The Wrong Bird in the Bowl

The Wrong Bird in the Bowl

By J. Glenn Eugster

Fontana Free Press. January 28, 2015

The last time I watched the Superbowl was with my Daughter, my Son-in-Law and Granddaughter.  We watched part of the game in 2005 between the Patriots and the Eagles.  Before moving to Virginia I lived in and around Philadelphia for years, gradually becoming an Eagles fan.  That year, despite their heady ascension to the “big bowl” they lost as their quarterback couldn’t get it done at the end.

The other time I watched the game was in 1981 with my father as the Eagles lost to the Raiders.   He had moved to Philadelphia to work for Boeing and he and my Mom promised he would stay for a week or two sleeping on my couch and sharing my apartment in Bella Vista.  He stayed with me almost one year before finally getting 

a polite shove out of the nest and moving to Delaware County, PA.

When he became a Delawarean he and I would get together on occasion, 

after he got over the sting of being set out on his own, usually to go to 

the Boot ‘ n ' Saddle Bar on Broad Street or to do something related to sports.

We agreed to spend that Superbowl Sunday hanging out in a Delaware County, Pennsylvania bar and root, root, root for the Eagles.  The place was filled with blue 

collar Eagle fans of passion, dedication and demonstration.  Dad and I hoisted 

draft after draft as the Eagles struggled with the Raiders and only one of 

us was vocal enough to look like an Eagle fan.  

I wondered as we watched the demise of the beloved Eagles why he wasn't 

taking the beating more personally.  In fact, he was quite silent and it wasn't until we were safely back at his apartment did he confide in me that he had bet some over-zealous, optimistic Eagles fan that the Raiders would win.  He told me "it was like 

money from home".  I told him that he was lucky the patrons at the bar 

didn't find out.  

I didn't bet on the Oakland game and still wonder how my father could put money over sports passion.  Perhaps he wasn't loyal to Philadelphia, but then again he hadn't 

lived in the City long enough for it to love him back.  

I won’t watch Sunday’s game because my team isn’t in the fight.  However, the stage is set.  In another 5-10 years I’ll invite someone from our family to watch the Eagles play again in the Superbowl.  The result might be the same on the field but sharing the game with special people is really what all the free-market commotion is about.