A small point in re whether you liked who won the championship

When, exactly, did we need to start caring about what people in other cities thought about a team that wins the championship?

Please, I beg of you, do not become Boston Fan, who needs other people to be happy for them when they are happy, because of Oh How They Have Suffered or Oh We Are The Only Real Fans, or any other bucket of nonsense that gets trotted out whenever the chattering classes have to talk about Not Game, which is all they can ever really talk about.

(But... but... but... What Does It Mean To So And So's Legacy? How dare you watch sports for the simple joy of watching sports, or seeing who won, when you could also be a crap screenwriter pitching a movie no one asked for?)

This week, my Eagles won. I get that a lot of people are happy that the Chiefs lost, and are less OK with the Eagles winning, even though many individual Eagles seem like Fine Enough Humans. 

As an Eagles fan, I can tell you that your opinion of my team did not matter last week, does not matter this week, and will not matter next week. I don't watch them because of your like, or dislike, or any other logical reasons. 

I watch them because when I was 8, I was told they were Our Team, and that was enough. (Likely the same reason you watch Your Team, of course. There's nothing logical about this, which is why we can still enjoy it occasionally, in a world where anything you enjoy is likely suspect.)

Also, side note: if you did not like the halftime show, who forced you to watch it, and have you pressed charges against them yet?

So, the Eagles won the Super Bowl. I am moved to comment.

 I don't really do the sports blogging very often anymore (obviously), because time and money and money and time. But when the local footballers win the Superb Owl for only the second time, I Am Moved. Let's have at it. 

1) The Eagles were underrated because of gambling.

Specifically, nerd gambling, which is to say, fantasy sports. Unless you had Saquon Barkley on your roster this year, and later in the year the defense, you didn't love the Eagles. A heavy running game is going to limit the payouts for many, and QB Jalen Hurts' proclivity in the Tush Push meant that even the Barkley bros were chaffed. 

Many people watch football to root for their team, but in the world we live in now, we root more for Our Guys, and broadcast networks follow the advertisers. Rooting for just a team is so, well, old-school.

2) Really good teams win by a lot. 

As the Eagles got better and better as the season went on, they started to chill the drama by more than a little, with the final two playoff games having extensive garbage time. The Chiefs were famously about cheating the odds in one-score games, which as the 2023 Eagles showed, works until it really doesn't. Regression to mean and winning without a high margin for error; it's a thing.

3) Line play matters, but only if the disparity is intense.

The best shot given against the Eagles in their playoff run came from the Rams, who used an exceptional effort from their young defensive linemen to keep things disturbingly close. Once the schedule flipped to the Commanders and Chiefs, the trench play became decisive, and so did the games.

4) Most people don't watch line play.

It's not where the ball is, who the networks believes are the stars, and great players can disappear due to double teams. It's not for nothing that the entire Eagles defensive line feasted against the Chiefs *except* for star DT Jalen Carter, who faced constant double teams even while DE Josh Sweat was having the game of his life. The Chiefs were determined to not let the Eagles' best players (Barkley and Carter) beat them. Everyone else did.

5) It didn't matter, but Andy Reid stunk up the joint.

It took three quarters and unparalled offensive catastrophes for Reid to finally stop thinking that five offensive linemen, without a tight end or running back staying back to chip, might be worth trying. Or even a simple rollout, draw, or, gasp, running play. 

As an Eagles fan, I really didn't want to see RB Isiah Pacheco get going, like he did in this game two years ago when Andy had a clue, but Reid kept dialing up the same plays -- QB Patrick Mahomes from a shotgun snap, with the directive to find one of five receivers against seven good cover guys, with maybe two of those players (WR Xavier Worthy and TE Travis Kelce) being better than league average. 

You don't stop a disastrous pass rush by doing the same damn thing over and over again. You mix in some runs, maybe a jet sweep or two, a run-pass option to keep the defensive end from crashing with abandon, and so on. 

What Reid did instead with his Chiefs is what we saw in this town before he was finally dispatched. Stubbornly try to win His Way, instead of A Way. He got trucked.

6) Jake Elliott went back in time.

All year, K Jake Elliott was worrisome, even on his makes. Ball flight was fluttery rather than driven, makes were close to misses, and setbacks came after penalties. The Eagles' special teams had three (!) pre-snap penalties on kicks, and Elliott just shrugged and made the longer ones anyway, and most of his makes were dead solid center, and would have been fine from a lot longer. He also gave the Chiefs few opportunities on kickoffs, which was a problem earlier in the playoffs. 

When a team is beating the tar out of another one, little moments like missed field goals allow for hope to arise. Elliott's return to pre-2024 form gave the Chiefs none of that. Good timing to play his best game of the year, and make us hope he'll be fine in 2025 as well.

6) The real Jalen Hurts stood up.

Hurts in the 2023 SB loss was spectaular, with over 300 yards passing spread out among eight different receivers. In the past two years, as doubts about whether he was The One were allowed to spread, he became much more dependent on his throws on a small number of trusted receivers, leading many in town to think that the seconadry options on the roster were unworthy of attention. 

The reality of football is that good general managers for stars are also usually good general managers for benchies. WR Jahan Dotson came to life in the Week 18 exhibition against the Giants, and led the Eagles in receiving yards at the end of the first half. For the first time in a long time, the defense had to worry about everyone in a green jersey, and despite a heroic effort in the run game, the Chiefs gave up 40 points. (Albeit with a defensive score and some excellent field position from turnovers.)

If you're looking for the dark cloud, Hurts gets to work with yet another new offensive coordinator next year, so maybe this was a mirage and he'll revert. But he's still young, has a ring and an MVP award, and might be the most resilient player to ever play QB for this team. I like his chances to keep spreading the ball around next year.

7) Nick Sirianni is good at odd things.

Two of the most telling plays in this playoff run came from, of all people, DB Avante Maddox. Eagle Fan was ready to put him on a Mount PassedoverMore with a sad history of burned backs, but even after he lost his job to CB Cooper DeJean, he embraced coaching the kids. In the Rams game, he made a fantastic play on special teams, and against the Chiefs, that's his hands on the fourth down pass break up that ended all Red hopes.

An ordinary coach probably just buries Maddox. The Eagles kept him active, and it's not as if his story was unique. T Tyler Steen lost his job to T Mekhi Becton, then came back in and dominated when he got snaps due to injury. LB Oren Burks allowed the defense to not lose a step when LB Nakobi Dean went down. DE Jalyx Hunt played so well that DE Bryce Huff couldn't get his job back, then became a healthy scratch when DE Brandon Graham returned. 

We are used to calling a coach a genius when they make innovative or gutsy play calls, when they become synonymous with new ways of doing things, or when they just exude an aura that can't be questioned. Sirianni does none of these things. He just keeps the team pulling as one, rooting for each other, and developing his talent. That's also coaching. 

8) This team isn't going anywhere.

Only a handful of contributing players are on the tail end of their careers. The defense is the youngest in the league. They'll keep DC Vic Fangio and OL coach Jeff Stoutland, who are worth their weight in gold. Owner Jeff Lurie isn't buying another team and getting distracted. The other teams in the division either let their best talent walk, sign all of their stars at the last minute for the most possible money, or have a history of failure and distraction in other sports.

It's football; any snap can produce a career-ending injury that changes a team forever, and the dynamics of a locker room (there's a reason the league is called Jail With Money by players) are eternally fragile. Bet on the field, not the favorite. But still, this organization is just world class.

9) The Eagles are, for the first time in their history, over .500.

This finally occured late in the year. Lifetime now, the Birds have 667 wins, and 665 losses. Three games over .500 in post-season, a game under in the regular.

If you had told me as a young boy that the team that always stunk would become the class of the league in my lifetime, a destination spot for top-tier free agents, and renowned for innovation... well, um, no. Our owners were guys in France and gambling addicts and people who inspired the fan base to fly banners from planes begging to sell the team, and that was only when they weren't threatening to move unless we gave them money. Home games were routinely blacked out. No one wanted to come here, and those who got good, invariably left. You never saw our alumni on broadcasts, in Canton, or the team in the playoffs. Decades went by without linemen in the Pro Bowl. Draft picks were rapists and amateur firemen and workout wonders and so on and so on. The turf hurt people. We always lost. God hated us. There was no God. Etc.

We were told that this was what we deserved because Philly. Even now, the media couldn't wait to share lower ticket prices for this game, predicted lower ratings (nope), the President was going to ruin everything. Nope. 

If only we were nicer, cheered harder, didn't care so much, were like all of those Nice People from Other Places. As if every other eastern industrial city doesn't treat it's team exactly the same. You want a nice time where no one cares if the home team wins or loses? Go to a town without history.

It was all, of course, nonsense.

For your franchise to win consistently, you need to have an owner that prioritizes that above capitalism. You need to be more than a little lucky, especially on injuries. You need to embrace new and better; every year, this team gets flack from meatheads who want to see the starters in preseason, or that more hitting in practice will solve anything. You need to learn from mistakes, draft and coach ahead of need, do little things like not cutting Avante Maddox when the world wants to see him frog-marched out of the locker room. As if that doesn't, well, ruin the locker room.

They are not just the best team in franchise history. They are the best franchise in Philadelphia's history.

10) This is the year that winning offensive football forever changed.

There was a reason why Hurts led his team in rushing in this game, in a game his team won. It's because the Chiefs sold out everything to stop Barkley, and because Barkley had gotten them there and kept Hurts fresh, despite all of the Brotherly Shoves. (Guys? Train on snapping this to more people next year. Big tight ends, etc. Save Jalen for when we absolutely need it. Thanks.)

He was fresh because he didn't throw that much, didn't take a million hits, didn't get blind-sided on scrambles. He got a concussion and a finger issue; nothing to the legs. He did that because Barkley ran for over 2500 yards, and even Barkley didn't get worn down, because they didn't give it to him when games were out of line, or to set meaningless records.

Want to win your fantasy league? Enjoy your regular season QBs. They'll light up scoreboards and lead highlight reels, and when the playoffs come and they have to do that in snow and wind and elements and with five months of tread on the tires, they won't. The season is too long now for Passing Uber Alles, with its silent killer of more plays and more big hits from momentum, to keep your roster getting better instead of worse at the end of the year.

For anyone who grew up in the last 25+ years, it's ugly and boring and how can you pick against so and so, he's got a cannon and so on and so on. 

You keep on picking the pretty boys, the highlight heroes, the September and October darlings.

The Eagles will keep turning those teams into slurry.

And when the game changes, they'll change first, and keep winning.

God willing, and Jeff Lurie don't die.

I am reasonably certain that Tobias Harris is not...

the worst player to ever have a significant Sixers career.

I mean, Roy Hinson exists. Shawn Bradley was a thing. Armon Gilliam. Jahlil Okafor. So many others. There have been a large number of terrible players that got extended run, and played enough minutes to make casual fans and misguided general managers make decisions they regret.

But please, folks. We've seen the Tobi Show. The contract has played out. There is nothing more to be gained from watching one more minute of this, from half-hearted contests to inevitable misses on open threes, from no effort non-rebounds to doomed no pass forays to the basket where he's just begging for a bailout from the refs who aren't going to be conned like his team.

I know you can't just release a guy on a max contract, but you can bench him. A lot. I know that this long of a run of Awful Tobi is always followed up by a stretch of Tolerable Tobi, and that Tolerable Tobi never shows up in the playoffs.

I would rather watch 40 minutes a night of young athletic guys who might give a damn. I would rather lose with Process Level Churn, because the Process got you some guys who were fun, and Tobi Harris is about as much fun as anal leakage. Also as welcome.

Play Ricky Council the 4th. Play KJ Martin. Play Darius Bazely. Play four guards and see if you can bomb away from three. Play Paul Reed until he fouls out. Do anything but play the Maximum Grifter, the last part of the I Can't Root For This Anymore Sixers from last year (Doc Rivers! James Harden! George Niang!) that is still on the roster.

Sports should be fun. Tobi is anything but that. Enough.

What we've learned from this Eagles season

The reality of sports is that most seasons do not end when a team is eliminated. If you watch carefully, you can generally see the cracks in a foundation that will spread under pressure, and while humans have the potential for both positive and negative growth, bet on the latter because, well, only one team can win everything every year. 

Which is a roundabout way of saying that this year's Eagls team, which has gone from 10-1 and the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl to 11-5 and everyone's team that they expect to be out in their first playoff game, has not so much broken my heart as just reminded me of the sad realities of life. These include, but are not limited to:

> Last year's team wasn't as good as you remember. They benefitted from playing one of the easiest schedules in NFL history, then benefitted even more with luck around injuries -- both their own, and of their opponents. (This does not include the injury to 49ers QB Brock Purdy in the NFC Championship Game, since that "luck" was aided and abetted by terrible strategy on the part of the Niners, but I digress.) When the Eagles face good quarterbacks, they generally get roasted. This year, they've faced many more good ones than bad.

> This year's team wasn't great during the 10-1 stretch; they were very, very lucky. Had Washington went for two in the early game, that's likely a loss. Had Kansas City had a competent WR for the open deep ball late, that is as well. Same for the missed communication with Buffalo in overtime that forced a field goal, rather than a touchdown. Because...

> It matters how you win. Truly good teams do it with a margin for error that lets them do things like rotate in backups during low pressure situations (like, say, most of the second halves of Eagles games in 2022), which preseves depth and health, and allows coaches to save novel plays and formations for when they really need them. If every game is a dogfight to the final whistle, it wears a team out. Not just the fans and media.

> This team hasn't been unlucky during their 1-4 stretch. They are just bad. Yes, there have been some howlingly bad officiating calls, some plays not made by players that often make them, and some untimely gaps from injury. That happens to every team in every game. Good teams have margin for error. This team has none. And that's with the best field goal kicker in their history, and an off-the-street punter that has been way better than they had any right to expect.

> This is the worst Eagles defense I've ever seen. Are you patient in your playcalling? Then run the ball, and win, because the edge rushers are spent and undersized, and you can wear them out. Do you have a QB that knows enough to pick on a particular CB? James Bradberry, the worst starter in the league, is here for you, and if he's not around, just go after the inexperienced rookie that's in his place. Would you like to complete a bunch of short and easy throws over the middle? The Eagles employ linebackers no other team would hire, slot corners that are injured and/or long in the tooth, and other people that most teams don't even claim on waivers. Is your offense prone to mistakes that cause long third downs? No worries, this defense is the worst in franchise history at getting off the field in those situations. 

The Cardinals, a West Coast team playing a 1PM EST Sunday game on the road, with one of the worst offenses in the league and a 15-point deficit after a fluke pick-6, barely faced a third down during the second half of the game yesterday. You don't see that sort of thing outside of a college team playing a small school cupcake. Maybe not even then. Two weeks after giving up a length of the field game-losing drive to a career backup, three and four weeks after getting boat-raced by actually good offenses. Just the worst defense I've ever seen in this laundry, and that even includes the Open Revolt Chip Kelly era.

> There is a clear and obvious coaching problem. Many of these players excel on special teams (the single part of the team that has improved over last year), so you know they have athletic ability. They've also shown flashes of it in the past, and even if that's just a matter of comparative speed against their washed collegues, it's still a well-regarded team from drafts and free agency. There isn't a single offensive starter, with the possible exception of WR3 or TE2, that is below average. And yet, they do not control games, do not hold or build on leads, do not make halftime adjustments, and have completed a mid-season mid-collapse shakeup at defensive coordinator. Despite having the best won-loss percentage in franchise history and being the toast of the town six weeks ago, there are very good reasons to question the job security of HC Nick Sirianni now. You can't preside over the worst collapse in franchise history without people wondering just why in hell it should change with the same coach.

> They will not win more than two games the rest of this year, and I suspect it will be more like none. At least they won't be at home any more. But even if the play calling suddenly gets a clue (hint: never throw another bubble screen again, attack the middle of the field, stop burning time outs for pointless substitutions, commit to a running game and do it with more than tortoise tempo, tell your QB to throw to open receivers that aren't named Brown, Smith and Goedert), they still can't stop anyone, and even though the offense is talented, they aren't exactly innovative or error-free. 

> The Georgia guys aren't performing. Maybe this isn't fair of young players, but DE Nolan Smith has been a rumor all year, LB Nkobe Dean can't stay healthy, and DT Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter haven't made a play in months. If you want to question their heart, their conditioning, their coaching... have at it. Our only hope is that they don't like this taste in their mouth and work harder in the off-season, and that the inevitable coaching shake up works out.

> Depth matters. You can't just decide that linebackers aren't a thing any more and then get surprised when the run defense turns to paper-maiche. If you can't trust RB Rashard Penny to play because he's hopeless at blitz pickup, you cut him and find a RB that can do something for him. Several defensive players have gone from starter to inactive a week later. This is a clown car. Without the effective use of seating.

> This isn't worth our time. I don't know about you, dear reader, but the older I get, the more I'm inclined to pull the chute on a team when I see the cracks. Watching the Seahawk loss, or the Cardinal loss, wasn't all that different than the Cowboy or Niner one; in all of these cases, the known cracks failed and the end of the season can't some soon enough. I'm old enugh to know that I'm going to watch the rest of it, because sunk cost. But I also know I'm going to do it while folding laundry, completing consulting work, and without any kind of emotional commitment... because we know what they are. 

Not good enough. At least not this year. And unless major changes are made, not next, either.

Why sports makes me sad now

 The Eagles are 2-0. The Phillies are likely going to the playoffs. The Sixers have the reigning MVP. I have just enough time and scratch to see the games that I really want to see.

So why am I not writing about sports, liking them quite so much, and just dealing with The Sad far too much?

Listicle!

1) Fantasy sports. Let's face it, folks: these have ruined sports irrevocably, and that comes from someone who has played them since you kept stats with a pen and paper and mailed standings to people. But like the dismissed hot water in a pot, a slow degradation is still a degradation. So much coverage of games isn't about game, but numbers -- and, well, bored with it. No one cares about your fantasy team but you, and if your team isn't great, it's just a reason for sad. A reason you can't stop caring about, but really, probably, should, and the main reason for the second item on our list.

2) No one has any patience or faith. The Eagles have gotten very lucky with turnovers, haven't shown good play calling, and are clearly not on the level that they were last year. And at this time last year (because the Minnesota game last year was on a Monday), they weren't either.

The NFL season is too long and too important, and injuries matter more than nearly any other factor. Philly finished their week 2 game with street meat in the secondary against the best WR in the league, but since QB Jalen Hurts is beloved for reasons and not looking like the guy who played the position last year, we're going to pule until we get what we want, as if puling ever, really... gets you what you want. Tiresome. The people gripping about the team this year seem like they are more gripping about their QB1 and WR1 (Hurts and Brown) not playing up to statistical expectations. Beyond tiresome. 

3) The Sixers. The end of the last Sixers season didn't just, as usual, make me want to not watch any more of the Sixers. It also made me not want to watch any more of the NBA.

This is a league that's impossible to officiate, where the game looks like statistical analysis of three pointers or dunks has made every other shot obsolete, and superstars routinely game the system to be de facto GMs. It's also one where Boston is better then Philadelphia, and almost always has been, and the team is trying to destroy a neighborhood to build a new and unnecessary arena in a minority residential area, further worsening affordable housing. It's also one that is being held hostage -- again -- by a star player who can't show up in the playoffs and does not want to play for the team. Oh, and they are also owned by people who have became incredibly more wealthy from their relatively incompetent ownership of the team. 

Who needs more of this in their lives?

4) Rich people. The older I get, the more I'm convinced that (a) I'm never going to have financial comfort or independence, (b) no one is every going to care about that but me, and (c) rich people really need to be reminded that guillotines exist and should be paramount in their minds, especially if they don't pay their goddamn taxes like, well, all of us in camps A and B. Every owner of a team is a rich person, the vast majority of which come from legacies of wealth, and a legacy of wealth also means your ancestors probably did many people wrong and let you grow up in a world where that kind of thing isn't just expected, but encouraged.

So. I'm spending my time and money watching and writing about the activities of rich and unsympathetic people distracting us all from the very real things that we need to do to prevent the mass deaths of most of the world's population from climate change. And with football, there's also brain trauma and death, while you watch what the comic actor and former NFL player Terry Crews call "prison with money." Go team.

5) The unsympathetic people aren't just the owners. Players often inflict not just politics, but politics based on thougtlessness, narcissicism and grievance on the public and remind me that the freedom to speak one's mind doesn't mean you, well, have one. And I suppose better out than in and it's good to know who the idiots are, but the temptation to join the Shut Up and Play crowd, all while really not wanting to join the Shut Up and Play crowd... who are also, well, terrible.

Want to feel kinship with the fan base? Don't listen to sports radio, read the comments, or go to games, because you'll likely be subject to their terrible opinions. You might also have ones of your own, of course.

I know, I know, I'm just being a crank and letting personal issues that have me on tilt from other areas of my life ruin this... but if you had your life to live again and knew all that you knew now, would you choose to be a sports fan? It takes a lot of time, costs a lot of money, and doesn't really give you great bang for your buck. My adult children aren't fans, and I don't care or feel like this has held them back. 

So if you wouldn't choose to do it again, why choose to do it now? Because inertia, because structure, because the absence of them wouldn't actually make my life better, or get anyone to take climate change or taxation of the obscenely wealthy more seriously or effectively. 

I'm complicit. So are you.

Yay, team!