It was a tough game for the Philadelphia Eagles today. They were even through the first quarter as neither they or the Dallas Cowboys scored. Then in the second quarter after the Cowboys gained their first touchdown the Eagles immediately returned it. An eye for an eye it seemed. And right after that it seemed the Eagles caught an interception very near the Cowboy’s goal line and for that instant things looked good for Philadelphia. Troy had to continue the details of this game as he reported back to his brother and cousin who had been out on a secluded fishing trip and missed a whole day of football.

Troy was a huge Eagle’s fan and though he lived in a small town upstate of Philadelphia, he frequently makes the trip to attend a game at the Lincoln Financial Field, though he continues to refer to it as Veteran’s Stadium as that was the name of the field when his grandfather took him to his first game there in 1979. It remained Veteran’s Stadium until 2003 and though it wasn’t the original stadium name, it was what it was called for almost all of Troy’s life. And even some of the staff at the hotel Philadelphia where he would stay called it the Stadium.

Fortunately his cousin and brother had already heard that the Eagles did not win the playoff game before they encountered Troy so he didn’t have to deliver the whole blow. And that refers to Troy’s passion for the team and the difficulty he would have had proclaiming the loss, not the reaction felt by his audience who were oddly indifferent to the game’s outcome. They were interested in the details of how the score became so lopsided and Troy had to continue on with the devastating second quarter, during which the Cowboys scored a total of 27 points. The second half of the game was not as gruesome as the first and neither team scored much. Ultimately, the final score was Dallas 34 and the Eagles 14. It wasn’t a shut out, or as bad as last week, but it was still bad. Troy’s cousin and his brother decided they needed to take him out that night. It was good for Troy, but didn’t help his precious Eagles much.