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Wed. Jan 19, 2005

Avian Deja Vu

Birds. Eagles. Falcons. In Philadelphia. In a big playoff game. Deja Vu, from two years ago:

City of Brotherly Love: “‘It’s an extremely tough place to play,’ [Coach Dan Reeves] said with a smile. ’[Fans] will tell you about your mother, and your father.’ [...] There have been instances in the past of visiting fans being beaten badly enough to be hospitalized.” (Jan. 7, 2003)

City of Brotherly Love, Part Two: “Somewhere in America, there’s an office pool not on the outcome of this game, but on how many Philly fans will be arrested during it. This is the legacy of the Philadelphia fan. They not only have their own jail in the stadium, they’ve got their own Sunday judge, just for the games, with their own ‘Eagles Court.’” (Jan. 8, 2003)

More Tales of Brotherly Love: “[Eagle’s Court] was instituted in 1997 after a particularly rowdy Eagles-49ers Monday night game in which McCaffrey estimated there were 650 fistfights. And one flare gun firing.” (Jan. 9, 2003)

Fan Advisory: “From Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, a request for the fans that you don’t hear in other NFL cities: ‘It’s also important that they’re there to watch a football game and not to be up there fighting … Cheer loudly, but please try not to kill or maim anyone.’” (Jan. 11, 2003)

20-6: “It got better after the first quarter, but by then it was clear the Falcons weren’t quite up to a match with the Number 1 Seed. But then, they weren’t supposed to be there to begin with. Mark Bradley sums it up: ‘Potential met reality. Reality, as is its custom, won. But potential had its moments, and not until the game’s 54th minute could the NFC’s No. 1 seed feel safe. The rest of the NFL shouldn’t feel all that secure, either. The Falcons have only begun to fight.’” (Jan. 12, 2003)

See, if you keep doing this long enough, history repeats itself, allowing you to recycle your writing. I can only hope that the last part isn’t repeated (the 20-6 losing score). But in Philly, the fans are still … colorful.

“They’re a lot more excited here than they are in Atlanta,” morning host Angelo Cataldi rasps into his microphone. “The fans in Philly are so much more deserving. The Falcons should just lay down and die.”

“For us to lose, it would be like amputating a leg. For [Atlanta], it would be like a pimple, and not one in a bad spot either. Looks mean a lot to those Atlanta people.”

AJC: “Mood in Philly? ‘Falcons should just lay down and die’”

“Just lay down and die.” There was a time you could count on the Falcons to do that. As recently as the end of last season. That’s not the team the Eagles will face, and that’s not the question here.

There’s no doubt the Eagles are a good team (have been for a long time), with a fearsome home stadium to play in. The question is … how good are the Falcons? Two years ago in the playoffs, they faced a team who’d never lost a playoff game on their home field, the Green Bay Packers. But they ended up beating them before losing to Philly, breaking Green Bay’s “unbeaten at home” streak.

And this year, I’m a lot more hopeful than I was in 2003. I don’t think we’re going to see another 20-6 game.