Throughout this Super Bowl week, I’ve done my best to avoid a topic that many in Cowboys Nation have run through fire to bring up with little reward. That is, of course, the Philadelphia Eagles playing tonight for their first Super Bowl against the New England Patriots.
I did bring up the Eagles’ unlikely path to Super Bowl Sunday to contextualize how the Cowboys’ approach to this last offseason played a big role in their season ending short of the playoffs. Other than that, my head’s been down, taking a day-to-day approach that could only make Jason Garrett happy. Scouting the NFL Draft and turning our attention towards a new season in Dallas is nothing new right now.
Writing and talking about sports are two things I plan on doing for a very long time. There is a shared quality that anyone looking to meaningfully cover sports has – the love for great stories.
As I sit here typing away about preparing to watch the Eagles in the Super Bowl for the first time (I did not see the Patriots defeat them in Super Bowl XXXIX), I’m given no choice but to admit that the Eagles are a great story.
On the other hand, so are the Dallas Cowboys – unfortunately in a way that has done nothing but make us accustomed to this type of late January/early February bitterness.
It is only the Cowboys’ past success in today’s game that allows every season that falls short of the Super Bowl to feel like a disappointment. Though I’ve not yet been able to write about my team playing in the Super Bowl, I’ve witnessed the Pittsburgh Steelers surpass their five championships, the Patriots tie this mark, and plenty of other once-lowly teams rise to the top of the football world.
Come tomorrow morning, we may be faced with the reality that the Philadelphia Eagles finally brought the Lombardi trophy to their title-starved city. When paired with the harsher reality that the Cowboys haven’t even been a win away from the Super Bowl in 22 years and counting, it shouldn’t take long for an Eagles Super Bowl to only motivate us further for 2018.
Training camp will come and go, we’ll all get excited about football triumphantly returning to our lives, and the Dallas Cowboys will more-than-likely fall short of the ultimate expectation once again. Meanwhile, an Eagles team that was never expected to be here has an entire country captivated by their underdog success story.
I’ll be rooting for the New England Patriots tonight. I firmly believe that you should be as well.
Should the Eagles dethrone the greatest coach and quarterback of all time though, we should appreciate it. Like the Cowboys once were for the right reasons, the Eagles are a great story right now.
Cowboys Nation will still be here whenever the Cowboys turn fortunes in their favor once again. It is this loyalty through everything — even an Eagles championship — that makes me infinitely proud to write these words to you today and everyday.
Enjoy the Super Bowl for what it is, a game we want to be in every single year – with more appearances in it than the Eagles have rings. That cannot change tonight or anytime soon.
