If any advice, or well-intentioned words, were to pass through type-written material right here to Eagles fans, heck to fans of any team, in any sport, those would be it. Today. Tomorrow. Every day.
Any positives a fan can experience, enjoy it.
Preseason games, spring-training sprints, off-season workouts, you name it, if anything derived from them makes a fan feel good, then go ahead, derive … and enjoy.
Take, for instance, Sunday’s exhibition opener for the Eagles. The hosts rolled to a 36-10 victory at the Linc. The youngsters looked great. The veterans, save for several “put your receivers on death row” throws from Mark Sanchez, looked pretty good. The sun was shining. Tebowmania was alive and well. Just about everything was right in Birds World.
So, enjoy.
There will be ample opportunity, as there always is, for critical views to emerge and even take hold during the course of the upcoming season. Questions remain, especially with regard to the health of new starting quarterback Sam Bradford and now new starting feature back DeMarco Murray and new starting inside linebacker Kiko Alonso, so there will be concern throughout the 2015 campaign.
From week to week, if not snap to snap, there will be highs and lows. That’s part of life, the sports life, the football life. It just is.
So, when the good days, good games or even just good moments arrive, why not enjoy them? There will be plenty of time to fret and worry, and call for Chip Kelly’s coaching head … or perhaps his GM head, or maybe both. The third-string QB battle will cause more commotion than any political debate.
This is Philly. This is what Philly does, what it does more – for better or worse – than any place else.
As former Phillies great Mike Schmidt once said: “Philadelphia is the only city, where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day.”
As time has gone on, I’ve come to realize that part of the reason for that is a media base caught up in its own fandom for the same teams as the true fans themselves unknowingly anointing itself as the protector of people, as a reality-check barometer for those who bled whatever color it is that their favorite team wears, just so the hurt and the emotional damage doesn’t cut such a wide swath.
It’s silly, controlling and, really, unnecessary.
If a fan wants to enjoy something, even a meaningless preseason game that probably no insight as to what will go on when things really matter in October, November and December, so be it. Enjoy.
- Jack Kerwin | [email protected]