by Kevin Franklin: And so it begins…again. It’s that marvelous time of year when the confluence of the four main team sports meet, criss-cross and over-talk each other like characters in a Robert Altman film. It’s the triple biorhythm peak, the harmonic convergence and hitting all the green lights on the way home from work [More...]
By Kevin Franklin: Wow. It reads backwards the same way: Wow. It’s been several hours since the Phillies elbowed the Reds in the sternum, 4-0, in the opening salvo of the best of five National League Divisional Series. Several hours after Roy Halladay kicked open the record books and cleat-stamped his name. Several hours after [More...]
by Kevin Franklin: “Who the hell are the Dallas Cowboys? We beat them every time we play them.” – Buddy Ryan I realize it is unusual starting off an article about the Phillies with a quote from a former Eagles coach. It was unexpected, and flies in the face of the title of this piece. [More...]
by Kevin Franklin: I was reading Les Bowen’s article on the Eagletarian blog on philly.com regarding Michael Vick and the racial divide and I had some thoughts of my own. Tricky subject, this race thing. Writing about it exposes the writer’s flank to carrying his or her own racial agenda, regardless if it is a [More...]
by Kevin Franklin And so it begins… The Philadelphia Flyers have vanquished the Montreal Canadiens, four games to one. All talk of another Canadiens comeback have been silenced. It was mojo versus mojo and one of them had to say “uncle” and bring their fan base to a brick wall splatter. Fortunately for Flyers fans, [More...]
by Kevin Franklin I admit it – I’m a sadist. Whenever the Eagles win, I spend a good portion of my Internet time that evening and the next day reading through the online newspapers of whichever team they vanquished. I enjoy the post-game quotes of the defeated and the hair-pulling columnists either trying to rationalize [More...]
by Kevin Franklin As Lucifer once sang through Mick Jagger’s nightcrawler lips, “Please allow me to introduce myself.” I am what you might call a typical hardcore fan. I’ve been a diehard Flyers, Eagles and Phillies fan ever since the early 1970s. I have rarely ever missed a game in person, on television, radio or [More...]
by Kevin Franklin It’s just a game. We, as sports fans, pour an incredible amount of energy into rooting for our teams. We plan vacations around them, reschedule weddings and call in sick. There is something intrinsically therapeutic about sports which the non-sports fan could never understand. To them, it IS just a game, and [More...]
by Kevin Franklin This should be a very interesting year. Gone is Sheldon Brown and the memories of him blowing up Reggie Bush in the playoffs with a cavity-loosening hit. Gone is Brian Westbrook and his housefly-like meandering through ankle-broken defenders on his way to the end zone. But biggest of all, in terms of [More...]
by Kevin Franklin In the immortal words of former Flyers backup goalie, Bobby Taylor: “Whoddathunkit?” For those of you just rotating back to whatever shade of reality that currently haunts your existence, the Philadelphia Flyers are moving on to the the second round of the playoffs. Their opponent? The feckless Boston Bruins. No, not the [More...]