rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
I’m old enough to remember a time when the Eagles didn’t blow someone out every time they played in an NFC Championship Game.
I’m old enough to remember when it seemed like getting to the Super Bowl would require several miracles that had to be canonized by the Papacy. I’m old enough to remember Buddy Ryan’s first round failures, Rich Kotite’s inevitable bumbling, Ray Rhodes’ flameout, and Chip Kelly’s implosion.
I’m old enough to remember watching one Super Bowl highlight after another, year after year after year, and never seeing the Philadelphia Eagles in any but one of them. And let’s be honest, no one wanted to watch highlights of Super Bowl XV.
For most of my childhood and young adulthood, the Eagles either weren’t good enough to make the playoffs, were an early round exit if they got there, or were good enough only to bang on the steel door of the Super Bowl but never push their way in. There were times when the mountain seemed insurmountable. There was always someone better, or there was some performance or weakness that would cost the Birds a chance either play for, or win, a title.
Every year, it was something. Now, all of a sudden, the Eagles are in their second Super Bowl in three years and looking for their second title in eight.
The four years of the Nick Sirianni/Jalen Hurts era have been the greatest run of success in franchise history, and should not be taken for granted.
Between 1950 and 1977, the Eagles made the postseason once, winning it all in 1960 against Vince Lombardi’s legendary Green Bay Packers. That was one playoff appearance, albeit a very successful one, in 27 years.
Dick Vermeil arrived in 1976 and after two subpar seasons, reached the playoffs four straight years (1978-1981), beating the Dallas Cowboys in a legendary NFC Championship Game at Veterans Stadium and sending them to their first Super Bowl following the ‘80 season.
The Raiders smoked them in Super Bowl XV, 27-10. It wasn’t that close.
Once the Vermeil run ended with a thud, it would be 12 years before the Birds would win another playoff game. They lost in the opening round of the playoffs in 1988, ‘89 and ‘90 under Buddy Ryan.
There was the Fog Bowl against the Bears, when the Eagles were actually done in by weather that prevented anyone from seeing what they were doing. Successive losses to the Rams and Washington the following years led to Ryan’s contract not being renewed and the elevation of Richie Kotite.
They finally won a playoff game after the 1992 season, when Randall Cunningham, Reggie White and the crew went into New Orleans and beat the Saints in the wild card round. They spent all their powder in that come-from-behind victory and were summarily destroyed in the divisional round by the dynasty Dallas Cowboys, then repeated the same pattern in Ray Rhodes’ first season in ‘95, thrashing the Lions in the wild card round before another humiliation in Dallas.
From 1982-2000, the Eagles reached the playoffs six times and won two playoff games in 18 years.
Of course, the Howie Roseman/Andy Reid era changed all that.
From 1950-2000, a span of 50 years, the Eagles won five playoff games. Since 2000, a span of 25 years, the Eagles have won 19 playoff games, more than any team in the NFC, and second-most only to the New England Patriots (30). They have been to eight NFC Championship Games, four Super Bowls, won their first Lombardi Trophy in 2017, have reached their third Super Bowl in the last eight years, and for the second time in three seasons.
And it’s the way they’ve won their last three conference title games, all at home, that makes this run so ridiculous.
For those old enough to remember the Andy Reid era, it was an excruciating journey to reach their second-ever Super Bowl. An underdog Eagles team scared the Greatest Show on Turf half to death in a tight 29-24 loss in 2001. No shame in that. In ‘02, they broke our hearts in falling to Tampa 27-10 in the final game at the Vet, then followed it up with a gross loss to Carolina at the Linc, 14-3 in 2003. It wasn’t until ‘04 against Mike Vick and the Falcons that the Eagles broke through with a 27-10 win that essentially allowed us all to avoid a city-wide societal breakdown.
I’m not kidding. I don’t know what the city would have looked like if they’d lost that Falcons game. I can’t imagine the reaction to four straight NFC Championship Game defeats in a row, with the final three of them all at home. Beating Atlanta and getting to the Super Bowl felt like the most grueling climb in NFL history, especially on the heels of two decades with only two playoff victories.
Still, even after that, they went into Arizona in 2008 and lost to the Cardinals after a Donovan McNabb pass to Kevin Curtis (yes, he was interfered with, it’s obvious) fell incomplete on the final drive of the game. To that point, the Eagles were 2-4 in NFC title games. Getting to the Super Bowl felt like trying to walk from one end of a pool to the other.
So no, I can’t fully explain how this has happened:
2017: Eagles 38 Vikings 7
2022: Eagles 31 49ers 7
2024: Eagles 55 Commanders 23
It didn’t used to be this easy. For the players who played in these three games, I’m sure it wasn’t as easy as the final scores made it look. Make no mistake, other teams around the NFL will assure you that it isn’t as easy to dominate your conference the way the Eagles have over the last quarter century.
The success of the Sirianni/Roseman/Hurts era is unrivaled in franchise history. We know this roster, this quarterback, this coaching staff, all of them are capable of not only getting to the Super Bowl, but winning it.
They’ll have to knock off their second dynasty in order to do it a week from Sunday, but regardless of the final score of Super Bowl 59, don’t take for granted what this team has been able to do over these last three seasons.
