Photo by John Fischer
The Eagles Cheerleaders had their own booth where they were selling calendars and signing autographs. You could even play Eagles miniature golf.
The WIP tent was everything that I remember from previous years with Angelo Cataldi, Mike Missanelli, Rhea Hughes and friends all trying to get some excitement going.
Photo by John Fischer
Things started out a bit slow today but by 11:30 a.m. the crowd was large and very enthusiastic. WIP regulars Tyrone Johnson and Arson Arnie even stopped by the tent. The only thing missing today was Howard Eskin being abused by Angelo and friends in person.
Cataldi was quite properly named as one of Philadelphia's 100 most influential people in Philadelphia Magazine. Whether you agree or disagree with him, he has the ear and more often the pulse of the city.
At around noon I wandered over to the stadium to take my seat in the 600 level.
The game was amazing - much better than I had expected. The Donovan McNabb era has certainly arrived. While McNabb's stats today were nothing exciting, his presence on the field was clear.
Photo by John Fischer
On several occasions his running ability rescued the Eagles offense including on a key two point conversion. Duce Staley had another excellent today making most of us who were upset that the Eagles did not take Ricky Williams with their first pick look more and more like idiots.
The Eagles defense had a lot of high points forcing six turnovers, but they also were victimized by long passes and their ever questionable use of the "prevent defense" on several occasions which did nothing to prevent anything.
The bottom line was the McNabb's debut was marked by an Eagles come-back win 35-28.
The team has done little in recent years to generate fan interest. With Staley and McNabb they now seem to have two of the three key offensive weapons that they need to build the future around. Hopefully next year's first round pick will be a top notch receiver. I for one will be following the rest of this season with much interest.
Well, that's my spin on things. What's yours? You can join me in our chat room almost every evening - Philly Chat - or drop me a note at philadelphia.guide@about.com. Also, be sure to check out our new Philadelphia Forum where you can share your comments and feelings, ask questions, post classifieds and much more
If you missed any of our recent columns you can still catch them:
Western Diary
10/1/99 - 10/15/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 10/25/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 11/08/99
John Fischer's Philadelphia 11/10/99
