Lessons from LIX

It’s Tuesday morning… again… Time to write, to find an interesting topic worth about 1000 words. I think about my ‘Tuesday letter’ throughout the week. After 252 letters, no surprise that sometimes I struggle to find the angle. But this Tuesday would come after the Eagles played in the Super Bowl LIX. Surely, the game would offer plenty of fodder for a letter. Perhaps there would be some lessons to glean from the outcome.

Here is where I must make a confession… The letter I began to fashioned a week ago was about how being #2 is not bad. In fact, being #2 out of 32 professional NFL teams is rather good. Being #2 in the world is commendable, even praiseworthy. The season was hard fought, the sacrifice admirable, and surely just getting to Super Sunday is worth celebrating. I thought about waxing poetic on our obsession with winning. Surely, we ought to praise our guys for the thrill of a great season, not mourn the loss of this one game. We love our team, win or lose, right? Well, some might throw in a few ‘boos’, but we love our Eagles no matter what. Or do we? Why is it that winning is so important? Almost-not quiteis rather dissatisfying. We teach our kids to lose with grace, but secretly we want them to have a killer instinct, because winning is the goal.

Our Phillies were founded in 1883. They are the oldest continuously running, singlename, single-city franchise in American professional sports. That, in itself, is commendable. But, in 2007 they had the distinction of being the first franchise to lose 10,000 games. By the fall of 2024, they had lost 11,326 games. That’s a lot of losing! Granted, they have played 21,486 games in their 131 seasons. But they have won only 47% of their games. In all those years, the Phillies have gone to the World Series only 8 times and have won that coveted prize only twice. We love our Phillies, but to be honest, we would love them more if they would bring home the title this year. Ah… our obsession with winning…

Do you notice… I was ready to write today’s letter… if we lost… but then the Eagles won! Yes, I am “o ye of little faith.” You can’t blame me. The Vegas odds makers pegged the Chiefs to win. The press hyped their quarterback Patrick Mahomes as unbeatable. “He is arguably the best player of his generation… The greatest of our era… He is well on his way to becoming the greatest QB in NFL history…” His unmatched talent and his dogged instinct to win made him a formidable challenge. But I forgot that our guys like to be the underdogs. They thrive when they are discounted and undervalued. Remember Jason Kelce after the 2018 Super Bowl, dressed like a Mummer, teaching Eagles fans to bark like dogs in celebration of their impressive underdog win against Tom Brady’s Patriots. This year our guys believed in what they could do as a team. Coach Sirianni commented after this year’s Super Bowl win: “This is the ultimate team game. You can’t be great without the greatness of others. Today we have a great performance by everybody- offense, defense, special teams and coaching staff.” Together, the Eagles were greater than the greatest in the game.

Perhaps that’s the lesson for this letter… together is better. We could easily celebrate our defense who sacked Mahomes for a career high 6-times and intercepted him twiceincluding Zack Braun’s diving catch and a pick-six by rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean on his 22nd birthday. We could celebrate our kicker, Jake Elliot. After a rocky season, his performance at the Super Bowl gave him the distinction of being the most accurate kicker in SB history, with 4 field goals and 4 extra points. We could celebrate Saquon Barclay for pounding away, play after play with some spectacular catches to move the ball. We should celebrate the MVP- Jalen Hurts- for his leadership on and off the field. I may have missed your favorite player, or what you thought was the most spectacular play of the game. But the magic happened when these pieces came together. As a team, they were unbeatable on Sunday night.

Together is better… a statement that is true for team and fans alike. In Philadelphia, Eagles fandom isn’t a choice- it’s a birthright that unites a city through joy, heartbreak and triumph. I married into the ‘family’. As a child, I was an Oakland Raiders fan. I grew up in the George Blanda era. But when I married a Philly guy, Eagle’s fandom came with the ring. Eagles fandom inspires moms in 20-year-old Eagles sweatshirts to scream at a TV screen, and pastors to lead their congregations in the team fight song at the end of worship- leaving some to wonder what we truly worship. Eagles’ fandom inspired one man to insist on being buried with his favorite Eagles hat. At a funeral on Saturday, an elegant woman in her late 70’s proudly told me she was born the year the Eagles won their first NFL championship. We all know the song, wear the green, and even our youngest can spell the name. Right now, at least for one moment, we are a city united, across economic and racial lines, across political and educational lines, across culture and race. Philadelphians from all walks of life united under the confetti. One sweet moment… standing together.

There is beauty… strength… peace… in unity. But Jesus would remind us that what we unite behind matters. Today, we find unity as we celebrate our guys in green, but our greater unity must come as we pick up our cross and follow Him. Jalen Hurts gave God the glory when he accepted his MVP award Sunday. "God is good. He's greater than all the highs and the lows.” Finding our unity in Him is the way forward we need today.

I hope you will join the team on February 23rd, in the name of Jesus, to pack 25,000 meals to feed His children.

With you, cheering J-E-S-U-S,
Anita