Official Super Bowl XXXIX Thread

[Joe Hoya]

Since we only have two weeks, we should start discussing the game now, I figure.

[Joe Hoya]

Oh look, the Eagles lead, 100% to 0%...voting ends now!

Okay, I'll stop...I'm sorry but I just start giggling everytime I see that picture of Donovan McNabb and the Halas Trophy.

[Bahstin]

And I think that is why the Pats will dominate. The Eagles seem a little too happy just to be there.

[thebin]

Yeah I thought it was a bit rich to hear several Eagle fans and more to the point players taking an adamant "people doubted us, now they can go to hell" attitude just for getting to the Super Bowl. (I watched SportsCenter 4 times today.) Hell the Bills never got that monkey off their back and they did what the Eagles did last night 4 times in a row. I was happy to see McNabb happy about this, he is hard not to like, but I get the inescapable feeling that no matter how much they deny it, the Eagles are happy to be merely in the SB and the Pats are not.

[Joe Hoya]

I'm gonna end this debate right here: you're right. I don't care what happens in two weeks.

Okay, that's a lie.

The point is, after what has happened the last 3 years, this season was all about one game. The whole season was played just to get back to THIS game (again) and play THIS game at home (again), and (finally) win THIS game. Next season, it's "Excel in XL" (I just made that up). Next season, they have to win the Super Bowl. This season, it was all about getting over the hump they climbed yesterday.

I know I don't speak for all Eagles fans, but I think I echo the sentiments of the majority. Hell yes we want to win it as bad as (or worse than) the Patriots and their fans. But if the Eagles come up short in Jacksonville, well, that's okay. After three years of suffering, we knew it all came down to this. And the boys came through.

Finally.

[Cambridge]

Joe, I'm afraid we have 86 years of misery to work off. Deal was 86 without a Red Sox championship and if we're good, we get all the rest of the WS and SB's for the next century. ;D

So sorry about that. It was, as they say in the business, a backloaded deal. Seriously backloaded.

[Joe Hoya]

Beating the Yankees in the manner in which they did takes those Super Bowls away, seeing as the Sawx don't even play football. I saw that on the news a couple months ago, I guess you missed it.

Seriously though, I think it was Aerosmith that said it best:

"Dream until your dreams come true."

But then again, Steven Tyler's a Sox fan.

[Cambridge]

Dude, I'm sorry Joe, the deal is totally untradeable. We'd love to move it, to free up cap room...but

[TBird41]

CambridgeHoya said:

Joe, I'm afraid we have 86 years of misery to work off. Deal was 86 without a Red Sox championship and if we're good, we get all the rest of the WS and SB's for the next century. ;D

So sorry about that. It was, as they say in the business, a backloaded deal. Seriously backloaded.

So at what point in that run would Red Sox/Pats fans pass Yankees fans as the most hated fans? My guess is 50+ years into it, b/c of how much ground they have to make up, but I'm sure it would happen nonetheless.
And one other question: How does that figure into the luxury tax in baseball?

[Cambridge]

All good questions... ;D

[TBird41]

Well, let me preface this prediction by acknowledging that I was very wrong about the Conference championship games.
Anyway, I'm gonna do what I should have done last week-pick the Pats. First off, I'm done underestimating them. Secondly, I feel like the Eagles already won their Super Bowl-this matters a lot-especially considering the Pats aren't satisfied one bit by winning the AFC-nobody was crying on their sideline after their victory, that's for sure.
It wouldn't surprise me if the Eagles kept it close, but I don't think they can beat the Pats, especially considering that the Pats have beaten teams w/ better passing (Colts) and better defenses (Steelers).

[Joe Hoya]

TBird41 said:

I feel like the Eagles already won their Super Bowl-this matters a lot-especially considering the Pats aren't satisfied one bit by winning the AFC-nobody was crying on their sideline after their victory, that's for sure.

The Eagles don't feel like they've won a damn thing.

Their FANS sure do, but the team doesn't.

[TBird41]

Joe said:

The Eagles don't feel like they've won a damn thing.

Their FANS sure do, but the team doesn't.

I'm not so sure about that-Dawkins (I think) was crying out of joy in his post game interview, and they did dump the gatorade on Reid. I'll put it this way-I didn't see the Pats dump Gatorade on Belicheck.

[Joe Hoya]

That's all post-game emotion, the burden of three years of suffering lifted in three hours. In the locker room after the game, and in all their press conferences, there's an undeniable lack of satisfaction.

Put it this way - if you were the best player in the league at your position, and your team was the best in football over the past five seasons but hadn't made a Super Bowl, and then finally climbed that mountain, you'd get swept up too. If that game was on the road, it would have been all business. I would bet on the fact that being at home in front of 70,000 fans who were dying to tear down the goal posts had a little to do with the emotions after the game.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

Joe said:

Put it this way - if you were the best player in the league at your position, and your team was the best in football over the past five seasons but hadn't made a Super Bowl, and then finally climbed that mountain, you'd get swept up too...

I understand your point, but the Eagles proved three times in the last 5 years that they were not, in fact the best team in football. Best in the regular season, maybe, but ask the 2001 Seattle Mariners how much that means.

Sadly for Iggles fans, they're about 10 days away from being shown once more that this is not the best team in football.