How Eagles fans can find joy in an unbearable and unwatchable Super Bowl

Super Bowls are supposed to be fun. This one is not going to be fun. As Philadelphia Eagles fans, there is no real rooting interest for us. Do you want to back Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs? No, not after what happened last year. Do you want to back Javon Hargrave and the San Francisco 49ers? Not even a little bit.

These two teams are very unlikeable, which takes away the desire to emotionally support either of them. That just means that we have to think outside of the box. We have to change the emotion we want to feel to make the coming game worth watching.

Here's how Eagles fans find joy in knowing one of two teams we hate will win a Super Bowl.

Think back to the 2018 season. We had to watch the New England Patriots walk away with a 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII. That game was objectively not fun and it was played by two teams that no one likes. The reason we were able to find an ounce of joy was the Eagles' win in Super Bowl LII one year prior was still relatively fresh.

We were able to compare LII to LIII. We were able to disparage a boring Patriots win. ‘Nick Foles threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns last year. That’s three times the number of touchdowns in this game.’ 

We changed the way we thought about that game. Instead of rooting for a winner, we rooted for a bad game and we got just that.

Now, as mentioned, here we sit thinking about another Super Bowl that no one is excited about. It features two equally unlikable teams. The Dallas Cowboys rest in our minds on a level of hatred that they solely occupy, but the Chiefs and the 49ers are both equally obnoxious and deplorable. Unfortunately, one of those two teams is going to walk away with a Vince Lombardi trophy, and that sucks…

… or does it?

For Eagles fans, it’s not about who wins the Super Bowl. It's about who loses it. 

It can't be said enough. The Chiefs or Niners will win a Super Bowl, but that also means one of these teams is going to lose. That right there is where we’re going to find our edge. 

We’re not going to focus on how happy the winning team and their fans are going to be. We’re going to focus on how the losing team and their fans are going to be. It’s Schadenfreude at its finest. 

If you were alive in 1980, you had to experience Super Bowl XV where Dick Vermeil’s Eagles lost to the Raiders, 27-10. In 2004, Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb’s Eagles lost to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. Then in 2022, perhaps the best Eagles team that we will ever see, fell to the Chiefs. 

Reading that might’ve elicited emotion, as it should have. To get so close, only to lose, is emotionally taxing. Just think. Come Sunday night there will be another team with heartbroken players and fans; another group of people who have had their hearts ripped from their chests. Not only that, but the team and the fans will be people that we don’t like. That is delicious. 

Be diabolical. Feast on their sadness. Show them the same compassion that they showed you after the Eagles’ Super Bowl losses. Their emotional wounds are going to be fresh, so rub the dirt in before they have a chance to heal. If we don’t want to root for someone to win, then relish in the fact that someone will lose. That's where we'll find our happiness.

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