I would like to publicly apologize to several family members in Philadelphia. On Thanksgiving, when we were discussing the Patriots / Eagles game that took place last night and that the Patriots narrowly won, my family predicted that the middling Eagles would challenge and even topple the almighty Patriots. “The Eagles are hungrier,” my family said. “The Eagles have potential,” my family said. “Feeley is a great quarterback, better than McNabb” my family said.
I offered polite smack talk, the type that is normal and expected when conflicting football allegiances face off in congenial surroundings. I almost bet my brother $100 that the Patriots would win by 23 points, which was the incredible Eagles-Patriots point spread offered in Las Vegas, but I backed off, pretending to respect their belief that the Eagles couldn’t possibly bomb that badly.
But deep-down, I was laughing at them, uproariously. My poor family, with their fanciful notions that the Eagles could challenge the Patriot’s obvious supremacy. I wished that the Patriots and Eagles were playing on Thanksgiving, so I could gleefully hoot in their faces every time that Tom Brady threw a touchdown to Randy Moss.
So last night, as I watched the Eagles aggressively battle the Patriots, I realized that this was my payback for sitting at the Thanksgiving table and pitying my deluded family. Even though the Patriots won, the Eagles came so close that, this Christmas, when the subject of the Patriots versus Eagles arises, I will be eating humble pie.
