The Unpossible* is Possible

Date: December 19 2010
Distance: 65 YARDS NO PENALTY FLAGS!!
Time: 14 seconds
Location: Meadowlands, NJ
Cats spotted: 0
Giants chased by: 11

I'm going to be completely honest here. When the Eagles were down 24-3 at halftime and then 31-10 in the fourth quarter, I think only two people believed they could pull off the win. There's comebacks, after all, and there's statistical impossibility.

One of them was my wife, who after a big Vick run but with the game very much in the favor of NJ, urged a friend and I to sit back down as we prepared to leave for a minor league hockey game that we had tickets for. Even though at that point in the game I felt the Eagles were back in it, I'm glad I got to see football history and not drive my car into the Susquehanna as Merrill Reese and Mike Quick went nuts.

The other one was Michael Vick, who decided in the fourth quarter that he was going to win the game by himself. I've seen a lot of amazing things happen on a football field, and the Eagles have been on the losing end of many of them, but his performance was one of the greatest, gutsiest things I've ever seen in sports.

I didn't want to like Mike Vick. I was rooting for Kolb to to keep the job and keep the notorious felon off the field. But over the course of the season, it's been easy to enjoy Vick's exploits on the field, and I've unexpectedly found that he seems likeable, too. He seems like he's humbled, he's clearly a leader on the team, and rumored to be a hard worker on the practice field in the film room, things he never was in Atlanta. It's a shame that took being convicted of a felony -- and I don't mean to downplay the awfulness of his crimes -- for him to change his life, but from everything we can see, there's evidence that he has.

By the time the game was tied, the Eagles had all the momentum and perhaps it was merciful that DeSean Jackson ended the game in regulation. It's amazing to watch the replay and see how he just expected to run it back. No one will accuse DeSean of lacking confidence. The emotional roller coaster of that single play is equaled by only handful of plays that I recall, some positive (4th & 26) and some negative (Ronde f***ing Barber). "DeSean's back to return!" "They kick it to him!" "Oh no he fumbled!" "hE'S GOT A BLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "ALKFJAOEISURUASFJASKDFJASOEIRUTOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111!"

I'm not going to turn this into an Eagles blog, I promise. I'd drive myself crazy and I can't compete with some of the great ones out there. But this is a running blog, and I figured Vick's fourth-quarter scrambles and DeSean punt return certainly qualify.

I'm a pessimist; I'm not going to go spouting off about the Superbowl, and for now I just want to savor this one for a few more days. But maybe, just maybe I can use this as a reminder not to be so pessimistic, be it the outcome of a sporting event or any of the other life events for which my outlook is typically gloomy.

As the often bumbling Eagles proved yesterday, and as DeSean would say*, nothing is "unpossible".

My run:
Date: December 20 2010
Distance: about 5 miles (I forgot Garmin)
Time: About 46 minutes (I forgot to stop my watch at the end of my run)
Location: York PA
Cats Spotted: 0
Giants fans chased by: none yet

*yes, I know it's not a real word.