Moving boxes spotted the locker-room floor at the NovaCare Complex. They were full of clothes and hats and other things the players planned to take with them into the off-season ether.
Packing days are all the same. The long faces. The hushed voices. The somber discussions about time running out and what could have been. They're a lot like wakes, actually.
While Eagles fans mourned the Cardinals loss, while they lamented a maddening, heartbreaking season that was laid to rest out in the Arizona dessert, Sheldon Brown stood by his locker and addressed the Big Question: Was this a successful year for the Eagles?
"Well, the first goal for any season is always to win the NFC East," Brown said. "We didn't do that. The second goal is to win the NFC championship. We didn't do that. And that third goal is to win the Super Bowl. We didn't do that. We didn't accomplish any of our goals. That's frustrating."
It was the perfect word to describe a not-so-perfect season. Frustrating. For him, for you, for me, for everyone who believed that the Eagles were destined to beat the Cardinals and finally grip the Lombardi Trophy in their talons. After rebounding from their 5-5-1 nadir and backing into the playoffs, they squandered yet another chance to accomplish their goals when they turned in an ugly, flawed performance. And it's even more frustrating that we expected things to go differently this time around - that we bought the last-minute spin about this being a Super Bowl caliber team.
But no one's perfect, right? It's something I was reminded of while reading a book called Rant.
The tome was authored by Chuck Palahniuk, who, among other things, wrote Fight Club.
