What Philly Has Never Had
In One Hundred Years of Football, We’ve Seen It All on the Field.
Almost.
When you’ve had professional football in your city limits for a century — chances are you haven’t missed much.
But if Philly football asks for a gift from Santa in September— here is something to wish for.
Since 1924, the Philadelphia Eagles and Frankford Yellow Jackets have given Philadelphia some incredible moments. No, we don’t have ten Super Bowl trophies or three dynasties.
What we do have are some cherished moments of exhilaration for one of America’s most important original cities.
We’ve seen devastating defenses like the 1991 Gang Green and the Jim Johnson aggressive scheme of the early 2000s. We’ve seen miracle seasons that seemed to come out of nowhere, like 1960 and 2017. We’ve seen dominating performances when it seemed like our teams were almost unbeatable, like the 1948–1949 Eagles and the 1926 Frankford Yellow Jackets. And we’ve seen such pulsating physical performances that added to the lore of Veterans Stadium that no away team wanted to visit.
But what Philadelphia has never seen is a quarterback who wasn’t just good enough to win the Super Bowl but to take the Eagles back there for years to come. Many thought the Eagles had that quarterback in Donovan McNabb, Ron Jaworski, or Randall Cunningham. However, injuries, changes in coaching, and squandered opportunities meant that none of the Philly quarterbacks saw even one championship.
PHOTO: Wikipedia
The one time Philly football had a signal caller who brought the Eagles multiple shiny reminders in the trophy case was Tommy Thompson. Thompson led the Eagles to championships in 1948 and 1949. They should have had one in 1947, just like in 2022.
In addition to Thompson, only Nick Foles, Harry Homan, and Norm Van Brocklin have won championships as NFL Quarterbacks in Philadelphia.
None have been able to repeat.
Suppose Kellen Moore and Nick Sirianni can get Jalen Hurts to be the nearly unstoppable force he was in 2022–2023.
In that case, the quarterback who came one possession from Super Bowl glory can capture his first Super Bowl title at age 26 with perhaps a decade left in his career for many more.
If, and only if.
PHOTO: Wikipedia
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