PHILADELPHIA EAGLES WIN SUPER BOWL

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on winning their first Super Bowl in franchise history. This comes decades after winning NFL championships in 1948, 1949 and 1960. The Eagles defeated the New England Patriots, 41-33, and claimed the Lombardi Trophy.

Eagles wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey predicted success 13 months ago when he said, “I guarantee you we are going to win the Super Bowl next year.” He happened to make that statement while still in a Chicago Bears uniform, but didn’t say what team it would be with.

Jeffrey was right, and Philadelphia conquered the mighty Patriots franchise led by Bill Belicheck and debatably the best quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady.

Fifteen Super Bowl records were set in this match-up, the big ones being most combined yards in a Super Bowl (1,151) and most passing yards in a postseason game, 505 by Brady. Brady also added to his Super Bowl career touchdown pass record, reaching 18 TDs.

It’s amazing to see the records broken; the list goes on and on. On the Eagles’ side of things, quarterback Nick Foles is the first player ever to both throw and catch a touchdown in one Super Bowl. And even though Brady is known as the possibly the GOAT, which he showed by throwing for 505 yards, no interceptions and putting up 33 points, the Pats still couldn’t pull it off. Which is also another record: 33 is the most points scored by a losing team in the Super Bowl. Whoops!

Foles and the Eagles were just the better team and wanted it a little more than New England, considering it was revenge for Philly’s 2005 loss to the Patriots in the Super Bowl, their most recent appearance in the game. Foles was the Super Bowl MVP, throwing for 373 yards and three touchdowns while he wasn’t sacked once and earned a QBR rating of 88.6.

That’s not to mention, Foles proved himself to have better hands than Brady and can catch the football – while Brady proved to everyone that he is still that slow, non-mobile, non-catching, nonathletic quarterback with a big arm from Michigan.

Don’t get me wrong: Is Brady the greatest NFL quarterback ever? Yes, I would say so. Is he the best athlete of all time? Absolutely not. Two totally different categories, and just because he has five rings and is part of the greatest NFL franchise doesn’t mean he is the greatest athlete. A guy who runs a 5.4 second 40-yard dash is not the greatest athlete!

A guy like Bo Jackson, who played two different professional sports very well and was a phenomenon in both, running the fastest 40-yard dash ever recorded – now, that is who you could consider a great athlete. Or even a guy we all know named Michael Jordan – he is more in that category from both a success standpoint and athletic standpoint than anyone.

Once again, congrats, Philadelphia on the victory.

Advocate Staff