My mom would always say, “Who is going to win the Super Bowl?”
“Anyone but the Cowboys,” I would quickly respond.
This was a common exchange between Eagles’ fans and that of the Cowboys. I grew up thinking that the Eagles were the team to beat. However, I knew little about football when I was a young kid– I thought that whoever my family thought was talented, was, in fact, talented. Before I knew the gist of the popular American game, I thought that the Philadelphia team had won dozens of championships. It sounds childish, but the first time that this fairytale story of the Eagles being the greatest team in the NFL was when I was in sixth or seventh grade. A Cowboys fan from school told me that the Eagles had never won a Super Bowl which proved that they were actually the worst. This conversation took a sharp and bad turn. My belief that my team was the best team was false. I still cheered for the Eagles after that, but I did not believe that they were the greatest thing to exist in the NFL. However, that changed during the 2013 season in which Nick Foles, a second string Quarterback took over the role of first string when Michael Vick hurt his hamstring which, in turn, caused him not to be able to play a majority of that season. During that monumental season, I believe that my hope was restored in the Eagles, and I think that the hope was restored for their entire fan base. With Foles as first string, the Eagles went on to win many games, including one against the Cowboys late in 2013.
After that season, my mom and I took a trip to a locally owned sports shop. We bought and framed pictures of our beloved Nick Foles. These pictures remained on the wall in our hallway. I thought of it as a good luck charm, and that if the Eagles were to have another bad stretch, my family could look to those pictures as a sign of hope. I am not too sure it worked, but let us just thank them for their magical power in welcoming the Eagles to a Super Bowl this year.
The last time the Eagles made it the the Super Bowl was in 2005 against the, you guessed it, New England Patriots. This year, our beloved team went against the well established team. The Patriots have won an astonishing five Super Bowls, all with Tom Brady, the popular and talented Quarterback, as their leading player. Unfortunately for the Philadelphia fans, this game ended with a Patriots win.
Although the last time they met in the biggest game of the NFL ended in a loss for the Eagles, the spirit of that game is another thing I think pushed them to win this year. Although this is their first ever Super Bowl win, I think that there are many more to come. We will forever be fans of the Eagles. E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!