By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
The Giants-Eagles game, of course. That’s what they were talking about.
I couldn’t even turn it on until the third quarter was almost over. I had been in Philadelphia on Sunday, of all places, and there were no radios or TVs or computers available where I was. On the way home on I-95, I got the game on the car radio. The Giants were ahead 24-10. Then, early in the fourth quarter, they scored again to make it 31-10 with only about eight minutes left to play. “It’s over,” I said to myself.
But I left the game on. The Giants didn’t score again. I heard the Eagles, on the other hand, score 21 of their last 28 points while I still had it on the radio. That tied the game. I was thinking: “Whoever was a better football player than this guy Vick? Nobody, probably.”
I’m a Giants fan, by the way, having grown up in and near New York City. But I’ve been living around here for 25 years or so, and you get affected by the Philadelphia teams when you’re geographically close to them. You become friends with people who root for those teams. Just like the New York teams, you can listen to them on the radio and see them on TV and read about them in the papers all the time. For a sports fan, living midway between New York and Philadelphia is paradise, because you get to follow the teams from both cities closely. Ah, but then your loyalties become conflicted. You feel like a cheat sometimes. Guilt sets in. Aye, such is life.
But to get back to Sunday. I parked in front of the house and ran inside. There was about a minute left in the game. It was tied 31-31. I ran upstairs and turned on the set. The Giants had the ball, but were forced to punt with almost no time left. As I took my coat off, the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson returned the punt 65 yards for a touchdown as time ran out. The last guy to try to tackle him was the punter, who had been ordered to kick the ball out of bounds . . . but kicked a line drive to Jackson instead.
It was completely stunning. I watched the replay over and over again. I don’t remember ever being more blown away by the end of a ball game in my life. Whether you were rooting for the Giants or the Eagles — or neither of them, because you root for someone else, like Dallas or the Jets or the Steelers — chances are Sunday’s game left you in an odd, heightened frame of mind. What a ball game! You’d be walking around laughing out loud as you thought about it. It made you giddy. It was like a dream or highly improbable movie. It was just too much.
By the way, I did root for the Phillies against the Yankees in the World Series in 2009. That was easy. Our youngest son was scandalized. A Mets fan like me, he sneered: “How can you root for the Phillies?”
”Because they’re playing the Yankees,” I replied, pointing to my Brooklyn Dodgers cap. “The Yankees is the enemy, always and forever.”
Yes, Monday morning, everybody was raving about the Giants and the Eagles. I went to the highway to buy the New York Post and New York Daily News, as I do every day. I must have my entertainment. I couldn’t wait to see the headlines. There was sure to be at least one belly laugh among them, I figured. And there was. The front and back pages of both papers, of course, were completely devoted to words and pictures of the game. The Post had a classic. Under a big headline that said “Giants Dog It” was a big color photo of Michael Vick being pursued by two Giants, who were facing the camera. But the Post, with the wizardry of graphics, had replaced the heads of the two Giants with animated heads of dogs. One was a Chihuahua and the other looked like a Boxer type of dog. This front page made me laugh like a maniac.
Just to be clear, more than a sports fan, I’m a dog lover. We had two Lab mutts for 11 years each here — Louie and Bessie. Louie died 20 years ago. Bessie died seven years ago. We still talk about them and have pictures of them out where you can see them. We’re talking about getting another dog in the spring.
That said, there’s no help for what’s funny and the picture and the headline on the Post were funny. And Vick did serve 18 months in jail, which was no joke, and has expressed what seems to be true remorse and seems to be really trying to fly right.
Downtown Monday morning, I waved over Jeff Wittkop, the Pennington Public Works supervisor, at 7:30. He rolled down the window and I held up the Post for him to see. He laughed hard and said: “It was maybe the best football game I ever saw.” We talked about it a minute and he drove away. We were both laughing.
In Cup of Joe, customer Chico Marciante, a Philadelphia fan, was laughing when I walked in. He laughed again at The Post. A fellow named Scott, who always sits next to Chico, looked very glum, however. I knew Scott had watched the game, for I know he loves football. I didn’t know who he roots for, though, until Monday morning.
”What’s the matter, Scott? Why so down?” I asked him. “Are you a Giants fan?”
”No,” he said. “But I know a lot of Eagles fans.”
That was my turn to laugh. I can’t say exactly why, but I thought Scott’s answer was one of the funniest things I had ever heard. It was even funnier than the front page of the Post, which in a way had brought it on. I’ve been laughing about both of them, the Post and Scott, all day. They’re like a little parable of why it’s such fun to follow sports, to be a part of them as much as you can. Thank God for them. We have enough serious business, God knows.
Take me out to the ball game.
