Eagles Soar

“Fly Eagles Fly

On the road to victory”

         Philadelphia Eagles Victory Song

 MVP Nick Foles

deciding TD by Zach Ertz

The fifty-second Superbowl lived up to its billing, as the underdog Philadelphia Eagles defeated the five-time champion New England Patriots 41-33 in a see-saw battle.  The victory was in doubt until the final play, when quarterback Tom Brady heaved a “Hail Mary” pass to Rob Gronkowski in the end zone that Eagle defenders batted down.  While Brady passed for over 500 yards, the most in Superbowl history, backup quarterback Nick Foles pretty much matched him, culminating a brilliant day with a TD pass to tight end Zach Ertz.  Philly fans had to wait five minutes for a booth review to confirm that it was a legal catch.  Then, on New England’s penultimate drive, Brandon Graham forced Brady to fumble on a sack and rookie Derek Barnett recovered the pigskin.

 Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Knowing I’d be a nervous wreck, I opted to stay home and watch the spectacle by myself, a wise decision considering Northwest Indiana was blanketed with a half-foot of snow.  I expected to be in periodic telephone contact with Phil and Dave but decided I didn’t want to take a chance on jinxing the Eagles by saying anything prematurely.  Afterwards, I rehashed highlights with them.  Dave had predicted an Eagle win, and I had claimed former Patriot running back LeGarrette Blount would have a big game, and we both proved to be right.  Nieces Charlene, Michelle, and Lisa Okomski all flew to Philly to watch the game with their brother Joey and his kids; even Toni’s sister Mary Ann, three months my senior, went.   At halftime, Phil texted them that Foles was a better pass receiver than Brady after he actually caught a TD pass on a trick play shortly after Brady had one go off his fingertips earlier in a similar situation.

Last week in Liz Wuerffel’s podcast class, I explained why as a social historian I considered sports history to be important in terms of studying race (i.e., the desegregation of major league baseball), class (i.e., boxing champ Tony Zale getting his brains scrambled as a way of escaping the steel mills), and gender (Kathrine Switzer causing maximum consternation by competing in the “all-male” 1967 Boston Marathon), I added that sports remains an important aspect of people’s lives and cited my excitement over the Eagles competing in Superbowl LII.  I was a college freshman in the stands at Franklin Filed when the Eagles won their last championship in 1960, and, watching on TV, I suffered through subsequent Eagle Superbowl losses in 1981 to the Raiders and in 2005 to the Patriots.  The 1981 drubbing, 27-10, was easier to absorb, coming just months after the Phillies won the World Series; but the 2005 loss, 27-24, was tougher to take, with New England forcing four turnovers, including a game-saving interception by Rodney Harrison.

Eagles fans celebrate; photos by Lisa Okomski

Not long after the game, the Philadelphia Inquirer put out a special edition headlined, “At Last.” The following day, stopping at the condo from O’Hare on their way back to South Bend and Indy, nieces Lisa and Michelle brought me Monday’s Philadelphia Daily News headlines “Won for the Ages” and including a 28-page Superbowl supplement.  One article on 5 keys to victory mentioned “St. Nick,” “a sack in time,” the trick play involving Foles catching a pass, physicality (including a big hit that knocked Patriot wide receiver out of the game), and the running backs (Blount and Jay Ajayi ran for 100 yards and Corey Clement had a hundred receiving yards).

 Brent Celek

Amid the celebration, an almost forgotten Eagle was 33-year-old tight end Brent Celek, one of my favorite players, who completed his twelfth year as an Eagle and took a substantial pay cut to remain on the team.  He did not catch a pass in Superbowl LII but blocked on several key runs.  I recall his heroics a decade ago when he caught two TD passes in an NFC championship loss to the Arizona Cardinals.  One of my favorite biographies, incidentally, is Harry Barnard’s “Eagle Forgotten: The Life of John Peter Altgeld” (1938).  The title is from a eulogy poet Vachel Lindsay wrote when the former Illinois governor and working-class hero (who pardoned the three surviving Haymarket defendants) died in 1902; it concludes:

Sleep softly . . . eagle forgotten . . . under the stone, 

Time has its way with you there and the clay has its own. 

Sleep on, O brave-hearted, O wise man that kindled the flame— 

To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name

Railroads of the World: Western U.S.

I played Railroads of the World and Stockpile with Dave, Jef Halberstadt, and host Tom Wade, whose wife Darcy had made tuna noodle salad and meatballs for us.  Jef introduced a ten-minute dice game, Left Center Right.  Totally based on luck, it proved to be my only victory.  After Dave bragged about being undefeated in Stockpile and noted that T. Wade has never lost Railroads of the World, I made a similar claim for Left Center Right but then lost when we played it a second time.

Ricky Martin and Judith Light in Versace anthology

Watching the FX anthology “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” based loosely on Maureen Orth’s “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” I was impressed by how good Ricky Martin was as Versace’s longtime lover, and Penelope Cruz was riveting as the designer’s sister Donatella.  Ditto veteran actress Judith Light, 68, as cosmetics queen Marilyn Miglin, whose closeted husband, a real estate mogul, is murdered by diabolical serial killer Andrew Cunanan.  I was amazed to see commercials for Valparaiso University, followed by ads for such Northwest Indiana companies as Franciscan, Strack and Van Til, and Mane Image Hair Restoration Center in Merrillville.  A recent “Final Jeopardy” asked which cable station was the first to focus on regional marketing.  The answer, which nobody guessed correctly, was the Weather Channel.