A stunning Super Bowl Sunday ends in disappointment for Philadelphia Eagles fans. KYW special contributor Larry Kane has this day-after commentary that looks at success in a different direction.
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — First, losing the game is so hard for the great fans who fueled this team with a synergy of support and love that spread across the country. There’s a big difference now from the earlier years of professional sports in this region.
When I got to Philadelphia in 1966, sports fans were gloomy. Franklin Field was not not a field of dreams.
Now in the next century, this remarkable team embodies a new spirit. Philadelphia teams appear to be on the cusp of a fabulous era of continued greatness.
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The sports experts will give you all you need to know about the loss. But there is one big win that this well-managed, star-studded team gave us. We recognize that the Eagles this season offered us an experience that brought people of all backgrounds together from September through mid-February in a delightful run of success that brought us joy and gratification.
We needed it badly. In a post-COVID, high-crime environment, as our community suffers from a safety crisis and a political divide, personal happiness can be hard to find.
Let’s recognize that this team gave us not just almost perfect football, but something much bigger. We got it from the Phils with a Red October that gave us a dramatic detour from our discontent. We got it from the Union, who made their first appearance in the Major League Soccer Cup Final. Now the Eagles, with a dramatic season of thrills and spills, leave us with an accomplishment that may change the dim national view of Philly sports fans that has been encouraged by media and amateur sociologists. This view has created a national following.
Even with the loss, this Eagles team will be remembered for setting a standard of talent and class for the whole nation to be proud of. The real "America’s team" is right before our eyes and not in Texas. This is the stuff of legends. Now it's a movement.
And finally, a salute to the best fans anywere who partnered with this team in a confluence of energy and ecstacy. There is no way to minimize what this Eagles team did with the help of millions of fans to bring us such extraordinary moments of joy.
Some of you will say I’m rationalizing defeat, but most can appreciate how much this team helped bring us together, and why "Wait 'til next year" is not just an empty promise anymore.
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