With the preseason finally upon us and the season opener mere weeks away, Eagles fans have had a very interesting six months. To state the obvious because the obvious has never felt so good, Philadelphia claimed its first ever Lombardi trophy. What this means for fans is one of the greatest luxuries in all of sports: a stress-free offseason.
For Philadelphia sports fans as a whole, this feeling is unfortunately not a very familiar one. As a result, it is very difficult to pay attention to anything going on in the last half-year. How are fans supposed to spend their time when they are not analyzing every team move trying to convince themselves that it will finally get the team over the hump?
From a fan’s perspective let's be clear, it’s not that I don’t care about the team anymore. I still find myself staring blankly into space while murmuring under my breath, “Man… the Birds really pulled it off.” That reality is still too dream-like to believe even after all this time. I feel like everyone else is playing catch-up while the Eagles are just trying to strengthen a proven formula.
Let me give you a brief example of how disconnected I’ve been thanks to the Super Bowl win...I just learned Haloti Ngata was on the Eagles roster a week ago. Haloti Ngata signed with the team on March 15th. In his prime, Ngata was an extraordinary player. With the Eagles constant personnel swaps on the defensive side his age will surely appreciate the less intense workload. The same can also be said about Michael Bennett. I managed to catch that move in real time as the news broke on Twitter.
I could go on listing the offseason acquisitions that went right under my nose but you get the idea. As the fan of a champion it’s tough to concern yourself with anything before that first kickoff of week one. The rest of the NFC East can go ahead and find ways to convince themselves that Dak isn’t useless without Zeke or Eli Manning is still remotely decent. Philly will be waiting for you in January, if they can even make it.