Rich Hofmann: Six Eagles still chasing Super Bowl ring, going into fifth NFC Championship Game

THE FRIDAY before the game, the NFC Championship Game in January of 2002, I wrote a column about how everybody should just try to enjoy it, whichever way it turned out. It had been 21 years between championship games for the Eagles, after all, and it just did not seem to be something that you could count on.

Prescience has never been my strong suit.

It is January of 2009 now and the Eagles will be playing in their fifth NFC championship game in eight seasons. They lost the first one as an underdog at St. Louis, lost the next two as home favorites against Tampa Bay and Carolina, then won the last one as a home favorite against Atlanta. There was hope after St. Louis, despair after Tampa Bay, anger after Carolina and elation after Atlanta. The games came in all shapes and all sizes, as do the survivors.

There are six: Donovan McNabb, Correll Buckhalter, David Akers, Tra Thomas, Jon Runyan and Brian Dawkins. (Buckhalter, admittedly, is a bit of a stretch, injured in 2002 and 2004 but around the team nonetheless.) They are the ones who have seen it all, and felt the different emotions, and dealt with the varying expectations. They have known mostly disappointments on these days, disappointments that necessarily hardened their outer shells and sharpened their inner appetites for success.

It is hard for them to rank the experiences, as you might expect.

"Maybe I'll be able to answer that if we go out and do our job and win this game," McNabb said, as he prepared for Sunday afternoon's game against the Arizona Cardinals. "Then I'll be able to rank the NFC championships. But, you know what? It's tough to say right now. It's tough to say. We're just enjoying the moment right now; not looking further by any means and just counting the days down until we get an opportunity to step out onto that field."

The highlight is obvious enough, McNabb said.

"I think everyone would go with 2004, being able to hold that trophy up and getting hit by the confetti and knowing that you're moving on to the Super Bowl," he said. "Obviously, the lows would be the losses we've had. The things that stick in your mind in situations like that are the opportunities that you had that you didn't capitalize on - the Carolina game, the Tampa game. This is another opportunity for us and we understand that we are fortunate to be in this position, but I'm just excited."