Two time zones and nearly 2,000 miles away, though, are the loyal green millions. You wonder where they will find the strength to wake up this morning. Because this football team tortured the paying customers for the better part of 6 months this season and then it water-boarded them again yesterday for 60 minutes.
It was the exact same hell: infuriating start, furious comeback, then splat. It was maddening. It was identical. It was microcosm-by-de Sade - and that still does not begin to describe Cardinals 32, Eagles 25.
And one guy got it. You knew he would.
"I want to apologize to the fans," said Brian Dawkins, one of a handful of Eagles to play in all of these championship games. "We really thought this was it. We went out and we gave what we could but we came up short. I want to apologize to them."
Dawkins said, "They were so great on our run. It took a lot more belief than just in the locker room for us to be where we were."
The Eagles were supposed to win this game. The people in Las Vegas said so. The facts said so. It wasn't going to be as easy as their romp over Arizona on Thanksgiving night, but they were supposed to win - just as they were over Carolina following the 2003 season and Tampa Bay following the 2002 season. That was the football reality. They were better - just as they were better than 9-6-1 during the regular season.
But they came out meekly. That is the plain truth. They moved the ball but settled for field goals on offense. They didn't pressure Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, which enabled him and receiver Larry Fitzgerald to make the Eagles look impotent on defense. It was 24-6 at the half.
Meekly. Just the fact.
