[admin’s note – This classic was written by Bry between the SB 52 and the subsequent parade. Posting now because it belongs here on BSB, despite the phrase “almighty Carson Wentz” haha.]
Great masterpieces are created by great people standing on the shoulders of other great people. Well, the masterpiece on Sunday, February 4, 2018, was no different. And, this celebration is for everyone who shared in this dream. Everyone. As much as it’s for the IMMORTAL Nick Foles, Brandon Graham, and Doug Pederson, it’s also for Steve Van Buren, Concrete Charlie, and Greasy Neale. It’s for the “Philly Special,” the “Fog Bowl,” and a pair of “Miracles at the Meadowlands.”
It’s absolutely for the newly-minted gold jackets of Brian Dawkins and Terrell Owens, the old school gold jackets of Tommy McDonald and “The Reverend” Reggie White, and the future gold jackets of Jason Peters and Fletcher Cox.It’s for the would-be gold jacket and Super Bowl birthday boy, Jerome Brown. –everyone, take a second………okay–
This one is most certainly for Darren Sproles and Jordan Hicks, but, don’t worry because this one, the next one, and the decade of trophies to come will be for and the almighty Carson Wentz.
This one is for the true Eagle veteran on their first ever Eagles Super Bowl team, Brent Celek, but it’s also for his superstar understudy, Zach Ertz. It’s for the newly-drafted Derek Barnett, Rasul Douglas, and Mack Hollins. It’s for the welcome-aboards like Alshon Jeffery, Timmy Jernigan, Jay Ajayi, and Ronald Darby, along with extra sweet welcomes for Chris Long and LaGarrette Blount. Hell, this one can also be for “losers” Patrick Chung, Eric Rowe, and Dion Lewis – boom!
It’s for Corey Clement –the undrafted rookie free agent, who grew up an Eagles fan and then caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl wearing midnight green. It’s for another lifelong Eagles fan and now Super Bowl champion, Vinny Curry. It’s for Jake F’ing Elliott – the 69-inch man who kicked a 61-yard field goal. It’s for the much-maligned 7th-round draft pick, Jalen Mills, the “Human Trade Rumor,” Mychal Kendricks, the guy with the biggest interception in Eagles history, Patrick Robinson, and the only Eagle who has ever thrown a 4th-down TD pass in the Super Bowl, Trey Burton.
It’s for Nigel Bradham, who is very good, and Najeh Goode, who isn’t very good.
It’s for the second-best offensive line in team history – Tra Thomas, John Welbourne, Hank Fraley, Jermane Mayberry, and Jon Runyon. And, of course, for the best offensive line in team history – Halapoulivaati Vitai, Stefen Wisniewski, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, and Lane Johnson.
It’s for great men like Connor Barwin, Troy Vincent, and one of the greatest men of all, Malcolm Jenkins.It’s also for not-so-great men, like Josh Huff, Donté Stallworth,and maybe the “not-greatest” man of all, Riley Cooper.
It’s for Chris Carter, Keith Jackson, and Wes Hopkins. It’s for Brian Mitchell and Brian Westbrook. It’s absolutely for Randall Cunningham, but it’s also for Bubby Brister, Bobby Hoying, Kevin Kolb, Chase Daniel, Matt Cavanaugh, Rodney Peete, a pair of Detmers, a pair of McMahons, and a Super Bowl champion named STUD-feld. And, of course this one is for our enigmatic relationship with a guy named Donovan. After all, Number Five will always love us, so there’s that.
There’s a little piece of this for Jason Babin to complain about like a snotty child and an even smaller piece for good ole Nnamdi to enjoy in his car by himself.
And, I don’t care what anyone says, this one is for the great and misunderstood Michael Vick and the greatly misunderstood Chip Kelly. This is not for Marcus Mariota, but it is for Sam Bradford’s sleeves, Demarco Murray’s workload, Kiko Alonso’s athleticism, Brandon Boykin’s size, and Demeco Ryans’s ”Mufasa-ness.” And, let’s not forget that this is for all three of Chip’s Matthewses (Ryan, Jordan, and Casey), his Maxwell (Byron), and his Jenkins (Cullen). This is definitely for the “obvious” gang ties of DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy.
It’s for Bryce Brown, Sheldon Brown, Ronnie Brown, and Reggie Brown. It’s for Marcus Smith and Torrey Smith. It’s for Nate Allen, Eric Allen, and Allen Rossum. It’s for Donnie Jones, Dhani Jones, Sidney Jones, and Chris T. Jones. It’s for Shawn Barber and Allen Barbre. It’s for Cary Williams, Charley Williams, Clyde Williams, and Calvin Williams. It’s for 1942 3rd-round pick Ted Williams, 1947 first-round pick Neill Armstrong, 1970 4th-round pick Spike Jones, and 1960 undrafted free agent tackle, Ezra Eugene “Goose” Gossage.
It’s for the greatest kicker ever, David Akers, but it’s also for Gary Anderson, Norm Johnson, Eddie Murray, Matt Bahr, Chris Boniol, Luis Zendejas, Alex Henery, Caleb Sturgis, and Cody Parkey. It’s for Feagles on the Eagles, Sav Rocca, Mitch Berger, Chas Henry, Dirk Johnson, and even Tommy Hutton (though, more for his punting than his holding).
It’s “for who, for what” and for Ricky Watters and his “Lightning” sidekick, Charlie Garner. It’s the awesome Andre “Dirty” Waters –a guy who was born to tackle – and the awesome Asante Samuel – a guy who was born NOT to tackle.
It’s for great leaders like Byron Evans, “The Axman” Jeremiah Trotter, and Takeo Spikes.
It’s for under-appreciated special teams aces like Tim Hauck, Chris Maragos, Colt Anderson, and Bryan Brayman, but it’s also for over-appreciated QB divas like Mark Sanchez, Vince Young, Tim Hasselbeck, and “Senator” Trent Edwards.
It’s for Mike Ditka, Bill Cowher, and Herman Edwards. It’s for invincible (and overrated…oops) Vince Papale.
It’s even for pass interference penalties from Bradley Fletcher, Leodis McKelvin, and especially the most head-scratching of all pass interferers, Al Harris.
It’s for champions with small, but important roles like Beau Allen, Corey Graham, and Kenjon Barner and for champions with small, unimportant roles like Wendell Smallwood, Isaac Seumalu, Dannell Ellerbee, and Will Beatty. It’s for the young guys like Donnell Pumphrey, Elijah Qualls, Nate Gerry, and Shelton Gibson, who watched and learned how to be champions in their first foray into professional football.
It’s for all the first-round disappointments like workout warriors Mike Mamula, Antone Davis, and Brodrick Bunkley, the injury-riddled Jerome McDougle, the underappreciated Jermaine Mayberry, the over-appreciated Leonard Renfro, the kind-of-crazy Bernard Williams, the probably-crazy Stacy Andrews, his definitely-crazy brother, Shawn Andrews, the on-another-planet-crazy Fred-Ex, andthe guy with the crazy wife, Hank Baskett. But,It’s also for projected “scrubs” like Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, and Mike Golic – all parts of the greatest defense in NFL history and all drafted in rounds that no longer exist. It’s for pleasant surprises like Trent Cole and Andy Harmon. But, it’s also for total letdowns like Na Brown, Jaiquawn Jarrett, Winston Justice, and Curtis Marsh. It’s for the 26-year old firefighter, Danny Watkins, and the 24-year old snowboarder, Jeremy Bloom.
It’s for Moses Fokou, Roman Gabriel, and the 1958 2nd-round pick, Proverb Jacobs. It’s for Earl Wolff, Dustin Fox, Leon Seals, Brandon Bair and Rabbit Keen.
It’s for the amazing wide receiving duos of Stinkston & Trash and Small, Johnson. It’s for Arkansas Fred, Toast, Mighty Mouse, and The Freak. It’s for Eric “Sleeping With” Bienemy, “Who Framed” Roger Ruzek, and Blaine Bishop, “Old School.” It’s for “He Hate Me” Rod Smart, and it’s definitely for Super Bowl champion, Steven Means Business! It’s for Juqua Thomas, Juqua Parker, and Juqau Thomas-Parker. It’s for Dorial Green-Beckham, Max Jean-Gilles, and special teams ace turned kickoff-specialist, Kamu Grugier-Hill. It’s for quarterback Adam Joshua “A.J.” Feeley, safety Herbert Lee “J.R.” (???) Reed, defensive end Ndukwe Dike “N.D.” Kalu, andtight end Little John “L.J.” Smith.
It’s for all the greats for other teams who couldn’t rest peacefully until they wore Eagles green – Tom Dempsey, Herschel Walker, James Lofton, Mark Bavaro, Bill Romanowski, Antonio Freeman, Erik McMillan, Ken O’Brien, Irving Fryar, Kurt Gouveia, Sean Landeta, Mark Ingram, Ken O’Brien, Roy Green, and the one and only William “The Refrigerator” Perry. But, it’s also for those that started here, but went on to greater things (sort of) elsewhere, like Derrick Burgess, Kevin Finneran, Kurt Coleman, and Chris Clemons.
It’s for Vaughn Hebron and Correll Buckhalter, Ryan Moats and Chris Polk, Amp Lee and Reno Mahe. It’s for Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant, Kevin Curtis and Greg Lewis. It’s for the incredibly underrated duos of Stewart Bradley and Carlos Emmons and Damon Moore and Quentin Mikell. But, also for the appropriately lowly-rated duos of Chris Gocong and Mark Simoneau and Joselio Hanson and Quentin Demps. It’s for Corey Simon and Hollis Thomas, Jerome McDougle and Victor Abiamieri. It’s for the often overlooked career of Mike Pitts.
It’s for Ike Reese, Jon Ritchie, and Brian Baldinger.It’s for Vai Sikahema punching the goalposts and then anchoring the news.
It’s for Jaws, Wilbert, and Harold. It’s for Bill Bergey and Norm Van Brocklin. It’s for Pete Pihos, Alex Wojchiechowicz, and the half-blind NFL Championship and Pro Bowl QB Tommy Thompson.
This is for the sad life and death of Kevin Turner.
This is for the great WR Mike Quick and it is absolutely 100% for his second-act partner Merrill Reese – the only non-player or coach in this montage, and as deserving as anyone on the planet.
But, in the end, this one is for us. It’s for you and me and everyone that has lived and died with this team from the moment we can remember. This isn’t a collection of talented men from around the country that just happen to be wearing the same jersey colors on Sunday. This is the vein that pulses through our city and through the lives of anyone that understands what Philadelphia is about. This city, this team, these colors, they – for better or worse – are a part of what makes us who we are. Outside observers don’t get it, and I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t get it either if I hadn’t lived it. Watching the Lombardi Trophy march down Broad Street on the warmest 20-degree day in Philadelphia history wasn’t just the coronation of a football team; it was the coronation of an overly-deserving fanbase. A fanbase that has been – and will continue to be – maligned by national observers in what is nothing more than a thinly veiled expression of misunderstood jealousy. People put us down because they want to believe the way we believe. They want to feel the way we feel. We aren’t Yankees fans who have tasted a title enough times to consume every generation with spoiled privilege. We aren’t Lakers fans who only care about the team when they’re good, which is more often than they deserve. We are Eagles fans. We are fans who spend our lives having the final score on Sunday dictate our personal happiness. And, never have we tasted what we tasted on February 4, 2018. And, never will that taste leave our mouths. The downside of being who we are is that we feel every loss to our bones – it rattles us to our core. And, since, by definition, 31 NFL teams will end every season in disappointment, we are set up to suffer. We are set up for heartbreak. We are set up to fail………except when we don’t. And, THIS is why we invest our emotional capital into this team. THIS is why we suffer so badly and pick ourselves up and do it all over again. We do it all for THIS. And, that is why we thank those who delivered it and respect those who came before. THIS is the only rational reason to be how we are. And, I can’t possibly think of a better one. In the words of the great Malcolm Jenkins, “We all we got. We all we need.” Fly, Eagles, Fly!!!
