Welcome To Philadelphia, Kevin Kolb
Spike's Blog:
The City of Brotherly Love. We're proud of our city, and we're proud of our sports teams. Eagles fans, the most passionate, dedicated sports fans in the country. We're great fans, who are just misunderstood and treated unfairly by the national media. They just don't get us.
Right, Philly?
I mean, no one thought we could do the whole re-tooling thing with the Eagles, but we'd show them. We welcomed change for our Eagles with open arms, with hopes that the change would bring us a Super Bowl. That change was moving from Donovan McNabb as our starting quarterback to his backup and understudy, Kevin Kolb.
We were so excited for the change to Kolb that we all agreed to do what wasn't in our nature; we agreed to be patient. It was going to take some time, we knew that. We have a young, promising team, with a young, promising quarterback. It's going to take games, if not seasons, to bloom into something great. We were going to be patient, and watch it all develop in front of our eyes.
Well, that lasted an hour or so, right? Welcome to Philadelphia, Kevin Kolb, where patience is measured in seconds.
Sometimes it's hard to see a situation clearly when you're right in the middle of it. Maybe the national media is right about us and we just can't see it clearly. Maybe the portrait of the irrational, impatient, whining, mean crowd that they like to label us as is more accurate than we care to admit. Maybe it's not just a few rotten eggs. Maybe we are, who they think we are.
We were all sold, Andy Reid included, on Kevin Kolb as the quarterback of the future for the Eagles; we gave up after 10 passes. 30 minutes. One half of one game. Do you see how insane that seems? After 3 years of preparation, two games of 300+ yards last season, and the trading of the best QB this city has ever seen, we've turned on our back on Kolb before he ever had a chance to finish one, single game.
One half of football is all it took for to give up on Kolb in exchange for a newer, shinier toy in Vick. Andy Reid turned on Kolb only a few seconds after the fans did.
Michael Vick has played very well, as well as we've ever seen him play, that's for sure. Andy Reid was serious about this year not being one about rebuilding, that's for sure as well. Reid said that he thinks the Eagles can win the Super Bowl this year with Vick. So much for our measured expectations.
The speed at which this happened, and the way that it happened, could only happen in Philadelphia.
Kevin Kolb knew this could happen; he's been on the other side of it.
Kevin Kolb already knew what it was like to be popular. The backup quarterback in Philadelphia, whether it's AJ Feely, Jeff Garcia or Kevin Kolb, is always the most popular Eagle.
"We all enjoy as much support as we can get. I know that it's been that in the past, the backup quarterback is the most popular guy," Kolb said to me in June. "I know that's going to come, it can reverse on me just as well."
I don't think even Kolb could have imagined it could reverse so quickly. He knows now.
Welcome to Philadelphia Kevin, where we'll give up on you after 10 passes, and make excuses for our irrational behavior by labeling it as passion.
Welcome to Philadelphia, where we'll make you our hero, just so we'll have someone to call the goat.
Philadelphia, where we'll love you just long enough to decide we should trade you for a second round pick. Where we claim the moral high ground, until of course the game begins. Welcome to Philadelphia, where we are what they say we are.
"I know there's going to be hills and valleys, and I'm prepared for that," Kolb said.
Welcome to Philadelphia Kevin, where the valley comes before you ever have a chance to get up the hill. At least he gets to be the backup again.
