Will Philadelphia Use Soul to Ease Pain
Craig T. Mackey
Monday January 19, 2004
This year however, may be a little different.
In three weeks, the Philadelphia Soul will kick off their season against the New Orleans Voo Doos at 3:00 p.m. in the Wachovia Center. Last week, it seemed that the kickoff would be perfect timing for the Soul.
The Super Bowl will be played on February 1 and the Soul play their first game on February 8. If all things worked out, there would have been football for 10 months straight in the city of brotherly love. Philadelphia, being one of, if not the, best football towns in the country, would have been starved for more football.
The parade down Broad Street would probably have been on the Tuesday following the Super Bowl. This city would have been electric and full of football fever. 44 years of misery and pain would have been no more. The main beneficiary of all of this would have been the Soul. Ron Jaworski and Jon Bon Jovi could not have scripted a better beginning to the start season. The Eagles momentum would have carried right into the Soul’s season.
Does the Eagles loss have to put a black cloud on the Soul’s fresh start? Will their loss deter loyal Eagles fans from watching an arena football game? Why should we let it?
Three weeks is plenty of time to recuperate and heal those wounds and broken hearts. This is a football town. We love going to a game on Sunday afternoon with our friends and family.
We love to drink a beer while rooting for our team. We love to sit in front of the television and watch football all day until our eyes bleed. We love to hear our parents or significant others complain that we have done nothing all day but sit and watch football. We just love football period. Why else would 20,000 fans travel to see the Eagles play in Miami.
It may not be your Eagles playing on Sunday afternoons, but it is football. Arena football is much faster than the NFL. The scores are always high and there is never a dull moment.
Just do not allow the pain the Eagles inflicted on you stay for too long. Get right back up and enjoy this new brand of football. Besides, what else are you going to do on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon? Go shopping with the wife. Nah.
Craig T Mackey is a an engineer in Philadelphia. He is a huge philadelphia sports fan. He has worked for NFL Films in the past and is a 1999 graduate of Penn State University with a bachelors degree in journalism.
