You Can Have My ACL

For the last few weeks, I’ve been walking around with sore knuckles. People who either know or find out I’m a Philly sports fan have been talking to me about our recent successes, whether it was the Eagles climbing to the number one spot in the Football Power Rankings or the Sixers making tanking look brilliant. And in those moments I would smile politely, say something along the lines of “I can’t complain” and then pound my hand incessantly into the nearest wood-like substance available to me.

Because the simple fact of the matter was eventually, whether it was the next month or the next day, this was going to come crashing down. If you watch an Eagles game, even if you are forced to do so like my wife, you quickly realize that Carson Wentz is out there taking a lot of hits. He’s like a super hero with those improvised plays he can make, but you had to wonder at what cost?

And the Sixers? The fact that one of the youngest teams in the league was getting big, quality minutes out of two guys who barely played organized basketball the last two years was incredible. Eventually, whether it was an injury or a slump, it felt like the other shoe could fall.

Maybe that was just my natural Philadelphia pessimism (which I call being a realist), but that was how I felt.

I started to get a real sense of dread a couple days back when the Phoenix Suns took it to the Sixers on our home floor. I was impressed by Josh Jackon’s defense, but Devin Booker making threes “wearing JJ Redick” (brilliant piece of announcing) was the lasting image. Once we lost that Lakers game with yet another buzzer beater, I really started to panic.

It’s weird, because I didn’t freak out at the beginning of the season when we lost our first three and Fultz was already being declared a terrible bust, but for whatever reason, this really gave me an uncomfortable feeling. It hit me that this whole first quarter of the season I was looking around the standings for other teams that would logically regress so that our Sixers could keep jumping up the East. Meanwhile, I was forgetting one of the most obvious squads-the Sixers!

And then things just kept spiraling. Sometimes when that feeling of panic gets to you, it starts to slowly take over like the black Spiderman costume from Spiderman 3 (yes, I know it wasn’t a costume, it was alien. I like costume better). But unlike that thing, I didn’t get any better at dancing (not that I needed to get any better I suppose), I just started wildly speculating. The Sixers loss to the Cavs essentially proved to me that they were beginning their spiral. Then, on Sunday, the Eagles would suffer a tough loss to the Rams beginning a slow fall down the NFC East standings until the Cowboys knocked us out of the playoffs completely just before 2018.

It wasn’t even Carson that I was worried about. Well, before the game anyway. Watching him dive into the end zone and get his knee jacked up on what turned out to be a meaningless play was heartbreaking. It was like that moment in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince where Harry realizes the locket is a fake and that Dumbledore weakened-that he weakened …. I’m sorry, I just need to take a drink of water … that he weakEND HIMSELF FOR NOTHING! WHY, JK? WHY??!!

I held myself together reasonably well once he left the game. I couldn’t appreciate the victory in the moment. It should have felt so much sweeter. Just as the final play was starting and the Eagles were scoring the game ending touchdown, I saw the tweet. Eagles fear ACL tear. But at least we clinched the NFC East?

We flipped over to the Sixers game. It was almost half time. The Sixers were right in the mix with the Pelicans on the second night of a back to back. This was good. Nothing to be upset about. Well, for like 30 seconds. Wide open dunk. TURNOVER. E’TWAUN MOORE THREE!!

In that moment, I broke. I could not contain my sadness any longer. I was laughing, but nothing funny was happening. I pounded my hand into the couch as I tried to control my weird spectrum of emotion.  My knuckles were still sore from the previous day’s banging.

OK, my knuckles were actually fine. That was just for effect. The point is, I’m pretty sad about the Carson Wentz injury. I’m pretty nervous the Sixers are going to fall apart and miss the playoffs. But, hey, nothing is set in stone yet. Nick Foles has been good for us before. The defense is still strong. If we beat the Giants next week (easier said than done, I know) then we are in a real good spot to get a bye in the first round. This can still be a fun season.

And, hey, there’s plenty of time for the Sixers to bounce back. Covington and McConnell will eventually be back healthy. I like the Booker deal. There’s still plenty of games left for the Knicks and Pistons to take a spin our way. Victor Oladipo? More like Loser Olidapo! Yeah!

I’m going to try and stay positive. You never know what could happen over the next month. We get a home playoff game! I like those!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to find some wood to knock on.