When I was a kid, ESPN would run its marathon of Super Bowl highlight shows the night before that year’s game. I loved learning the history of the game — I can still name every winner, MVP and, if I had to, most of the scores for all of them — and seeing the old-time uniforms.

Around 10 a.m., however, my dad abruptly change the channel. That was when the episode recapping Super Bowl XV, Eagles vs. Raiders, would come on.

For those not fluent in Super Bowl history, the Raiders laid a 27-10 beatdown on the Eagles down in the Superdome to finish off the 1980 season. My dad was an Eagles fan. I figured he would want to watch that one, seeing as it was the only time our team had been in the Super Bowl to that point, and never understood why he wanted nothing to do with it.

Fast-forward to 2005, and it finally dawned on me. That was when the Eagles made their second trip to the Super Bowl, version No. XXXIX, to face the Patriots.

The Eagles squandered plenty of chances to take a big early lead. Donovan McNabb infamously puked his way through the NFL’s first six-minute drill when they needed two scores to win late in the game, and they lost 24-21.

I watched this in horror at a Super Bowl party where I was the only person fully invested in the game. It was a four-hour kick in the groin as the team I had pledged loyalty to missed its first chance to win a championship in my lifetime.

I still recall every moment of that day, from the annoying non-football fan telling bad jokes to wanting to punch down an oak tree as I quickly exited after the game.

The Eagles are back in the Super Bowl this year, once again against the Patriots, and those memories are flooding back.

Unlike the machinelike Patriots, the Eagles are a normal NFL franchise that endures ups and downs. I’m 41 years old and this is only the third time they’ve played in the Super Bowl. Who knows how long it’ll be before they’re back?

I finally understand why my dad never watched the Super Bowl XV highlights. You don’t celebrate getting your butt kicked. To this day I have never seen the Super Bowl XXXIX episode. If the Eagles lose on Sunday, I might never watch the Super Bowl LII highlights.

I really want to watch one of those things with my team in it. Fly Eagles, fly.
Please?

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com