After a second Eagles Super Bowl win, Phillies fans are still awaiting another championship moment

TEL AVIV, Israel — From seven time zones away here in Tel Aviv, sometimes with rockets sailing over my head, I watched well over 100 Phillies games last year, including every minute of the crushing first-round loss to the Mickey Mouse New York Mets. I also watched every minute of the just-finished Eagles season, all the way to the glorious conclusion. The Eagles have repaid my love in spades; the Phillies, I’m not so sure.

So many of us follow sports because we believe in the compact between team and fan. We invest our time, money, and emotional energy — even though most players aren’t from the city and could be seen as hired guns. In return, we expect at least the illusion of something real: They must want a championship at least as much as we do.

That’s the deal, and the Eagles under owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman seem to get it. Just a year ago, they suffered one of the worst collapses in team history, losing six of their last seven games in 2023, including a one-and-done humiliation in the playoffs.

And what did they then do? They acknowledged the failure.

They didn’t hide behind cliches, or pretend their roster was just fine. Instead, they got to work.

They revamped their coaching staff, bringing in Vic Fangio and Kellen Moore to overhaul both sides of the ball. They made big personnel moves, signing superstar running back Saquon Barkley to electrify the offense and drafting rookie sensation Cooper DeJean, and Quinyon Mitchell to lock down the secondary — and more. They spent aggressively and showed urgency, making clear they were just as sick about what had happened as the fans were.

And what was the result? A transcendental Super Bowl victory, an exorcism of the collapse, and a reminder that the Eagles do not take their fans for granted — gratifying for all, and good for business, too.

The Eagles’ win came at a time when Philadelphia itself feels like more of an underdog than ever. It is a deeply Democratic city that stands in sharp contrast to the current administration. There is real tension in the air, even when it’s time for a presidential congratulations after the Birds’ Super Bowl win. In such an environment, sports should be a unifying force, a refuge. The teams must make it so — and the Eagles just did.

Contrast the Birds’ response to adversity with that of the Phillies, who suffered their own epic collapse in the 2024 postseason. That loss to the Mets in the National League Division Series was the most painful series I’ve had to endure since my own fandom began in the 1970s (as measured by expectations and hopes vs. performance and outcome; longer-suffering fans than me still no doubt wallow in the Phils’ late-season swoon in 1964). In response to the failure, management has done nothing of consequence.

Instead of making big, bold moves to ensure it doesn’t happen again, general manager Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies brass have given us a master class in complacency. In postseason news conferences, they have been bizarrely self-satisfied, almost as if they’d overachieved. They set modest offseason goals — maybe an outfielder, maybe a reliever, maybe a No. 5 starter — and failed to sign any major free-agent additions.

“If we take the same club back that we had last year and we make a tweak here and a tweak there, I think we’ll compete to win the division and be in a position where we’ll be definite postseason contenders,” Dombrowski actually said.

Compete? Contenders? A tweak? How about going after Juan Soto and Alex Bregman instead of letting the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the two league champions, get stronger?

The Phillies’ insultingly lackadaisical approach is especially unacceptable in this city — because supporting Philadelphia’s teams is a perhaps uniquely painful experience.

Philadelphia is a major market — the fourth or fifth in the land or so, depending on how you measure. Yet, the results speak for themselves. The Flyers have won just two Stanley Cups — none since 1975. The 76ers have won two NBA titles, the last in 1983. The Phillies have won just two World Series titles, despite being competitive for decades. The Eagles, probably the city’s most beloved franchise, have now won two Super Bowls — compared with, uh, six for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who hail from a vastly inferior town across the state.

That spotty track record is especially galling given our rabid fanbase: No city in the world (and its expats!) supports its teams more obsessively than Philadelphia. And local baseball fans will certainly be tuning in again this season.

The Phillies’ spring schedule starts Saturday against the Detroit Tigers. Come on, Phils — don’t pretend like last year didn’t happen, and don’t lean on cliches; acknowledge the failure, and let’s get to work.

Dan Perry is the former chief editor of the Associated Press in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. A graduate of Upper Merion High School and the University of Pennsylvania, he currently lives in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he stays up all night to watch the Eagles and the Phillies.