Sometimes that hardest part of doing these entries is figuring out where to begin so I guess the beginning is the logical point. My flight did not leave until 8:20 Saturday morning. When I looked at my itinerary it showed a direct flight to Philly but it showed the arrival time in Philly as 12:55. Hmmm a 4 hour direct flight? That sounds fishy. Once I got to the terminal I started to become more concerned when I saw my flight, flight 890 is on the board as going to Pittsburgh! When I got to my gate I immediately went to the desk to find out what the deal was. The clerk said that my flight went to Pittsburgh and then continued on to Philly. This was US Airways idea of a direct flight? Well as long as I get there….
The flight up to Pittsburgh was fine but as we approached the captain announced the weather there, 16 degrees, overcast with light snow coming down, a 55 degree swing from where I left. Since my flight continued on to Philly I just sat in my seat as I watched the hoarde push and shove their way out of the aisle. Then, as I am smugly watching the chaos, the stewardess makes an announcement, the flight to Philadelphia has been cancelled, please see the ticket attendent for information. Oh great. So I have to grab my stuff and merge into the hoarde anyway. The lady at the desk said my flight was cancelled because of some sort of mechanical issue. I said, Ok when is the next flight? 3:50, she pleasantly replies. I repeat it back to her, 3:50?????????? in an incredulous sounding manner. 3:50 was a good 5 hours from now! That was the best they could do, but here is a 10 dollar voucher towards lunch to show you how sorry we are. Hmmph..The flight would not arrive in Philly until 5:15. My quick direct flight has now turned into an all day affair.
So I had lots of time to kill. I walked around, looked at the overpriced stuff in the airport mall, used my 10 dollar voucher to eat at TGIF, played some virtual tennis in the arcade and then did a lot of nothing. Nothing meant I sat around and did people watching, blank staring or attempted to sleep. I also started to read a book I had brought with. In reality, the 5 hours didn’t pass quite as slowly as I had feared but it still is a long time to spend in an airport. During this time the snow has increased in rate and is falling relatively hard. The plane we are taking is covered in snow. When it is finally boarding time we get the announcement that we had to be de-iced before takeoff. Reassuring. The procedure delayed our takeoff by another 15 or 20 minutes but even so we managed to get to Philly almost on time. I was supposed to meet my family for dinner at 7 so I had to hustle.
Next stop the rental car counter. I presented my paperwork and was processed quickly. The young girl said I was getting a green Taurus. OK cool. I went to my designated spot but there was a white Grand Prix there. I trudged back through the icy wind and reported that my car was nowhere to be seen. Puzzled, she went through other possibilities. She offered several other vehicles that weren’t comparable and then we finally settled on a RAV 4. A nice choice with the snowy conditions that were around. I had an incident free commute to Shillington where I pulled into the restaurant right behind my brother and sister-in-law. We had a good dinner. It is one of those places where they intentionally take forever to bring out your food. Not my style but it was ok because we got to talk. I ran into an old baseball teammate of mine from way back. He was always skinny as a rail. His dad was the type that pushed him hard and wanted him to become a pro baseball player. He did manage to play ball for St. Joe’s but never went farther than that. Even though he was only a few months older than I am, he looked like he had 10 years on me. He was balding and overweight, quite a transformation from what I remembered the last time I saw him, 10 years or so ago. We went home, played Todd in some NFL blitz and then sacked out.
Sunday morning I went up to my Dad’s place. He has just gotten his Alfa Romeo back from 5 or 6 years in the garage (no exageration) For some reason he thought it was neat to have it take so long, I don’t quite understand it. But I wanted to see it and the house itself, as it may be the last time I set foot in the house that has been in our family for close to 35 years. My Dad and stepmom are moving out to New Mexico this summer and are putting the place up for sale. It was very sad to look around the place I grew up and realize it’s not going to be ours any longer. I guess I was lucky to be able to keep it this long. I took a bunch of pictures, talked with my dad and stepmom for a while and then left, making sure to not stop and do a double take, today wasn’t the day to get depressed, it’s the NFC Championship damn it!
My brother had made arrangements for us to take a bus to the game. But not just any bus, it was a Madden cruiser-like Beiber bus. This thing had room for close to 20. It has 2 tv’s, a dvd player, satellite, vcr, antennae, bathroom with shower, microwave, leather seats and many more amenities. It was fantastic. The pricetag for this luxury is not cheap, $100 an hour but since we were splitting thse costs between 12 guys it worked out to about 100 per person. We met at Clover Park and began the tailgating early. We were going with a bunch of Todd’s friends. They are a funny, beer drinkin, cussin, football loving bunch. Toby brought a 55 pack of a beer (didn’t know they made them that big) We had enough beer for 50 and tons of food. By the time we left it was snowing very hard. We hoped it would all stop by game time. The cruise down was great. Not a care in the world as we all were pumped with enthusiasm about the possibility of a super bowl trip for the eagles. The satellite wasn’t working because of the dense cloud cover so we had to settle for watching the Colts-Patriots game on the fuzzy antennae but we could tell what was going on. The bathroom got heavy use. I discovered first hand how difficult it is to be accurate urinating in a moving bus. I finally developed a technique where I would wedge myself between the walls to steady my aim. These guys were hard-core fans. The one guy had just bought an old bus that he planned to paint Eagles colors and drive down to Houston for the super bowl when the Eagles won.
We arrived at the Linc about 2 hours before game time. Instead of doing traditional tailgating we just hung on the bus, stayed warm, and ate and drank some more. It was great. As game time approached, the driver got us close to the stadium and dropped us off. We were in the middle of swarms of crazed Eagles fans. I can’t imagine fans being more pumped up than what I witnessed going into the gate. The gate setup was odd. It appeared that there was ONE main gate that they were allowing people into and no others. The result was a huge backlog that left us pressed shoulder to shoulder as we shuffled forward inch by inch. Claustrophobics would have freaked. Finally we got in.
I had never been to the Linc before. It looks very similar to a lot of new stadiums, meaning that it’s very modern and good looking. However I don’t know if there is anything distinctive about it to set it apart from any of the other cities. By the time we all were in our seats it was probably only 15-20 minutes or so until kickoff. It was cold. I had on 4 layers, sweats under my jeans, two pairs of socks and some heat packs that Mary had given us and I was still feeling it. My decision to wear sneakers probably was not a wise one. The stadium was rocking as the Eagles came out, near deafening. Ruebun from American Idol sang the national anthem followed by a young handicapped boy who sung God Bless America followed by a F-14 flyover. (it was only one F-14 this time so it had less impact than the Miami game) It was game time!
The game started slowly with neither team scoring in the first quarter. Donovan got hurt in the 2nd quarter although the fans in the stands had no idea how serious it was. Shortly after that it started to unravel. The turnovers and sacks piled up. We still could not stop the run to save our lives. However, the fans were positive the entire game. In most of the stadium people stood and screamed all night. My ass did not hit the seat the entire game which has never happened before. In the second half we did not lose hope even as things turned bleak. We knew the birds had pulled out games all year long so why couldn’t they do it again? Well the surge never came, the comeback was not mounted and the Eagles set a new record for ineptitude by losing two consecutive home NFC championship games in a row. The mood after the game was disbelief and disappointment but that was far overshadowed by anger. The fans were pissed. After the miracle of 4th & 26 how could they come out and lay an egg like this, AGAIN. There were a few joyous Carolina fans there, I am not quite sure if they got out alive. As we trudged back to the bus there was a fight between two Eagles fans. I just shook my head.
The ride back was solemn. The guy that bought the bus did not utter a word the entire ride home. He just drank his beer and stared blankly into space. Although my disappointment was huge, a rational part of me realized that even up to half way through this season, if you would have told me the Eagles would be in the championship game, I would have laughed at you. It was only the late season wins against the like of Dallas and Miami that started to make me believe the team actually might be more good than lucky. In reality the eagles had a ton of luck go their way this year and when you don’t have luck to bail you out, all that is left is your skill and their skill wasn’t enough. We got back home around midnight. We were all wiped out from the emotional roller coaster the day had been. We said our goodbye’s and went home.
Monday morning I woke up relatively early considering our late arrival and got ready. My plane did not leave until 2:10 so I had some time. I got my stuff packed and then called Rich to get his thoughts on the game. He wasn’t surprised by the outcome either. Not much you can do but do a collective shrug of the shoulders. I then got ahold of Keener. We decided to meet in my old stomping grounds of Wernersville at what was formerly known as the Penn State Diner. Evidently they changed the name of it and Keener didn’t tell me so I had to call him to confirm we were meeting there after I drove past it. I had a nice traditional breakfast and got an update on the continuing drama going on in his life. Afterwards I still had a bit of time to kill so I got the novel idea to drive to the top of Reading, the pagoda. Don’t ask me why.
It was odd traveling up the mountain, I had not been to the pagoda in years. The road was icy and snow covered in spots so it required some cautious driving. When I got to the top it was pretty well deserted. A couple cars but no signs of people anywhere. It was cold and it was WINDY. I whipped out the camera and took a few shots of the views. It was an odd feeling knowing that a few hours from then I would be back in the 70 degree warmth of south florida. No matter how many times I go back home the concept of being there and then here in a matter of hours always seems to amaze me. As the freezing wind numbed my face I said goodbye to the pagoda and made my trek back down to the base of the mountain and on to the Philly airport.
There were no problems with the flight home and I was cheerfully greeted by Alison and Nicki at the airport. I was only gone less than 3 days but it was jam packed with emotions, recollections, good times and bad. It’s a crying shame that we Philly fans have to deal with another heart breaking defeat on the cusp of the ultimate prize yet again. In some ways it would have been easier if we would have just lost to Green Bay or even not made the playoffs for that matter. But once you get that far, even if you have been lucky to get there, you want to win. After getting there the past 2 years and losing, we needed to win beyond words. But, we didn’t. Life goes on, it’s only a game and I’ll be back next year cheering on my Eagles until the end.
