And We’re Back
By author
Hey there fellow Eagles fans. We here at ITI would like to apologize for the recent break in coverage. The sports blogging world, much like the NFL, is a turbulent one, prone to abrupt personnel moves, mid-season trades, gruesome injuries and surprise retirements. Sometimes, in the middle of a game, you simply run out of kickers, and you have no choice but to send Brent Celek out there to try and pooch an extra point. Throughout the past few weeks, the ITI team suffered a string of injuries at the writingback position; and we’ve unfortunately lost some games because of it. But the season is still very much alive. The bones have finally mended, the proper roster moves have been made, and we’ve signed some pretty good free agents. This is not a rebuilding year.
My name is Keith Heumiller and, as of now, it looks like I’ll be your Fearless Leader here at ITI for a while; your new conduit for breaking Eagles news, uncensored commentary, and vitriolic outbursts of anger anytime the team does something I don’t like.
More after the jump.
Personally, I am just a very loud fan. I am the guy that you don’t invite back to your house next Sunday because my thundering cries of NOOO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING and ARE YOU KIDDING ME frightened your dog and brought calls from the neighbors asking you to “try and settle down.” I am the guy willing to spend $800 on fifth row visitors’-side seats at the Linc not because I want to be close to the action (you getter a better view in the 200s anyway) but because I have an insatiable desire to lean over the seats in front of me and yell the word GOON at Eli Manning over and over again for three straight hours. Seriously, try that sometime. He makes the gooniest face at you when you do it.
In short, I’m a certifiably crazy person who has projected all of his hope, passion, anger, joy, triumph, misery and exasperation onto one team, one banner, one goal: E-A-G-L-E-S. This, of course, is what it means to be an Eagles fan.
This is what the mainstream media will never understand about us, why they will always consider us dumb, drunken hooligans who puke on little girls and need to be tazed for our own good. Why they will never, ever, forget that we “booed Santa Claus”. (Which, for the record, has been blown way out of proportion. It’s not like they were throwing beer bottles at him. It was the last game of the season, we were sitting at 2-11, and the two games we did win at the end of the year served no other purpose than ensuring we wouldn’t get the first pick in the draft – which turned out to be O.J. Simpson – and somebody got the bright idea to roll a fat guy with a beard out onto the field during halftime and pump jolly holiday feelgood music through the PA system. You would boo too. And if you wouldn’t, then you’re definitely not an Eagle fan. Which proves my point.)
You really do have to be crazy to follow this team. You have to have strong nerves, a tough heart, and massive gorilla lungs. As I take over the editorial duties here, attempting to fill the dauntingly large shoes of Ryan Messick and Scott Tunstall, my goal will be to build a site that perfectly mirrors the psyche of a Bird Fan, the zeitgeist of Eagle Nation. The articles here will be honest, down-to-earth, and one hundred percent Fan-Sided. It will not look or sound like any other team blog out there, because it shouldn’t. Inside the Iggles, like every diehard Eagle fan I’ve ever met in a bar or stadium parking lot in any corner of this country, needs to be just a little bit meaner, a little bit edgier, a little bit crazier. A little bit better, and a whole lot more fun. As always, if you have any suggestions or criticisms (or you simply want to call me a douche) feel free to comment below. This is a fan site – by fans, for fans – and everyone’s opinion will be heard and addressed. Even if it’s terrible.
Tomorrow I will be publishing our long-delayed Schedule Breakdown, where we will take a look at this year’s gimme’s, trap games, and the inexplicable fact that we are once again playing the Bears. Christ, seriously, there are 31 other teams.
Also, if anyone out there would like to join the ITI team of reporters, send a 500-word writing sample to kheumiller@hotmail.com . The position is unpaid, but you can get clips for your portfolio and, if you’re good enough, some pretty decent perks. Go Birds!