If fans of a particular team support that team well when they are playing away from home, it is said that those fans "travel well." Fellow Eagles fans, I am here to tell you, we travel well. Very well.
Several months ago, I began to plan for The Missus' thirtieth birthday. When I turned thirty around three and a half years ago (said in hushed tones), she threw a fantastic surprise party for me: a Phillies game at the Vet with all of my close friends and family greeting me in a party-suite stocked with burgers, dogs, cake and an open bar (to this day, I joke that the only thing missing was pony rides). Ever since then, I knew I would have to return the favor when the time came. Couple that with the fact that I have been putting off a proper vacation for quite a while now, and surprising her with a cruise to the Caribbean in the dead of winter seemed like a great idea.
Everything turned out great, she was indeed surprised by friends and family one day, hungover the next, and boarding a plane for San Juan a week later. But one thing I did not account for was the NFL post-season.
When I planned the operation, the Eagles were mired in their mid-season slump. Donovan McNabb was done for the season and all of us assumed the Eagles were too. We all know what happened from there -- a rejuvenated defense, Jeff Garcia being the best thing since sliced bread, Andy Reid finding the run plays crumpled up in the back of the playbook, yada yada -- and before you know it, the Eagles would-be run to the Super Bowl and our vacation were on a collision course.
If the Eagles were to reach the NFC Championship, I knew I would be home in time for that game, so their second-round contest with the Saints was all I had to concern myself with in terms of scrounging up a television set aboard ship that was capable of pulling in the satellite feed. Our itinerary called for us to fly to San Juan and be aboard ship several hours prior to kickoff.
Naturally, there were a lot of Eagles jerseys being adorned in the Philadelphia airport that morning at our gate -- nothing out of the ordinary there. But when the in-flight movie was "Invincible" (which actually garnered applause in certain segments even though most of the people doing the clapping had certainly witnessed the feature previously), I began to think karma might be on my side in my quest. And when those same Eagles Jerseys coincidentally began to board our ship, I began to think that the skipper might have a mutiny on his hands if we weren't allowed to somehow harness the ship's extensive telecommunications systems to catch at least a few snaps.
As the evening wore on, Eagles Jerseys one by one discovered the, I don't know, 30-foot wide -- lets just call it gigantic -- video screen mounted above the outdoor pool deck's bar. Silently, Eagles Jerseys hoped the game would be shown there, and when the day's first game, Colts/Ravens, came on the giant television, Eagles Jerseys began to stake out prime viewing positions for later on. Go get another ice-bucket of Dos Equis, I'll hold this spot.
By kickoff, the pool area looked more like Chickie and Pete's than the Crown Princess. And, when Sheldon Brown clocked Reggie Bush on the second play of the game, the roar was so loud I thought the general alarm would sound sending the crew to their muster stations donning life jackets.
Unfortunately, there wouldn't be enough to roar about after that. Though Eagles Jerseys sat through several Caribbean rain squalls, what actually dampened our spirits more than anything was that the same problems that affected the Eagles mid-season came to rear their ugly heads -- porous run defense, costly penalties, and inconsistent offense -- leading to a loss.
But over a week later, I can honestly say two things: great vacation and, if it has to happen, there is no better way to watch your team get eliminated from the playoffs.
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It's not just Eagles fans that travel well, it's Phillies fans too. I wore my Phillies hat often on the trip, and it illicited a lot of comments. That's the first Phillies hat I've seen in days! Alright! and Hey hold the elevator for him, he's a Phillies fan!
By the way, now that the Eagles are finished, the Flyers and Sixers crashed and burned on takeoff, and winter decided to finally show up, you should know, there are
until Phillies pitchers and catchers report.
