America's Team - but not in Philly!

When I was 8 years old, my grandparents took me to IHOP.  They were giving away miniature football helmets with the purchase of an ice cream sundae, and wow, wouldn't it be cool to have my own mini football helmet?  Now back then I didn't know one football team from another, so when asked which helmet I'd like, I thought the silver one with the blue star was neater than the rest.  So I came home with my prized possession, and became a Dallas Cowboys fan.  Nothing wrong with that, right?  Well, that Christmas, a good majority of my presents were Dallas Cowboys related - a new winter jacket, ski hat, sweater, gloves... I thought I'd be the coolest kid on the block - maybe even the whole school!  

 

Boy was I wrong!  See, I grew up in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, and with the hometown Eagles being bitter division rivals, being a Cowboys fan was totally uncool. Sure, the Cowboys were a better team, making it to the Super Bowl in 1976, 1978, and 1979, even winning a championship by beating the Denver Broncos 27-10 in Super Bowl XII.  The Eagles would have their day in the sun though. After losing to the Cowboys in all but 3 games from 1967-1979, the Eagles finished first in the NFC East in 1980, and beat Dallas 20-7 to advance to their first ever Super Bowl, in which they lost to the Oakland Raiders. 33 years later, they are still seeking that elusive Super Bowl Championship ring, while the Cowboys have 5, and are promoted as "America's Team". The Eagles do have 3 NFL championships to their credit, but the last was in 1960, ironically, the year before the Cowboys came into existence.   Their rivalry has been one of the higher profile rivalries in the NFL over the past 3 decades, and it continues next Thursday in front of a national TV audience on Thanksgiving Day.