Baltimore--February 7, 2005 5:40 am at 9:18 PM

I'm in the Baltimore airport and I just missed my flight. So I've got a little time to scratch down some notes here.

I had planned on doing a Super Bowl blog, detailing what was happening and my fluctuating mental state throughout the game. That didn't pan out, as I was way too into the game to write down anything coherent. But it's all the same anyway. Another year, another heartbreak. I should be used to it now, but every year is worse than the last. But I'll keep coming back. The worst part this year is that the defense let us down, which never happens. Seventeen points in a half?? Never. Of course, the fact that the refs were calling the game like the Pats were the Chicago Bulls in the mid-'90s didn't help (seriously, Jevon Kearse was not double teamed all that much and he never got held? Give me a break). As much as I'd like to, though, I can't blame this one on the zebras. The thing that hurts the most is that we should have won. We only got outplayed because we weren't sharp in the second half. Those picks that Donovan threw--it wasn't anything the Patriots did to mess him up. He just made bad throws. I can't talk about this anymore.

So I guess now I've seen every team I follow lose in the finals of their respective sport to a team that had won it recently. The Phillies in '93 lost to the Blue Jays (who also won in '92). The Flyers in '97 lost to the Red Wings (who won again in '98). The Sixers in '01 lost to the Lakers (who also won in '00, and won again in '02). And now of course my beloved Birds. But I'll be back next year, expecting the best and getting crushed if the worst happens. I think that's what makes Philly fans so unique. After years and years of losing, we still expect to win. We don't hope. We expect it. The analysts will tell you that we expect to lose, and that it disappoints but doesn't surprise us, but how else do you explain the overwhelming ratio of Eagles fans to Patriots fans (that insufferable bunch) in Jacksonville?

That brings me to an interesting point--the Boston fans complain all the time about Yankee fans going around all cocky and obnoxious. Now they're even worse with their two winning teams. This shall not stand with the Football Gods. (There are no Baseball Gods, or else there would be a salary cap.) It's not fair. We had that game in our hands. Should've won it. Frick.

I'm sure I look pretty good right now. I'm riding on Mountain Dew, Vivarin, and five hours sleep in the last two days. And I've still got my McNabb jersey on. No one will look me in the eye. They all just look away when I look up. So to get back to why I'm not on a plane right now, I woke up at 3 am, and arrived at the airport at 4:45 for my 5:30 flight. Normally plenty of time. Problem was, I had a rental car and the place to return the car is 5 miles from the actual terminal. I sat on the shuttle bus for 15 friggin minutes waiting for a driver, and eventually I just ran out of time. So now, instead of going from Baltimore to Charlotte to Indy, I have to go through Pittsburgh on standby. Hopefully that works out. Whatever.

The trip to Delaware: I woke up at 3 am (this seems to be a theme), and actually made my 5:49 flight to O'Hare. In the process, I bashed my knuckle somewhere, though I didn't know it at the time. I got off the plane in Chicago and didn't notice I was bleeding until I looked down and saw my finger dripping onto the carpet. So that was fun. I would've stopped and washed it off, but I had to catch the bus to another terminal, which I soon found out was not running. Luckily, I had about 20 minutes until boarding, and the walk only took about 15 minutes. But anyway, other than that it was pretty uneventful. I did discover, however, that the airport cops in Baltimore have Segways. I'm not even joking. I don't know how they expect to be taken seriously.

You know, even though I spent $200 to come watch the Eagles lose a game they should have won, it was worth it. Even though it kills me. I guess I don't have too much else to say. I have no voice (that's been the case since the first quarter yesterday), and now I'm listening to a Muzak version of "The Way You Move". I keep seeing replays of the game in my head. Somebody shoot me.

A final note before I depress everyone that's reading this: I hope T.O. shut everybody up with how he played yesterday. He was absolutely amazing. It just makes it that much harder to take that it wasn't the receivers that hurt us this year, like it was for the past couple years. The defense and a few bad throws. It's going to take a while to get over this.


9:50 pm: The preceding has been presented in its original form, save it being in longhand. For those of you who read my last post and also watched the game, you saw that what I detailed was happening in the first half, for the most part. If not for one interception in the red zone, the Eagles go up 14-7, and we've got a whole different ball game. I don't think that anyone who comments regularly would give me any flack about what I said before, so that note is for the lurkers who think it was just wishful thinking from a deluded fan. We had that game. We had it.

Super Bowl XL. Detroit. We'll be back.