In the chill of an East Coast January storm, Philadelphia rejoiced over a football game like never before.
Lincoln Financial Field suddenly was host to a ticker-tape parade sans the floats. Fireworks crackled in a sky that just hours earlier dumped 18 inches of snow on a city that entered the day bursting with the possibility of a conference championship and Super Bowl berth, but bracing against getting the door slammed in its face again. Confetti fell and championship shirts and hats were passed out like cheese steaks on Independence Day. Wives and children stood crying on the field where their loved ones finally conquered their January demons.
The Eagles were champions, if only of the NFC. For that moment, for that Super Bowl-like celebration, simply getting half the NFL pie was enough.
For that moment.
“We accomplished what we’ve been trying for so long,” Eagles president Joe Banner said. “We got to where we needed to be. Now, we still have to go further.”
Eventually the weather changed, the smoke dissipated, the confetti was swept up and the Eagles still were chasing the ultimate celebration. The ghosts of three consecutive NFC title game defeats were buried, but in their place was a hollow feeling of a Super Bowl defeat when the Eagles lost to New England in February.
The chase continues for the Eagles, and it has become more difficult. The burden of one Super Bowl loss is heavier than three conference championship game defeats. Losing a conference championship game means you almost reached the pinnacle. Losing the Super Bowl means you fell from it.
Teams that lose the Super Bowl often fall apart the next season. Carolina, after losing to New England in February 2004, started 1-7 last season after a rash of injuries and finished 7-9, out of the playoffs. Oakland, which lost to Tampa Bay at the Super Bowl in January 2003, is 11-27 since that night.
After losing to the Patriots, the Eagles knew expectations and their place in the NFL pressure cooker had changed.
“We know the history,” Banner said. “It concerned us only in the fact that teams seemed to have problems after losing the Super Bowl. But I had confidence that we could overcome it because of what we have here. We have a great coach in Andy Reid, who is as good as anyone I’ve ever seen in keeping the team focused. We have great on-field leadership from guys like Donovan McNabb, Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter and Jon Runyan, so we thought we’d be fine.”
The Eagles head into today’s game against the Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High living a better life than other recent Super Bowl losers. They are 4-2 and tied for first place in the NFC East. In a talent-poor conference, this Eagles team has as good a chance as any of representing the NFC in the Super Bowl in Detroit.
Eagles overcoming issues
There have been issues the Eagles have dealt with since training camp, the most explosive being a feud between wide receiver Terrell Owens and McNabb, the team’s quarterback. It was a result of an offseason contract dispute Owens had with the team.
While Owens and McNabb aren’t communicating off the field, they have had success in what may be Owens’ final season with Philadelphia. The team also has dealt with injuries to McNabb, who has a sports hernia that might require surgery after the season.
“We’ve had issues, like everyone else, but we feel good with the way we’ve reacted,” Banner said. “Again, that’s the way with Andy Reid. He keeps this team extremely focused. At the end of training camp this year, he said he thought we had our best training camp since he’s been here (Reid became the Eagles’ coach in 1999), and I think coming off the Super Bowl may have had something to do with it.”
There are stages of adjustment coming off a Super Bowl loss, according to those who have been through it. Former Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy came up with a formula of dealing with losing in the big game for four consecutive years spanning 1991-94. In the middle of the streak, Levy said he figured out the healing and dealing process.
First, he afforded himself and the team about two weeks to mourn. Then he would have everybody focus on the positives that got the team to the Super Bowl. Next, he would make a plan to get back, then he and the team would go to work.
“You can’t forget getting to the Super Bowl and losing it, but you have to move forward,” Levy said. “The Philadelphia Eagles have to concentrate on the Denver Broncos right now. If they don’t, they won’t get a chance to get back and try to finish what they started. You have to react to the loss, and then march on.”
The Eagles say there no longer is a Super Bowl hangover.
“It’s forgotten – you have to put that behind you and move on,” said Trotter, the team’s star linebacker.
Added offensive tackle Tra Thomas: “You can’t keep living in the past. Every year stands on its own, so you want to put whatever successes you had last year or whatever failures you had last year behind you so you can concentrate.”
Falcons set up to flop
Many of the emotions and the inspiration of being so close to the Vince Lombardi Trophy is felt in the offseason. Once the next season starts, it’s a week-to- week proposition.
Thomas contends what happens at the Super Bowl stays at the Super Bowl.
“You get all fired up in the offseason,” said Broncos punter Todd Sauerbrun, who was with Carolina when the Panthers fell three points shy of beating New England. “You think about it in the offseason and we work toward it then, but once the season starts, the Super Bowl is forgotten. If you don’t forget, you’ll get beat every week.”
Broncos special-teams coach Ronnie Bradford played for Atlanta when the Falcons were beaten by the Broncos in the Super Bowl of the 1998 season. That season, the Falcons were the story of the NFL when they suddenly became dangerous after going 7-9 the season before.
Thanks to a breakout season by running back Jamal Anderson and a stifling defense, the Falcons went 14-2 and upset Minnesota in the NFC championship game. Even after the 34-19 loss to the Broncos in John Elway’s final game, the Falcons felt pretty good.
It created a buzz that carried through the Falcons’ offseason workouts to training camp, then into the 1999 season.
The next Super Bowl was to be played in Atlanta, and the Falcons were sure they would become the first NFL team to play in the Super Bowl in their own stadium.
“It kept us going through workouts and in camp,” Bradford said. “It’s all we talked about.
“After being surprised to go to the Super Bowl the year before, we were sure we were going in ’99.”
“Window of success”
It didn’t work out that way. The Falcons were ravaged by injuries and finished 5-11.
“It was like we were just happy to be there because we went the year before,” Bradford said. “Guys felt like it just wasn’t their year; it can happen.
“It looks like the Eagles are doing a very good job of making sure they don’t fall. They’re staying very focused and are still very successful.”
Banner attributes the Eagles’ ability to avoid a post-Super Bowl crash to the motivation of unfinished business, which began with that first of three straight NFC title game losses. Like the previous conference final losses, the Super Bowl loss left the Eagles with the same urgent feeling.
“We know we have a window of success,” Banner said. “It’s going to close one of these years. We want that feeling of winning at least once. Maybe that’s what keeps us going.”
Staff writer Bill Williamson can be reached at 303-820-5450 or bwilliamson@denverpost.com.
