From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe

UP JUMPED THE DEVIL

As Week 16 arrived – and just when it looked as if the Carolina Panthers were going to make it thru the regular season undefeated – up jumped the Devil in the form of the Atlanta Falcons.

If your short-term memory is failing you, these Atlanta Falcons were a pedestrian 7-7 going into Sunday’s meeting in Atlanta. Whereas, the Panthers were a perfect 14-0 and seemed like money in the bank to finish the regular season undefeated.

Only two questions remained in my mind:

1. Could the Panthers make it thru the playoffs and into the Super Bowl without losing?
2. Could the Panthers win the Super Bowl and finish the season a perfect 19-0?

Today, those questions are moot.

In case you missed it, those pedestrian Falcons declawed the Panthers 20-13 yesterday. Which means that I’ll be cracking open a bottle of Andre champagne – a bottle of Andre that’s been chilling in my refrigerator since Week 1 of this season – and I’ll be swilling its contents.

This will be the forty-third consecutive year I’ve reenacted this ritual.

You see – even though I’m a lifelong Eagles fan – I was transplanted to South Florida prior to the 1972 NFL season. With the notion of remaining in South Florida for years to come, I adopted the Dolphins as my secondary favorite behind the Eagles.

And fate smiled on me when that Dolphins team won the Super Bowl and became the first – and only – team to put together a Perfect Season. I’ll never forget that season and that team for many reasons. Here’s just two:

1. NFL teams didn’t have elaborate training facilities back then. Several players worked out in the same gym where I worked out. I got to know them by spotting them on the bench press and vice versa and – pardon my French – bullshitting with them.
2. When the first playoff game came around, the Orange Bowl wasn’t sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff. With the game blacked out, I got together with three friends. We rented a Cessna, flew across the state, and watched the game in the Fort Myers airport. No way were we going to miss that game.

So congratulations to those 1972 Dolphins.

And to all Miami Dolphins fans everywhere, here’s mud in your eyes.

See you again next year – but hopefully well before Week 16.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com Barry Bowe is also the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Birth of the Birds
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
• Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
• Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow