The Dallas Cowboys are on the Philadelphia Eagles schedule twice per season, and each time the team’s records could be thrown out. From a Philly fans’ perspective this is nearly as big a game as a playoff game. All the bad feelings about the team early in the season, would suddenly disappear if the Eagles win. Hating the Cowboys is deep rooted. I was just a toddler during their late 70s early 80s great years. But I knew even before they became a dynasty in the 90s that I hated the Cowboys. In the 1989 Thanksgiving day game, forever known as the “Bounty Bowl”, Eagles linebacker Jessie Small concussed Cowboys kicker Luis Zendejas. The Cowboys claimed there was a bounties on hard hits causing injuries in the game. Today, this couldn’t happen. The league is certainly too mindful of it’s reputation to allow this to happen. These were the kind of things that happened in the rivalry. Sad thing for me as an Eagles fan is that the Cowboys fans don’t see it that way. It is almost just another NFC East rival to them. For an Eagles fan though, this is it. And if most of them had their way, Tony Romo, Terrell Owens et. al would have bounties on them. The Cowboys typify the in crowd, the popular, attractive, wealthy, smart kids from the top high school. The Eagles on the other hand, are the outsiders, the kids who go to the run down high school, who fight for everything they ever have, and for the most part they don’t have much.
Well hopefully for one week, the city will be happy and have some hope. If not it will be back to misery.
