Kuzul

This Sunday afternoon, the Phillies and the Eagles are both playing at about the same time (Eagles at 1pm and Phillies at 1:35pm). So if you have to choose one game to watch, which team would you watch?

I think it should be the Phillies. I am hoping this weekend the city of Philadelphia finally makes the right choice. We should be a baseball town, not a football town. We want to paint the town red, not green.

Why should you watch the Phillies rather than the Eagles?

The Phillies are simply a better team. They won two World Series or two more than the Eagles won Super Bowls. The last time the Eagles won a championship was 1960, before I was even born. Back then, they won the NFL Championship. The NFL was just 13 teams or less than the size of the current NFC. Winning the NFL back in 1960 would be like winning the NFC today. They had to win one playoff game to win the title. These days, you have to win 2-3 to win the conference and 3-4 to win the Super Bowl.

In addition to winning the World Series in 2008, they made the World Series last year and won the division three years in a row (and are currently leading the NL East as we speak). The Eagles made the playoffs the last two years but if they were happy with that they wouldn’t have shipped the star QB out of town (to a division rival, no less).

Which brings us to another reason to choose the Phillies over the Eagles. The Phillies care about winning. The Eagles don’t. Donovan McNabb is just the latest of casualties of players the Eagles got rid of before the end of their careers. How about Brian Dawkins? Brian Westbrook?

Don’t think that trading Donovan McNabb was a spur of the moment thing. They drafted Kevin Kolb in 2007, two seasons removed from a Super Bowl appearance. You don’t think they were planning to replace McNabb?

And don’t forget the whole TO mess. TO wanted to renegotiate his contract after a superb season which led to a Super Bowl appearance. The Eagles refused. Did TO handle it correctly? Of course not. Attacking your QB is like biting the hand that feeds you and I’m sure he enjoyed playing last year in Buffalo with Trent Edwards.

The bottom line is the Eagles care more about making money than winning. If they can find someone who can do your job cheaper, they don’t care if the guy is not as good. Does it matter who your favorite Eagle is? In 3-5 years, they will be playing for another team.

How cheap are the Eagles? If the Eagles had their way, you wouldn’t even have been allowed to bring food into the stadium. Don’t forget that they fired an employee for criticizing letting Dawkins go (I’m sure glad I don’t work for the Eagles).

Meanwhile, the Phillies take care of their players. Look at the contract Ryan Howard got. And they make trades like the ones for Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. I don’t see the Eagles making those moves (then again the way the Eagles treat players most free agents have no interest in playing for Philadelphia anyway).

The Phillies care about you and their players. The Eagles don’t. And if the Eagles continue to sell out games and dominate the local market, why should they change? If the Phillies played like the Eagles, Citizens Bank Park would be half full. Or if they traded Howard and Utley away, same. Is anyone left from the Super Bowl Eagles team? Look at the 76ers. They made the playoffs and their attendance was still awful. Why should the Eagles get a free pass for being 8-8 or 7-9 or for trading away all their good players?

So that’s where you come in Philadelphia. Why should we accept Kevin Kolb as our starting QB? Why should we accept management that cares more about profits than wins?

So, make a statement. Don’t go to their games. Don’t watch their games on TV. Don’t buy their jerseys (of course if you bought a Kevin Kolb jersey I’m worried about you). And support the team in Philadelphia that cares about you, the fans. Hurt the Eagles the only way they’ll listen.

And this is where this Sunday comes in. The Phillies and Eagles are both playing Sunday afternoon, both on over the air TV. Instead of watching the Eagles game (who cares, they are playing Detroit), watch the Phillies game. The Phillies only have two weeks left before the end of the season. They are in a playoff race. You can watch the Eagles lose all through November and December.

Sure, the US is a football country and of course the NFL is the most popular league in America. But it isn’t unprecedented to see a baseball game outdraw a football game in a local market. Last year, New York of all places overwhelmingly chose the Yankees over the Giants head to head during the playoffs.

Let’s make it happen here in Philadelphia. I want to see this week that more Philadelphians watch the Phillies game than the Eagles game. Let’s see how Joe Banner and company feel about that.

And if a Phillies playoff game is on at the same time as an Eagles game, watch the Phillies. The team that cares about winning. The team that cares about its players. The team that cares about its fans. And by the way, the BETTER team. The team that actually has a ring.

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P-h-i-l-l-i-e-s Phillies!

It’s only weird because you’re not used to it. It’s a little long, yes. But it’ll have to do for now.

The Philadelphia Eagles have been the talk of the town for so many years. From Randall Cunningham, to the endless plethora of quarterbacks in between, to Donovan McNabb, they have pulled a big part of this city’s sports weight, if you will, behind them.

The Flyers, Sixers, and Phillies have always played second, third and fourth fiddle to the mighty Eagles.

But, with Kevin Kolb at the helm, McNabb out, Evan Turner joining Sixers nation, and the 2008 championship, it’s now clear that the big-dogs in Philadelphia are your Philadelphia Phillies.

So many questions surround the other teams in Philadelphia: Can Kevin Kolb take the control and lead the Eagles back to elite status. Can Evan Turner adjust to the NBA, and just how good will he be?

Those are just two questions surrounding those particular teams. Two individual columns could be written about the needs and questions of both of those franchises alone.

With the Flyers going to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, and the Phillies going to the World Series, it’s clear that they are the two elite teams in Philly.

Of the two teams, there is no doubt who are the beloved—you’ve got it.

It’s definitely hard-earned, and well deserved. They took over the town in 2008, a year that was not, by any means, a quiet one in Philadelphia sports.

The Sixers, for one, had a decent run, giving the third-seeded Southeastern Division champion and eventual Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic, a run for their money. The Sixers were able to push the series lead to 2-1 and in game four, they stretched their lead to over 15 points—to no avail, however.

Orlando magically, pulled off the comeback win, beating the 76ers 84-81.

The Flyers, in that same year, advanced a bit further than the Sixers, going to the Eastern Conference semifinals, only to lose the the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Eagles, after a season which looked to promise that the Eagles would finally win a Super Bowl, with everything falling into place for Donovan McNabb and the gang, failed to deliver. Unfortunately, their run ended one game before the big dance.

Despite all of these teams vying for the championship in their respective sport, the Phillies were the only ones to accomplish their goal.

The following season worsened for everyone except for the Flyers and Phils. The Eagles ended their season in the wild card round with back-to-back loses to their bitter rival, the Dallas Cowboys, while the Sixers came nowhere near mattering.

Each of the other teams have moved into a new era, and with the solid core of the Phillies being the premier in the majors, it solidifies your Philadelphia Phillies as the new face of Philadelphia Sports.

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No matter how many consecutive sellouts the Phillies have at Citizens Bank Park (they’re up to 58, by the way), the Eagles are always a hot topic.

Especially when the topic is in any way, shape, or form connected to Donovan McNabb.

McNabb is back in the Philadelphia headlines, this time, responding to comments that former Eagle teammate DeSean Jackson made recently to the Sporting News. 

“I don’t think we lost anything, even with McNabb being gone,” Jackson told SN, while looking forward to the upcoming season and the subsequent quarterback change. “I am very happy with the decision. Playing with Kevin Kolb last year, I know what he’s capable of doing. I see his playmaking ability and his leadership.”

McNabb responded as one might expect, by pretty much downplaying everything. No big deal.

As much as the media would love us to believe the contrary, DeSean Jackson is not Terrell Owens. Although, a big mouth, lots of skill, and one superagent named Drew Rosenhaus are all common denominators between the two primetime wideouts.

Still, the media has also done its best to stir up the indirect exchange of words between Jackson and McNabb, just as it did back in 2007 when a brash Philadelphia shortstop named Jimmy Rollins dared to challenge the alleged supremacy of the reigning NL East champion New York Mets for the upcoming season.

“I think we are the team to beat—finally,” Rollins told the media in January 2007.

Rollins’ words instantly created a national firestorm. The Mets players, their fans, and media members all took J-Roll’s comment as an undisputed slight against their team.

Yet, what the majority of the public probably didn’t know was that Rollins was addressing a question posed by a reporter who directly asked Jimmy if he felt the Phils were the team to beat in the NL East in 2007.

No media outlet EVER clarified Rollins words by saying he was responding to a question.

What was Rollins supposed to say?

No, we won’t be able to compete with the Mets, especially with guys like Freddy Garcia and Adam Eaton now anchoring our starting pitching staff.

Similarly, what is DeSean Jackson supposed to say about his outlook for 2010?

No, I think we’ll struggle this season. People who are glad to see McNabb out of town should be careful what they wish for.

Really, Jackson’s comments were appropriate and hardly surprising.

At least not nearly as stunning as the postgame quotes made by Donovan McNabb himself, following the Eagles horrific 24-0 loss to the Cowboys on January 2 that cost his team the NFC East title and also the NFC’s second-overall playoff seed.

“We showed our youth,” McNabb said that day. “We showed our youth in situations where everyone began to look around to see who was going to make the play instead of stepping up and making that play.”

Ouch. That’s an undeniable zinger delivered by the quarterback who has always been portrayed as the consummate team leader by the national media and supposedly has always handled tough times with the up most level of class.

After hearing Donovan throw his offensive teammates (most in their early to mid 20’s) under the bus in the biggest game of the season, it wouldn’t be surprising if DeSean had chosen to hit the greatest quarterback in Eagles history with a reciprocating shot to the solar plexus once the season came to a brutal ending just six days later.

But DeSean Jackson hasn’t come close to doing anything like that, even five months after McNabb’s slight, despite the national media’s desire to make us believe he has.

If these are the most controversial comments DeSean Jackson makes all year, then we should consider ourselves lucky.

By the way, the Phillies hope to have Rollins back in their starting lineup by the end of May. After all, baseball season is in full swing…football season isn’t.

In the meantime, don’t buy into all the controversial headline propaganda the media delivers.

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