Phil Sheridan: Making a play for success

This is getting a little weird.

A little over two months later, the Phillies' World Series championship still feels like a dream we all had. There were some home runs, and Brad Lidge struck out that guy, and everyone sprayed champagne, and something about Pat Burrell and his dog and a parade - that really happened, right? In Philadelphia?

When the Eagles take the field today, they will do so as the fourth of the city's four major-league teams to earn a playoff berth in the same year. That doesn't happen very often. Not even in Boston, our annoying old friend that went on a crazy winning streak earlier in this decade.

It's a little premature to put this Eagles thing on par with the Phillies' championship run. Andy Reid's teams have reached the postseason seven times in the coach's 10-year tenure. This team, with a 9-6-1 record and a No. 6 seed, is the least accomplished of Reid's playoff teams. A road wild-card game isn't exactly the bye and home-field advantage that Eagles fans took for granted for a few years there.

But it's also true that this team, regardless of seeding, has a real shot at going to the Super Bowl. These Eagles are maddening because they have beaten good teams and found ways to lose to bad teams. They can be as good as anyone in the NFL or too awful to watch, sometimes in consecutive weeks.

There isn't a team in the NFC playoff field these Eagles can't beat. There also isn't a team that couldn't beat them.

The Philadelphia kneejerk reaction is to assume the worst, since that is what we have become accustomed to here. Except that, well, things are starting to feel a little different.

Think back to last Sunday. We all knew the Eagles' season was over. It had to be. Even when the improbable results came in from Houston - Texans win! - and Tampa - Raiders win! - we just knew in our hearts what would happen. The Eagles would find a way to lose to the Dallas Cowboys.

It is in our DNA by now, this expectation that our hopes will be raised high only to be dashed. And crushed. And spit upon.

But no. The Eagles blew the Cowboys out. Just as the Phillies made short work of Milwaukee and Los Angeles and Tampa Bay in October, the Eagles rose to the occasion when a playoff berth was there for the taking. Who's to say they can't keep playing at that level, now that they have a shot at winning it all?

This all started on April 4: Double Clinch Friday. The Sixers and Flyers sealed up playoff berths on the same night. The Sixers were a young, promising team that overachieved to get there. The Flyers were a legitimate contender that advanced to the Eastern Conference finals. A few months after their ouster, the Philadelphia Soul won the ArenaBowl - not quite ending the 25-year championship drought in the eyes of most fans, but certainly keeping the positive vibe going.

And then came the Phillies.

That team was uniquely qualified to win the city's first major championship in a quarter-century. Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels have exactly the right qualities to succeed in this very tough sports town. Their chemistry is similar to that of the Patriots and Red Sox teams that overcame the pressure of playing in Boston to win multiple championships in the 2000s.

The Eagles, for all their success in the middle of the decade, never quite had that air about them. Indeed, their four brushes with a championship from 2001 through 2004 (culminating with the Super Bowl appearance in early 2005) became sand in the mouths of drought-stricken Philadelphia sports fans. The closer the Eagles got without breaking through, the more desperate the city felt.

That pressure is off now. The city is relaxing and smoking a metaphorical cigarette after the World Series win. These Eagles are fortunate to be in the playoffs and, at the same time, capable of beating everyone they might face in the NFC. It's a perfect setup.

So what happens if they, well, you know - win today and next Sunday and the Sunday after that? After the assumption-shattering events that got the Eagles into the playoffs, and after the Phillies and Double Clinch Friday and the Soul, what would that mean?

What would Philadelphia be like without sports misery?

Holden Caulfield as a slick ladies man? Napoleon Dynamite as Prom King? George Bush as Abraham Lincoln?

Philadelphia as Boston?

It could happen, but then, that apple could have flown up from the ground and hit Isaac Newton in the head on the way back up to the tree.

That's the reverse-gravity of this situation: Philadelphia might not be able to handle success, but it would be fun to try.