When I was a 12 year old kid, few things were more exciting then a 4 o'clock December Eagle game at the Vet against a division rival. As I've gotten older, I've realized that what made it so special was the attachment to the players on the field. Guys like Duce Staley, Troy Vincent, Hugh Douglass, and Ike Reese gave their all out there every time. Even when they let you down, you still loved them. Around 2006 I started noticing the team was wearing thin on players I felt a connection with, and with the loss of Brian Dawkins, Brian Westbrook, and Sheldon Brown in the past two years, I'm stuck with a team I love simply because of the wings on their helmet and what they mean to me and millions of other fans. Sure, I like Lesean Mccoy, Desean Jackson is fun as hell to watch, and Brent Celek is a hard nosed player, but they don't give me the same feeling Bobby Taylor and Chad Lewis did. On the other hand, the Yankee teams I rooted for in my teenage years were old and grumpy. Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu were nightmares to watch defensively. And there was nothing worse than seeing washed up versions of Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson take the hill. Of course, those teams were saved by the usual suspects. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite not counting the three years he pitched for Houston, and Jorge Posada. I loved A-Rod and Mussina. But for the most part, I felt like the Yankee team I rooted for was the team my dad would tell me about on the back deck while Kevin Brown was getting shelled. Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin, Thurman Munson and the Bronx zoo. Or the faint memories I had of being half asleep on the living room couch as my dad celebrated a world series won by Paul O'neill, Bernie Williams, and Tino Martinez. The Eagles were my team, the Yankees were a team that I loved because it had been engraved in my mind at an early age. Now, the Eagles are a team that I can't talk about for five minutes without feeling like I have to throw up, and the Yankees, they could lose 12 straight and I'd still want to talk about them for hours, and it has to do with more than just a championship trophy.
Obviously, the fact that the Yankees came through with a world series win last year is the biggest reason they take the top spot in terms of my enjoyment level and excitement as a fan. I've wanted a professional championship badly and when they recorded the final out it washed away years of a blown 3-0 series leads, world series losses, and numerous losses in the first round. But along with that, the guys on the team are guys that I really like to watch play the game of baseball. I enjoy rooting for CC Sabathia, Nick Swisher, Brett Gardner, and Mark Teixeira. I like them as people. If Joba Chamberlain gives up a run in a close game, I'm angry at him, but I like the guy to much to call him a bum. It wasn't hard to call Kyle Farnsworth a bum, because he was such a goddamn prick all the time. When CC Sabathia gives up 5 runs, I know he'll go and throw 8 innings of 1 run ball next time. Even guys I don't enjoy watching play like AJ Burnett have made the team fun again with things like pie in the face after walk off wins. Jason Giambi wasn't pieing anyone in the face, I can tell you that. Nick Swisher isn't a great player, but he gets the most out of his talent, and appreciates the fans. They've even loosened up the legends. Guys like Jeter, Mariano, Posada, and Pettitte seem to be having more fun playing baseball then they have in all the years I've watched them. In fact, watching this team is the most fun I've had watching sports since I was in middle school.
The Eagles, meanwhile, have done everything possible to alienate a fan base. They've gotten rid of the most beloved player in the history of the franchise behind Reggie White in Brian Dawkins, traded away the only member of the defense that carried his spirit, signed a man that was in prison for dog fighting, extended a coach we've all had enough of, made arrogant statements such as "we are the gold standard of the NFL" despite having won ZERO super bowl championships, and in general made no attempt to make their fans feel they are being listened to. Brian Cashman, meanwhile, is available to the fans multiple times through out a season and off season. Even when he tells us things we don't want to hear, like this winter when he said he wouldn't be sentimental and sign Matsui and Damon to large deals, he was honest with us. Lurie meanwhile refused to comment on Brian Dawkins when he left, instead bringing a fat injured Stacy Andrews, the brother of mental patient Shawn Andrews, to a podium and proclaiming, "this is Stacy's day, we won't be taking any questions regarding Brian Dawkins."
I don't know how many times in my life I've said the Eagles winning the super bowl would be the single greatest thing to ever happen to me. But I also know it'll be hard for me to bring myself to the point where I feel okay buying a ticket from this team this year. And if I do go, it'll be a Westbrook or Dawkins jersey, not a Maclin or Mccoy. Meanwhile, I have no problem spending 50 dollars on Yankee tickets, and when I wear my CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera t-shirts, it's not just the logo on the front that I'm proud of, but the name on the back as well. The Eagles have a long way to go before they become the Eagles again. I'll be there win or lose, but I won't be happy about it. What makes me happier, seeing the Eagles not being able to cover a tight end for the 8th year in a row on 3rd and 3, or hearing John Sterling on a warm summer night declare "ball game over, yankees win". The answer is the latter. On a warm sunday in August, the Yanks are playing the the A's and for a minute I feel like a kid when I hear "it's gonna drop in for a hit!! Two runs will score." I walk outside to the driveway where my dad is washing the car and say "runners on second and third two out, A-Rod with a base hit scored them both, 5-2 Yanks bottom of the 7th." That beats running outside in december when my dad is putting up christmas lights and shouting "3RD AND 17 AND THE EAGLES GAVE UP A FIRST DOWN. BALLS AT THE EAGLE 17. ANDY'S JUST STANDING THERE LIKE A MORON!!!"
All you can do is hope and pray that Nate Allen is the next Brian Dawkins, that Brandon Graham is the next Hugh Douglas, and that Mariano Rivera still has his cutter in 5 years. The Eagles, now 50 years departed from their last NFL championship, and having never won a super bowl, are about halfway to the cubs in terms of total number of years without a title. Sounds like Brian Cashman could teach Jeffrey Lurie a thing or two about gold standards.