MINNEAPOLIS – It isn’t supposed to be in the DNA of an Eagle, or a Redskin, or a Cowboy, to feel anything but raw, raging contempt for the other team that shares the division with them.
BIG BLUE FANS WARY OF THIS RUBBER GAME
This isn’t a game of four-ball at the club with the fellows. This is the NFC East. This is blood and guts, wind and snow and sleet and ice, ancient hatreds that date back to leather helmets. There is nothing collegial about the NFC East.
“The Giants?” Jason Avant, the Eagles’ rugged wide receiver, asked. “I look at them as … I don’t know. Role models.”
Come on. Really?
Role models?
“Look at what they did last year,” Avant said with a shrug.
Yes, they say the NFL is a copycat league, and the Eagles seem hell bent on proving it. Not to dust off a hoary old cliche, but they really are just happy to be here. They really were delighted to even be running onto the Metrodome field yesterday afternoon, because it took a row of tumbling dominoes longer than the Schuylkill just to qualify for this tournament in the first place.
And now that they’re here.
“We look at what the Giants did,” linebacker Trent Cole said. “I’m not bragging, or being boastful, but they showed what’s possible when you take advantage of opportunities in this league.”
Maybe, down deep, the Eagles know that they should be swallowed whole by Giants Stadium next week, when they face the defending champions in a division-round game.
Maybe, in their heart of hearts, the Eagles understand that their win at Giants Stadium early last month won’t mean as much as it otherwise might, since it was the first full week the Giants worked without Plaxico Burress, since Brandon Jacobs was out, since the Giants already were playing for nothing substantial while the Eagles were already playing for everything.
“They are where they are for a reason,” Avant said. “They won the championship last year. They won 12 games this year. They should have the right to play this game at home.”
But the Eagles have memories, long ones, ones that recall January of 2007, when the Giants spent the first weekend of the playoffs on the road, as favorites, and took care of the Buccaneers – just as the Eagles, a road favorite, spanked the Vikings yesterday, 26-14.
They were watching when the Giants then went on the road, into the playpen of an NFC East rival, the Cowboys, who just happened to be the top seed in the conference …
… just as the Eagles will do, next week, at Giants Stadium.
Familiarity, in this case, breeds contemplation. Although contempt, you have to believe, is never very far behind.
“We know them awfully well,” Avant said. “But the other half is, they know us pretty well, too.”
They know each other’s moves, know each other’s plays, know each other’s tendencies and strengths and weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. Mostly, what the Giants know and the Eagles know is this: The Giants left a blueprint last year, they offered a smoke signal of hope for all teams playing with house money, in what-the-hell mode.
The Eagles hope to emulate. The Giants hope to eradicate. Either way, it ought to make for a hell of a show next Sunday afternoon. Expect the happy talk to morph into something else by then.