Underdogs

I would not consider myself to be an optimist.  Most of the time, I expect that things will go wrong and fall apart.  I am not an abject pessimist though, I don't usually expect the worst, I just think that there will always be some level of disappointment in most things.  I attribute that feeling to a lifetime of being a fan and follower of the Philadelphia Eagles.
For those of you not familiar with the Iggles and their pathology, let me explain.  They are not the Cleveland Browns, doomed losers that can take the brightest opportunity and watch it drown in Lake Erie.  They are a team that can show you flashes of greatness, whether it was Dick Vermeil's teams in the early 1980s with Ron Jaworski and Wilbert Montgomery or whether it was Buddy Ryan's Gang Green defense in the late 1980s with Reggie White and Jerome Brown, or the Donovan McNabb/Andy Reid "dynasty" of the early 2000's. The Iggles managed to rise only so far, they never quite made it to the place that they made it last night.  This morning, I don't quite know what to do with the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles. I'm happy for sure, but I have to tell you that game last night was balanced on the head of a pin, and to long time fans of the Iggles, it really felt like it could go sideways at any minute.  The touchdown to Zach Ertz was one of those moments that I felt was surely going to go wrong for us.  It was a review of whether or not he caught the ball before he crossed the goal line and the ball bounced on the ground.  Everything in my experience told me it was a catch, he had the ball firmly in two hands, took two or three steps and dove across the line, still with the ball firmly in two hands.  In the end zone, when the ball breaks the plane of the goal line, the play is over and the score is good.  Running backs stretch the ball across the line all the time, not worrying about whether it is dislodged because of this rule.  Ertz clearly possessed the ball and was a runner before crossing the line and having the ball bounce off the ground.  But the review stretched on and the two morons doing the TV commentary (seriously Al Michaels and Chris Collingsworth need to go away, someone needs to make that happen) were dead sure that the play would be reversed.  Given what I have experienced in my life as an Iggles phan, I almost knew that it would be, unfairly, unjustly yet inexorably, that play could not stand.  Then it did, the zebras got it right, they were not in the pocket of the Patriots and the Iggles had the lead back.
But there were still two minutes to go... and as the insufferable ignoramuses in the booth kept telling us Tom Brady is the greatest football player ever.  Then Golden Boy got sacked for the first time in the game and fumbled it with no chance of claiming the tuck rule, and the Iggles recovered the ball.  I was screaming at the TV now, "Please let this be a real thing!" It was, no challenge, no reversal.  There was the predictable run of three plays: run, run, run, kick field goal.  Even Doug Pederson, who had gone for it on fourth down and called a trick play where Nick Foles actually caught a touchdown, knew that playing in safe was the way to go.  An eight point lead, one would hope would be enough.
But Brady had the ball with a little over a minute to go and it still seemed highly unlikely that a team a little over a month removed from losing their best player to a torn ACL could possibly beat the New England Dynasty.  Gronkowski caught a couple passes and the Pats had a last ditch hail mary chance into the endzone.  It wasn't until that ball bounced off the turf and there was no yellow laundry on the field that I finally allowed myself to breath.
I know that football is just a game and that this moment has no real significance in the grand scheme of things, but after a lifetime of watching my Iggles get close, but not quite there, today feels kind of different. I noticed that a lot of people became Iggle phans last night. Across my social media community, which is honestly comprised of about equal numbers of Iggles and Stillers people, there was a lot of rejoicing that at least it wasn't the Patriots winning again. As it turns out, having all the luck and all the success in the world doesn't necessarily make you likable.
It was a pretty stark contrast, Nick Foles, back-up journeyman QB with a hard earned humility about his place in all of this, versus Tom Terrific.  The team that no one gave a chance versus the team that everyone picked to win.  Legarrette Blount, who has been around the league a bit, including spending last year with the Patriots, spoke about his Eagles teammates as though there was really something special going on.  They were together, they were focused and they had hope, always hope. When Carson Wentz went down, they held onto hope, when they were home underdogs to the Falcons and the Vikings, they held on to hope, when they were not given a chance against the mighty Patriots they held on to hope.  Hope is something that the history of the Philadelphia Eagles almost beats out of you, but last night, all that hope, all that hanging on, all that waiting for next year, finally bloomed into a reality.  The Philadelphia Eagles have won the Super Bowl.  I'm not sure how long it's going to take before that sounds normal.