Can the Eagles’ 2025 Super Bowl game make Philly feel like home for all of us?

He made good on that promise, drafted in the seventh round in 2004. He was the third string running back, and if it weren’t for injuries, he might have made an impact as a role player. The Eagles went to the Super Bowl that year for the first time since 1980. My vicarious pride in him was personal—I’d hardly spoken to him during our school days, but it felt great to be able to say that someone who came up inside the same school walls as I did was not only a professional football player, but suited up in the midnight green.

Escaping the narrative

I’ve always contemplated my relationship with sports, particularly football, and how that colors my relationship with Philly. Living in a major city with multiple storied sports franchises, you can’t escape the narratives. In the 1990s and much of the 2000s, the narratives were that we were lousy—or, if we were good, we were never good enough.

The Phillies were the laughingstock of Major League Baseball for a long time. The Ray Rhodes years with the Eagles were some of the first years I experienced perennial disappointment despite holding out hope each and every season. The Flyers were too busy almost winning the Stanley Cup. Don’t even get me started on the Sixers’ decades of mediocrity—although Allen Iverson is unquestionably my all-time favorite athlete. He was the scrappy little guy who played with toughness and, standing at barely six feet, battled against gladiators. To me, players like Iverson represented the city. We, too, were the little guy fighting gladiators using our grit, talent, and fearlessness. Just like the Eagles now. Three Super Bowl appearances in seven years? Elementary-school Kyle wouldn’t have believed it.

Unfortunately, it feels like the city itself is nowhere near a championship. Philly has seen some dark times recently, although that’s not new, from fiery protests and movements in 2016 to tanks rolling down our streets four years later.

Appearances vs reality

Sometimes impressions duel with reality: it seems to me that brick-and-mortar stores are rapidly closing down, especially since the pandemic began, but data says otherwise. We’re America’s first World Heritage City and we’re America’s poorest big city. We’re known for our universities, but an institution like UArts can evaporate overnight, leaving a huge community without a place to go. And how are we still calling ourselves a foodie town when there is food apartheid and water insecurity right here in Philly, which is also suffering higher grocery inflation than any other US city?

Concerts, performances, and conventions are far less abundant here than they used to be, and often show up only on the outskirts of the city. (Why is Philly Comic Con a 30-minute drive outside of the city? And what is going on with their website?) Navigating SEPTA has become a lawless nightmare. And what the hell was that arena fiasco? What does this mean for Chinatown now? But hey, at least our mayor knows how to spell ELGLES!

Becoming an old head?

Maybe I’m projecting and this is my oldheadedness is arriving. Gentrification, a tenuous social climate, and segregation are not new, and I worry they’ve been around long enough to compromise the city’s identity in a tangible way. Is it just me? Has anyone else noticed? I found part of my answer while out and about on the Sunday of the 2025 NFC Championship game.

On the el down to City Hall, the cars were filled with Eagles fans. They rocked jerseys, beanies, jackets, sweats, tights, and accessories, a percolating sea of midnight and Kelly greens. Chants of the Eagles fight song rose out of the crowd over energetic conversations among friends and people saying “Go Birds!” as a natural alternative to “take care!” or “be safe!”

I watched an Eagles fan start a conversation with a Washington Commanders fan: a debate between strangers that got the whole train car booing the Commanders fan in unison. But it was the friendly kind of booing that ended with the two strangers sharing compliments, a hearty handshake (with that loud, confident clap that tells you it’s all love), and mutual laughter with the other fans. It was heartwarming to see Philly so united (and being nice to everyone, contrary to popular belief). I yearn for authentic collective experiences, and this one felt like home.

Just like Philly hip-hop legend Freeway used to rap, Alright, tell ‘em everything’s gon’ be alright. I know we can make it through this. Because it’s Philly, right?

Rooting for positive moments

This Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles face the Kansas City Chiefs in a rematch of the Super Bowl two years ago. The Eagles won Super Bowl LII in 2018, a game many dub the greatest Super Bowl of all time. That’s right, the Philadelphia Eagles won the greatest Super Bowl of all time. That was us! Philly beat the NFL’s golden boy, Tom Brady. The Philly Special, one of the gutsiest plays in sports history (I’m only being slightly hyperbolic), has penetrated the culture and remains relevant seven years later. Nick Foles is a local hero. I watch replays of that game to motivate myself on those days when I need to channel my inner Philly toughness. That daring grittiness (not to be confused with national treasure Gritty) is already embedded in many of us. But where else can this energy show up? More importantly, can it show up?

I only have part of the answer. The social and political climate in the US and right here in Philly is, to put it lightly, quite terrible. I don’t think the Eagles, or any team, is going to solve any city’s real problems. But I do think it’s vital for us to look at positive moments like this and learn from them. Yes, I know how difficult it can be to root for the millionaires on the field and the billionaires behind the game while I lament the resources we lack. But seeing us Philadelphians come together for something is inspiring. This team has motivated me to deepen relationships with fellow fans in my personal life beyond football. They’ve encouraged me to seek more sustainable, authentic connections with neighbors and community.

I want to continue to calibrate and assert my own identity through my own take on Philly philosophies and attitudes, and continue to educate myself and observe what it means to live here so I can make the right plays in the face of the real-world gladiators. If sports has taught me anything, it is that nothing is going to change until we collectively work toward a common goal. Perhaps that’s quixotic of me, but it sure is refreshing to see us come together for the most united, complete Eagles team I’ve seen in my lifetime.

Go Birds! We need a win right now.

At top: Philly floods South Broad Street after the Eagles’ 2025 NFC Championship win. (Photo by Conrad Benner, founder of StreetsDept.com.)