On This Day Fourteen Years Ago….

Icon said
It was impressive, but at the same time, at the same time it still felt like "ok, it's the Lions". Which is pretty hypocritical considering a PRESEASON win against the Raiders a few weeks prior had really gotten my attention.

When they went on the road the next week and destroyed the Eagles, for me that was the first major regular season clue that things were starting to feel different than usual, even though the Eagles were without McNabb. That was a game where I had only got to watch the first half and had to leave at halftime to be somewhere.....and by the time I was back in my truck, the post-game show was on.....and I remember being a bit shocked hearing the final score, particularly considering it was only a 4 point lead at the half.

I think most Eagles fans nowadays will tell you that by 2009, Donovan Mcnabb's tenure as Eagles QB, was on it's last legs. They'd brought in Michael Vick that particular preseason after a two-year stint at Leavenworth for running an illegal dog-fighting operation and it was obvious he was being groomed to be his eventual replacement. I think also, by that point, more and more Eagles/Philly-area sports fans, instinctively more so then saying so logically then felt that Andy Reid had taken the franchise as far as it was going to to, he had had his chances and 2004 aside, he'd fallen short every time. You can sort of perceive that tension in hindsight watching Eagles highlights from 2009-11, 2012. Plus, Philly sports fans are a bunch that play to win and for keeps and aren't afraid to behave rowdy to opposing fans and by 2009, Eagles werent the most popular team in town anymore. From 2007-12, Phillies owned the hearts and minds, and diehard admiration from the city because they did what Reid's Eagles couldn't do: win a major league championship. The Phillies picked up right where they had left off next year in 2009 and were murdering the competition (they'd lose the 2009 WS to NYY in 6 games).

Phillies owned the local sports scene if one looks back it from the context of 2007-2011. Eagles werent a bad, untalented team in 2009, they made the post-season but got bounced in the WC round by Dallas, it's just, if one closely examines the situation in 2009, Eagles were headed in the opposite direction as us and aside from a fluke 2013 NFC East division title in 2013 and a 10-6 non playoff appearance in 2014, it wasnt until 2017 that Eagles re-emerged with a new, fresh, brash identity that still resonates now, 6 years later.