After watching one more season of Philadelphia Eagles football, I think I can make the following declaration:
At no time this season was I as entertained as I was watching that dynamite Rose Bowl classic featuring Penn State vs. USC.
Sure, the Nittany Lions lost in heart-breaking fashion, first overcoming several double-digit deficits, then in turn blowing a double-digit lead and finally losing on a last-second field goal.
But the fact that Penn State lost made it no less entertaining.
Much more so than the brand of football now being pushed by the Eagles - and the NFL in general.
Take a gander at next week's playoff matchups? Anything there really going to knock your socks off?
I don't think so.
As for the Eagles, I have to admire coach Doug Pederson's rose-colored-glasses view of the season in his day-after presser after the Eagles won a meaningless finale vs. a Cowboys team that was resting several key players and generally looked disinterested in being in Philly on New Year's Day.
But it's more than that.
The NFL, in particular the Eagles brand of it - and I find it hard to believe I'm saying this - seems boring.
Throw in the incredibly aggravating need of every player to preen and celebrate after even the most mediocre play, and I'm turned off.
The games are too long, there are too many commercials, there are too many replay reviews - and those are just from someone who watches at home.
My days of being a season-ticket holder and actually spending the day in South Philly are long gone. It's just too expensive a day to justify it now.
The reward always used to be what you saw on the field.
That now is being watered down to the point where we are rewarded with watching this unit of Eagles wide receivers being passed off as a legitimate NFL unit.
All of this comes at the end of a season that saw me realize - for maybe the first time in my 61 years on this planet, that the sun does not rise and fall on the whims of the Eagles schedule. If I was out doing a few errands, I was in no rush home to see the opening kickoff. What was I going to miss?
Then there was the Bengals game, one in which it can legitimately be asked if the Eagles were giving 100 percent, where I actually did something I have never done before - turned off an Eagles game and went outside to put up Christmas decorations.
If this is not on the minds of Jeff Lurie and his other NFL owners, maybe it should be.
Your game is overpriced. Maybe even more damning, it's boring.
That silence you hear is the fans falling asleep - and perhaps looking for another diversion.
Comments