What Do I Want for Christmas?

For weeks now, people have been asking me what I want for Chrsitmas. Now, I have a response: MAKE T.O.'S ANKLE MAGICALLY HEAL!

Philadelphia Eagles star receiver Terrell Owens will miss the rest of the regular season and possibly the playoffs and Super Bowl with torn ligaments in his right ankle.

Owens needs surgery and stands only an outside chance of being able to play in the Super Bowl on Feb. 6 if the Eagles make it that far, head trainer Rick Burkholder said.

77 catches, 1200 yards and 14 TDs... all gone. Best of all, I now hear it's a broken fibula. Thanks, Mr. Roy Williams. Just for this, I'm hunting for a Williams voodoo doll, and rooting for USC to obliterate Williams' old school in the Orange Bowl.

Oh, yeah, I know what Andy Reid has said and will say -- it's just one player, the rest of the players will step up, and we have to go on. Yadayadayada. And he's right.

That's what he has to say, and I actually think he believes that. Hell, he has to. And while he's in better shape for the playoffs right now than he was last year at this time, we're still lacking The Guy, The One, The Missing Link.

Sure, Westbrook is healthy and will be available come playoff time (note to Reid: put him in the luxury box for the next two games. No sideline, just keep him safe. Have someone taste-test his food, if need be. Put him in the Popemobile, for crying out loud.). That is an improvement on last year's playoff offense. But last year, we also had Duce and Buckhalter. Levens is neither. The running backs... well, let's say Westbrook is a significant improvement over Buck, and Levens is, at best, a pale shadow of Duce (and that's a HUGE stretch). Add in the fact that Josh Parry, while he's played well, is no Jon Ritchie, and you'd say the Birds are equal at best at running back, but with a huge home run threat they didn't have before.

I'll give someone a point if they want to claim that our tight ends are better -- Lewis has played well this year, and Smith is a better player than a year ago... although it would be nice if he suddenly turned into Antonio Gates.

But receiver? Fred-Ex has been non-existent for much of the year. Greg Lewis has had some nice moments, but what are we really expecting from him? And are we going to enter one more playoff season with Todd Pinkston as the top receiver? Maybe the Redskins can trade us Thrash, just so we can have a reunion.

Face it, the pressure is on one man's shoulders -- that's Donovan McNabb. He's capable of playing big (as he did in the fourth quarter against Dallas yesterday), but he's also capable of being scattershot and inconsistent (like the first three quarters yesterday). He may have to turn to the scrambling menace he was early in his career, because the rest of his offense, with the exception of Westbrook and maybe Smith, is starving for playmakers.

Andy Reid has some pressure on him as well. I'm hoping he gets creative, by using both Westbrook and the returning Reno Mahe more at WR, just for different looks and to get some speed on the edges. Hell, maybe they should try Jevon Kearse in there on the goal line or something -- look what Carolina's done with Julius Peppers. I don't want them to just plug in Billy McMullen and pretend everything's okay.

As for Eagles Nation...

We have to believe. We don't have a choice.

But this is the sort of painful memory everyone remembers when the season's over. Hard-core Birds fans will add this to the fog in Chicago in 1988... to missed field goals in the playoffs in 1978... to Roynell Young losing a battle with Cliff Branch for a ball in the end zone in Super Bowl XV... to Kenny King taking a screen that should have been picked for an 80-yard score in the same game... to Ben Smith's 90 yard fumble return against the Redskins in the 1990 playoffs getting called back by instant replay... to McNabb's broken ankle in 2002... to Kelvin Martin taking back a punt to beat the red-hot Eagles and the best defense ever in 1991, knocking us out of the playoffs... to Westbrook's torn tricep in 2003... to N.D. Kalu missing a punt block by two inches against the Rams in 2001... to Bryce friggin' Paup and Randall's knee in 1991.

Everyone of those times -- every single stinking one -- we had a team that was good enough to win it all. EVERY TIME. And every time, something got in the way -- an injury, dumb luck, a freaking rules change, the weather, whatever.

It's this record that causes me and every other Eagles fan to think God hates us. I used to laugh when Bill Simmons at ESPN used to wonder if it was okay to someday raise his children as Red Sox fans. I'm starting to understand why such an outlandish statement makes sense sometimes.
If you're a Philly sports fan, this whole litany makes sense. It even makes sense that we lose an NFC Title Game, but our consolation turns out to be that an actor who's from Philly (but embodies nothing about the city) wins a Golden Globe the same night. Of course, since he's from Philly, it's only a Golden Globe and not an Oscar. In the end, this is all venting saved for another day. January 16th, 2005 or January 24th, 2005, or possibly, if fate is especially cruel, February 7th, 2005.

Then again, maybe we overcome it all. Maybe this is the dark moment on the championship DVD, the moment I use someday when I tell my kids stories about persevering and never giving up on a dream. Maybe this is the moment when we kick it into higher gear and become the magical team that ends all the curses Philly sports teams have suffered for so many years. Maybe someday, we'll all laugh and talk about how the Eagles won Super Bowl XXXIX despite missing one of their key stars, and how we all thought the dream was dead.

Okay, let me take that opening statement back. I know what I want for Christmas, Santa. Give me that Super Bowl victory.