For the Philadelphia Eagles, it is shaping up to be a storybook ending.
It all started in July, when head coach Doug Pederson said his current squad was “probably” better than the Super Bowl winning Green Bay Packers of 1997. It sounded like an outlandish comment after the team went 7-9 in his first season as a head coach, but for Pederson, who was the backup quarterback on that ‘97 team, he saw something in the Birds’ roster that others didn’t.
A few months before the soundbite that was replayed on Philly sports radio for weeks, the team made a few really shroud signings in free agency. The team inked both veteran wide receiver Alshon Jeffery and veteran running back LeGarrette Blount to one year contracts, while also signing veteran defensive end Chris Long and reclamation project Patrick Robinson along with many others.
After the Eagles started the regular season 1-1, they began a magical run, winning nine straight games. In those nine games, they did lose two key players for the rest of the season. Both Darren Sproles and Jason Peters tore their ACLs and left the Eagles with massive holes to fill on the fly.
Even with the injuries, quarterback Carson Wentz was not going to be denied.
Wentz became an MVP candidate for the Eagles, notching 27 touchdowns and just six interceptions while also eclipsing the 3,000 yard mark in his first 12 games of the season.
And then he tore his ACL against the Los Angeles Rams in the team’s week 14 road victory.
And the entire city of Philadelphia perhaps felt more pain than Wentz’s knee.
And after about two days of grieving, the Eagles and the city of Philadelphia got back up and felt like they could continue to build something special. They turned to former Eagle’s starting quarterback Nick Foles to shoulder the load and, after a few shaky regular season outings, the team managed to still find a way to clinch the NFC’s top seed and home field advantage.
Yet, nobody believed in them.
The Eagles were underdogs against the Atlanta Falcons in the playoffs’ divisional round. The Eagles, the first team in NFL history to be the underdog at home as a one seed in the divisional round, came out ready to play and defeated the Atlanta Falcons 15-10.
The team and the city were soon to be underdogs again, this time against the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC championship game. The players and fans embraced their underdog status as a rallying cry and the Eagles went on to allow fans to wear Halloween-esque dog masks in the stadium against the Vikings.
And what did the Eagles do?
They completely obliterated the Vikings by a score of 38-7. The ‘dogs’ were going to the Super Bowl.
Now just a few days away from the biggest game of these players’ lives, the team is still embracing the underdog tag as they opened in Vegas as 5.5 point underdogs to the New England Patriots.
Everything that they have gone through this season has prepared them for this moment and, once again, the underdogs will reign supreme with the Vince Lombardi trophy in their hand.
And for the first time ever, the Philadelphia Eagles will become Super Bowl Champions.
