl bound!

How does it feel? I'm actually a mix of emotions, but the most overwhelming feeling is relief.

I'm relieved that we got that monkey off our back. The last 3 years of listening to Eagle-haters and co-workers who gave me grief is over.

Win or lose for the Super Bowl - we can finally say we won the "big game" and are able to get to the final one.

What an amazing game. The Eagles defense stepped it up and held Falcons to a mere 10 points. The Eagles offense, which was written off after T.O. went down, scored a solid 27 points. No one can call this game "lucky" - we beat the Falcons on both sides of the ball, with our offense and defense.

This was a complete game and a methodical win. We took away Vick's running game, and he proved that he could not win with his arm. I look at Vick and see Donovan McNabb in the early stages of his career. I think the Falcons are going to be a dangerous team in the future and this won't be our last post-season meeting in quite some time.

I'm very excited because, if you didn't know, i'm going to Jacksonville.

Yep. I was confident that the Eagles were going to win it, and I bought the ticket 3 weeks ago on Continental. I don't have a Super Bowl ticket, I plan on going down there and winging it. I don't care, I just want to be in the city for this game - its been 24 years since we had this shot and I figure that I better take advantage of it now while i'm young and single.

I know my father is looking down upon this game with a sense of pride and I know he is happy for me. Our one major bond was Philadelphia sports and talking about the Eagles over the years was one of our favorite subjects. I emailed my friend Brad before all the games started and told him my dad was going to make this our year:

Me: "The fix is in. We are going to the Super Bowl."
Brad: "Well, I hope so."
Me: "No, I know it. The fix is in. Frank is taking care of it."
Brad: "That would be great."

There was a sense of calm I had before this game. In years past, I felt nervous - but this year I was very relaxed (but excited) about everything. Last year I had nightmares of the Eagles losing to Carolina, and it came true.

This year I felt like we should win, and was confident but also wary of prior disappointments.

I'm happy for the city of Philadelphia and its long enduring fans. We deserved this after so many years of the NFC Championships, and wonderful seasons.

In two weeks and i'm off to Jacksonville to watch my Eagles face either the Patriots or the Steelers.

GO EAGLES!