Move over, Disney! Until the Super Bowl, Philly is the most magical place on Earth.
Keep your eyes and hearts open to the magical moments that will happen among crowds and in individual interactions.
![An Eagles drone show above the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Jan. 25.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/v2/FZZ7KAX7HRDCFIGVZCYMI4M4VY.jpg?auth=9a549aed5ada3a3d80dbc87987493f79f0c97f72d68183019cfb8f002ba9a013&width=760&height=507&smart=true)
It’s hard to describe what it feels like in Philadelphia when the Eagles are on the road to the Super Bowl. It’s still the same season — tedious midwinter — but it feels like the holidays all over again.
Folks are a little more kind, a lot more hopeful, and nobody feels like a stranger — they’re just a fellow Birds fan you haven’t met yet. Even if you don’t like football, but you love Philly, you’re welcome aboard the bandwagon.
Every Philly person, business, and institution finds a way to hype the Eagles, from the Philadelphia International Airport to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker to Philly social media star Gillie Da King (both of whom went viral for repping the Eagles this season, for very different reasons).
At night, Philadelphia transforms into the Emerald City, her beautiful buildings and skyline awash in a warm glow of neon green lights. But the man behind the curtain here isn’t the Wizard of Oz, it’s Saquon Barkley.
Disney World may bill itself as “The most magical place on earth,” but until Feb. 9 — and hopefully well after — I’d argue that it’s Philly.
Keep your eyes and hearts open to the magical moments that will happen among crowds and in individual interactions over the next few days. Here are some of my favorites, and I’d love to hear yours, too.
Eagles gear is formal wear
Like the Fairy Godmother transforming Cinderella’s rags into a ball gown with a “Bibbidi bobbidi boo,” an Eagles NFC win and shouts of “Go Birds” magically transform Eagles clothes into the height of formal fashion.
Big client meeting at the office? Wear your lucky Birds shirt, regardless of the holes in the armpits. Attending a funeral? The deceased would want you to dress in your finest Eagles hoodie. Going to a wedding at the Rittenhouse Hotel? Time to break out your velour Eagles tracksuit.
There’s literally nowhere in this city you can’t wear Eagles gear right now and when you do, you’re certain to hear “Go Birds” wherever you go.
‘Go Birds’
Speaking of “Go Birds,” for the next few days, those two little magical words mean everything.
As many have said before me, the phrase becomes Philly’s version of “Aloha” and is regularly substituted for hello and goodbye. If Paul McCartney stood before me and sang “You say, ‘Goodbye’ and I say …” and asked me to finish the lyrics, I’d be obligated to say “Go Birds,” even though The Beatles is my favorite band. I don’t make the rules. This is the way.
But like aloha, “Go Birds” means much more than just hello and goodbye; it expresses mutual affection and the importance of each of us within our collective existence as Eagles fans. It encompasses all that isn’t said and that which can’t be seen but everything that we know is in our bleeding green hearts.
During this time, it’s entirely appropriate to sign off all business emails with “Go Birds,” especially those to Sixers and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris (if you run in those circles, please do this for me) and to any business associates in Kansas City.
Eagles epicurean delights
Up until the Super Bowl, every restaurant, bakery, and hoagie shop across the Delaware Valley will create their own Bird food, an Eagles-theme dish marketed to hungry Birds fans. You may think there are some foods this can’t be done with, but you would be wrong. The region’s chefs truly work their gastronomic magic during this special time.
Back in 2018, Dottie’s Donuts created the Eagles Fan on a Greased Pole, a pole-shaped doughnut smeared with a vanilla glaze (symbolizing the grease) and topped with a dollop of green matcha at the top (to signify a fan in an Eagles jersey).
As always, there will, of course, be tomato pies with cheese dusted upon them in the shape of the Eagles logo, and soft pretzels twisted into the shape of bald eagles holding footballs in their talons.
But this year there are also “Bird Dogs,” hot dogs from Dietz and Watson that come on a green Amoroso’s roll; green Eagles cannoli from Holy Cannoli Cafe in South Philly and South Jersey; nonalcoholic drinks like the “Saquon Sparkly,” a cold brew with glitter from I Knead Coffee in Bridesburg; and boozy beverages like the “Philly Philly” margarita from Taqueria Amor in Manayunk.
While I haven’t seen any Eagles-themed escargot or scrapple dishes yet, I don’t doubt they’re coming.
Spellbinding side hustles
Philadelphians are some of the most imaginative and industrious folks you’ll ever meet and at no time is that more evident than when the Birds are headed to the Super Bowl.
On an average day, it seems like everyone here has a side hustle, but these days, it seems like they have three.
While covering fan celebrations following the Eagles NFC Championship on Sunday, I saw a dude set up a folding table of knockoff Eagles merch right in the middle of the Broad Street. Did he have a vendor’s license? Probably not, but he had chutzpah.
Of course Philly Elmo was out with his Positive Movement Drumline, carrying an empty water cooler jug for tips from his adoring fans, and I saw a guy selling loosie Surfside spiked teas and Stateside vodka sodas out of a cooler on Broad Street for $5 a pop. Did he have a liquor license? Almost definitely not, but he did have a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth and business was booming.
And then I met Eagles fan Joel Casper, 20, from Blackwood, N.J. While Casper didn’t have a hustle going on, he had bought into a pretty ingenious one.
While tailgating at the Linc, Casper encountered a dude selling cheap green sunglasses with small cardboard boxes attached to each arm/temple. The chintzy boxes resembled packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, though the font appeared to be taken from a ransom note.
Casper told me he paid $20 for the homemade getup that probably cost someone $2 to make, and that it was honestly “the best $20 I ever spent in my life.” Then Casper ingeniously used his cream cheese glasses to make an analogy about Saquon Barkley and the Commanders.
“Saquon Barkley cuts their defense up like some Philadelphia Cream Cheese,” he said. “It’s butter, it’s easy, and just like that, the Eagles are in the 59!”
Eagles fight song
During these magical days, “Fly, Eagles Fly,” is a secular hymn of belief and devotion that’s played everywhere, from the morning announcements at local schools to the loudspeakers at area supermarkets.
During the Eagles 2018 Super Bowl run, I was at the Victor Café in South Philly — a restaurant renowned for its singing waitstaff — when the entire place broke out in a rendition of the fight song.
“Fly, Eagles, Fly” has also been sung en masse in jury rooms and churches, and at commencement ceremonies, weddings, and yes, even funerals. Just like your Eagles gear, there’s nowhere it’s not appropriate right now.
So enjoy the magic, my fellow Birds fans, and create some of your own wherever you can.