SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ME DURING THE SUPERBOWL: I started feeling bad for Eagles fans. I'd done my best to hate them for the two weeks leading up to last night, given the constant Eagles hype around here, the "wear green Thursdays" at work, the fact that my brother hates them because he's a Giants fan (even though I hate the Giants because they get all the hype and the Jets get squat), that atrocious fight song blaring over the loudspeakers at the Pathmark. But when they kept it close--and when I saw TO running around on that reconstructed ankle--little thoughts started reeping in, like, "Do the Patriots really need another Superbowl?" and "Boy that Teddy Bruschi is a little bit obnoxious." I kept all these thoughts on the downlow, of course, lest my brother smite me.

But, yeah. When they were in position to make a tying field goal in the end there and didn't do it, I was bummed. My heart had turned for the Eagles. But imagine being an actual Eagles fan and watching that game, watching Reid and McNabb blow those about three? three minutes? I think--of the final five minutes of the fourth quarter on an incredibly inept display of clock management. Then Akers didn't give them a good shot at the onsides kick recovery, but they held the Patriots anyway, but the Pats punted and bottled the Eagles up down on their end with 45 to go, and--and, well, you saw what happened. Given how badly they did scoring quickly the previous time, the Eagles were not going to march 60 yards in less than a minute to get within Akers' potential range. And so the Patriots did it again. McNabb need a mistake-free game to win and while he had a strong game--I think somebody on the tv said his game was fourth-most offensive yards ever for a Superbowl quarterback--it was not mistake-free. Not that Tom Brady had a great game either, and I'm happy, at least, that they didn't give him the MVP just because he's the quarterback. It went to Deion Branch, who was crying when he got the trophy, and I watched a lot of the postgame, by the way, and I didn't see the "I'm going to Disneyland" ad. Maybe they couldn't track him down in the chaos to do it.

Anyway, it was hard for me to be an Eagles hater yesterday. It's going to be hard to be a TO hater ever again, because his performance was really gutsy. McNabb's still a bit hatable, if only for his Peytonesque aloofness on the sideline, though he lacks Peyton's ability to get mad at his teammates and the world around him. Andy Reid....they're not going to get rid of him, but it really does not appear he can get the job done. I guess it's more likely than ever that these Eagles will remain what Bill Simmons said they might be, a memorable team that never won the big one.