Look at the bright side, Eagles fans
Eagles are off to a 4-1 start, but you might not know it to hear their fans dwell on their shortcomings.
AFTER 2 DECADES of covering sports in Philadelphia, I've concluded that there are reasons why the footage in the opening credits for the hit show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" are entirely night images of the city.
Show creator Rob McElhenney is a native Philadelphian born in 1977. He was 3 when the Phillies won the 1980 World Series and 6 when the Sixers won the NBA title in 1983.
Then it was zip until the Phillies won again in 2008, when McElhenny was 31. For Philadelphia sports fans of his generation, the sun rarely shined.
Sunshine projects a feeling of happiness, and happiness is something most Philadelphia sports fans rarely allow themselves the luxury of experiencing.
Considering the city has celebrated only 16 championships (seven by the long-departed Athletics and Warriors) in nearly 400 combined seasons in Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Soccer, Philadelphia's franchises are most responsible for the feelings of doom that accompany each annual sports cycle.
Drinking from a glass half-full instead of half-empty would produce a gag reflex in most Philadelphia sports fans. It's better to anticipate the worst, so it hurts less when the inevitable disappointment sets in.
It is under that dim of gloom that we discuss the angst in this city caused by the 4-1 start of the Eagles.
About the only way the Birds could cause more anxiety would be if they had scored in the closing moments 2 weeks ago in San Francisco and rallied for a comeback victory.
I can only imagine the high level of misery if this ridiculously lucky team with a gimmick coach, overrated quarterback, lost-a-step running back, joke wide receivers and lousy defense actually had the audacity to be 5-0.
Phillies Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt once famously described Philadelphia as "the only city where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day."
With today's 24-hour news cycle, social media and sports-talk radio, waiting until the next day got the Eagles only more piling on following hours of abuse since the clock expired on their 34-28 win - emphasis on WIN - over the Rams.
I get it.
Eagles coach Chip Kelly gets it.
When the Eagles blow almost all of a 27-point lead, folks willl rightfully have concerns about the manner in which they defeated St. Louis.
The Eagles have won four of five games but done so with erratic quarterback play from Nick Foles, bottled-up running from LeSean McCoy and a defense that is prone to give up big, crooked numbers.
It comes as no surprise that people would question how big a splash this team actually can make if it does not clean up the things it's been doing wrong.
Still, the complete dismissal of the Eagles by many of their faithful is a typically extreme Philly reaction. At some point, there has to be acknowledgement of the fact that 4-1 is 4-1 and is some measure of accomplishment.
It is not the same as being 1-4. Sure, if you want to play the "what-if" game, the Eagles could be 0-5 if certain things had happened a little differently in each of their games.
But the reality is that things did not go a little differently. The Eagles are even with the Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers for the best record in the NFL after the first quarter of the season.
That is not to say Eagles fans should not have concerns, but their despair is not as legitimate as that of fans in Jacksonville or Oakland, whose teams are winless, or of the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans, whose teams are 1-4.
Fans of those teams are actually at the edge of the cliff, unlike Eagles fans who have elected to join them there because their team hasn't looked good while winning.
Nobody is denying some issues need to be solved. If Foles does not get over whatever is ailing him and start playing more like the franchise quarterback he appeared to be last season, the offense, the supposed strength of the team, will remain unreliable.
If McCoy can't deal with the inconsistent play of a beat-up offensive line and start running more like the MVP candidate he was last season, it will be virtually impossible for this team to evolve into a legitimate contender.
Evolution, however, takes time, and if a certain percentage of Eagles fans could stop their doomsday prepping for a moment, they might see that the Eagles have bought some time to get things corrected.
There should be concerns, but when a team has won 80 percent of its first five games, it just doesn't make sense to declare that everything has gone to hell and the season can't be salvaged.
"We just have to continue to work on it and get better," Kelly said. "The positive is that we are working from a situation where we are 4-1 and trying to get better."
That might not bring sunshine to Philadelphia, but it is at least a silver lining around the rain clouds.
Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood
Blog: ph.ly/DNL