Tim McGraw released a song entitled “My Next Thirty Years”
back in 2000. The song as you can image
is about what a guy did during his first thirty years of living and what he has
planned for the next thirty going forward.
My first thirty had its ups and downs, good times and bad, some wins
some losses, but I tend not to stare into the rearview of my past, occasionally
I’ll check it to remind myself how I got to where I am today. We can’t dwell on the past, but we can learn
from it. So, with my life back on the
rails I’m looking forward to my next thirty years.
This isn’t one of those soul searching blog post, actually
this is changing of the guard type stuff.
When I was at the impressionable age of eight I had Randall Cunningham
posters on my bedroom walls along with pictures of Eric Allen. I loved the game of football. I played all the time and I watched just as
much as I played. I got to see Randall
scramble like crazy and even punt for ninety yards. I found him to be an incredibly talented
athlete. But, all that changed when I
came out of a Flyers game.
My brother took me to my first Flyers game in 1989. When we got back to his Jeep it had been
vandalized by Eagles fans. They keyed
the side of the Jeep, tore off his Steelers license plate, and wrote, “Fly
Eagles Fly” on the pavement. I guess it
could have been worse; they could have slashed the tires and spray painted
Eagles onto the Jeep. I had no clue that
my fellow Eagles fans were so screwed up.
I was only nine when this episode happened, but it was
enough to outrage me and force me to find a new team to follow. I loved watching a 5’10, 190 lb. running back
for Florida play the game I loved. I can
remember being mesmerized by the twenty-two on his back flowing almost
untouched with every carry of the football.
I’ve always respected and adored the running back position. I told myself that my new team would be the
team that Emmitt Smith went to, unknowing at the time that he would get drafted
to the hated Dallas Cowboys, making me enemy number one.
I don’t think it would have been all that bad had the
Cowboys not won those three Super Bowls in ’93,’94, and 1996. Before that 1993 season the Cowboys were not
that great, and I was still young and no one was paying me any mind. But, as I got older living in the outskirts
of Philadelphia, it was getting harder to be a Dallas Cowboys fan. Not because of the Eagles team, because I
wasn’t really a fan of the quarterback (Mcnabb) or the coach (Andy Reid), but
because of the fans again giving me crap.
As a hardcore Phillies and Sixers fan I could understand the importance
of loyalty toward the home teams. You
gotta live and die with your team.
With the changing of the guard here at home with the Eagles
team. First, with the new more fan
friendly Lincoln Financial Field being built.
Second, the hiring of the new coach Chip Kelly and hopefully the end of
the Michael Vick era taking place at some point during this season. Lastly, with me all grown up I am announcing
my return to the Philadelphia Eagles Nest after twenty-five years. Emmitt Smith will forever be my favorite
running back and I still like both Jason Witten and DeMarcus Ware. So, I’m an Eagles fan again for the next
thirty years that or I encounter another bad episode with personal property and
an unhappy Eagles fan.
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