From The Champions' Desk

For a city that rarely gets what it deserves, this week has always been The Ultimate Wish... and to say the experience lived up to the hype and our hopes just doesn't begin to cut it.

It's a reflection of Philadelphia's collective neurosis that simply to employ the arrangement of words many of us never thought we'd ever get to use to describe reality – "The Eagles have won the Super Bowl" – might, even now, see someone show up and snatch it away remains a little bit in mind. That it's come to pass amid this wildly unpredictable season is oddly perfect, but nonetheless adds to the lingering sense of shock.

Yet even as this scribe's hometown is defined more than most by what unfolds as Sunday afternoons grow colder and darker into the winter, the team and the game are merely the outlet for bigger things still. And so it was that for most of us, the Birds' rare return to football's biggest stage – and now, the cathartic thrill (or, indeed, "mass-scale civic exorcism") of the result – could only ever be its most joyous to the degree we shared it with the families, friends and neighbors who don't just mark our game-days, but everything in between.

Having been able to do that with my own clan these last two weeks has made for a lifetime's blessing and what many of us will cherish as the greatest Philly moment we'll ever see. As Lord only knows when we'll get to do this again – but nothing will be like this one – thanks for your patience and understanding through it. Just as much, having been inundated by congrats and closeness from a good few of this crowd all over the place, please know how the virtual shower of champagne and Gatorade will always mean the world – as this crew has become a cherished part of the scribe's family over these years, it simply wouldn't have been complete without you.

And now, time to rev up again – as all the usual fights are still going, looks like there hasn't been too much to miss. In any case, with Lent just ahead, may all its blessings be yours... and in time, may days like we've just had here come true no less for the places and people you love.


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