The pick.

I remember it like yesterday. I was a fresh faced 12 year old with terrible teeth and a love affair with everything Eagles. I just knew they were going to win it all that year. There wasn't even a chance we would blow it. Every game I wore the same outfit. Eagles sweat pants, an eagles t-shirt, underneath another eagles t-shirt, underneath a Donovan McNabb jersey, underneath a Duce Staley jersey. I was at the Vet when Donovan broke his ankle, and after seeing them continue their winning ways with Koy Detmer and AJ Feeley at the wheel, I knew for sure that this was the year. It was destiny. Donovan came back in time for the playoff's. The week leading up to the game, I sat around the house crying because "my dad was making me look like a bad fan by not getting us tickets to the last game at the Vet". I came home from school Wednesday and he had left a message on our answering machine telling my Mom it was impossible to get tickets. That was just the first thing to go wrong in what would turn out to be a nightmare.
I woke up the morning of the game and put my jersey's on. I had made a sign that said "GO EAGLES" and had all my favorite players names written on it. I covered my face in green marker. I looked like a nut job. I went to church at 7:15 AM with my Dad and prayed. Not that I thought I'd need the extra help. This was our destiny. The last year at the Vet would result in a championship. My Dad told me about all the great things we would do after the game to celebrate. During the Fox pregame, they had a 20 minute segment on the history of the Vet. They were giving us the game. If we won we would get to play an inferior raiders team. Tampa had NEVER WON A COLD WEATHER GAME IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRANCHISE. Jessica Simpson sang the national anthem. I was ready. I expected the game to be over quickly. This was all a formality. Brian Mitchell took the opening kickoff all the way back to the Tampa Bay 20. He would later say he never heard a stadium as loud as he did the Vet at that moment. Two plays later Duce Staley took the ball into the endzone and just like that we were up 7-0. I ran around the house screaming and knocking things over. The festival had begun! Or so we thought.
I was feeling pretty good up 7-3 late in the first quarter, although I didn't understand why we weren't winning 42-0 already. I wasn't at all concerned, remember, this was a team of destiny. Then Joe Jurevicis took a pass from Brad Johnson all the way down inside the 5 yard line of the Eagles. There was silence in the stadium and in my house as he ran free. "Oh God", my Dad said quietly. As a veteran Eagle fan, I now understand what he was truly saying when he uttered those words. We were fucked. The Eagles were going to choke.
At halftime the score read 17-10 Bucs. My Dad decided we had to go outside and play catch. It was like he wanted to explain to me the horror I was about to experience. "You still think they're going to win, right?" Silence. We did nothing in the 3rd quarter, and by the 5 minute mark of the 4th, trailed 20-10. Plain old worry had turned into panic and anger. It was then that I first said the phrase that has become as common as "hello" in my house. "SCREW YOU DONOVAN!!!!!!!!!!" The love affair was over. I hadn't lost all hope though. My Dad walked out on to the back deck to drink, too angry to watch. I tried to urge them on, "COME ON, WHAT ARE YOU DOING, WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!!!" On third down with around 3 minutes to go, Donovan found Antonio Freeman inside the Tampa ten. The Vet erupted...one last time. What happened next is something so horrifying not even satan dares to talk about it. Donovan looked for Todd Pinkston, but he found Ronde Barber of the Bucs, who took it 92 yards the other way for a pick six. The game was over. The season was over. The dream was over. We had lost. For a second, I still didn't believe it. But it was real.
The Eagles will always find a way to kick you in the balls when you start to fall in love with them. To put salt in your wound when you've already gotten your ass kicked. Still, me and millions of other people love them more than almost anything on this earth. I will always show up to watch them player, no matter how little I believe in them. They deserve every boo and fuck you that comes their way.


Go Eagles, but thank God for the Yankees.