Fair-Weather Fan

Okay, I’ll admit it – I’m jumping on the bandwagon. I’m not an Eagles fan in general. I mean, they’re my favorite football team, but that’s like saying rhinoplasty is my favorite surgery. Football doesn’t matter enough to me for my favorites to mean anything.

But now the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. And I’m happy about it – I even watched the end of the game (from about halfway through the third quarter) of my own volition. When I turned on the TV to watch, my wife looked at me like I had three heads. She did not marry a football fan, and think she suspected I was the Rob from an alternate universe or something. But it was the Eagles, in a playoff game, which made me curious. And when I saw they were winning, I just stayed put.

I know a lot of “real” fans look down on fair-weather fans like me. We’re not in it for the long hall – we jump on the bandwagon in the final stretch. But I know I’m not taking the Super Bowl ticket out of a “true” fans’ hand. I’m just watching them on TV, instead of doing something else. Hurting no one.

And the reason I watch is pretty simple. Philly’s needed a championship of something for a long while, and I’m happy to see it so close. I watch, and I think about how it’s making my brothers and their friends happy. I think how much my dad would have liked the game. And that makes me happy. The only way I enjoy watching football is vicariously – even if it’s on right in front of me. But that’s better – much better – than not enjoying it at all.

Go Eagles. Bring it on home.

Rob