On Saturday, the Philadelphia Eagles took on the Dallas Cowboys on the last week of the regular season. Both teams had already clinched a playoff spot, and now it was just about seeding. However, the Eagles rested their starters while the Cowboys played their starters for most of the game.
Before the game, former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Barrett Brooks and former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner made some comments about the Eagles resting their starters. Both players have won Super Bowls in their careers.
Brooks and Joyner said that the Eagles needed to play the starters to send a message to Dallas after the Cowboys beat them 41-21 in week 3. Unfortunately for the Eagles, they lost 51-26 with backups and third-string players.
In the end, the Eagles got the seventh seed and will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while the Cowboys are the fourth seed and will play the San Francisco 49ers.
During the Eagles and Cowboys game, I felt like the rivalry was dead. While the Cowboys were beating the Eagles, the Eagles didn’t seem ticked off and wanted to fight back. This is their biggest rivals besides the Giants and Redskins. It was a shame not to see them fight back. Where was the passion, the seeking dominance in the NFC East?
For most of the season, I felt like many rivalries in sports are a thing of the past. Except for baseball and hockey. You do see rivalries live on like Rangers/Islanders, Flyers/Penguins, Yankees/Red Sox, Cubs/Cardinals, Dodgers/Giants going after each other to beat them every year. You don’t feel the same about the NFL.
This weekend starts the NFL playoffs, and there are some intriguing rivalries. First, the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This will be the fifth time these two teams have played against each other in the playoffs since their first meeting in 1979.
The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was in the 2003 NFC Championship game at Veterans Stadium. The Buccaneers won the game 27-10. This was the Eagles final game at Veterans Stadium. Before then, the Eagles beat them twice in the Wild Card and Divisional round.
One of the games I’m looking forward to this weekend is the San Francisco 49ers at the Dallas Cowboys. These two teams will meet for the eighth time in playoff history and have a historic rivalry that featured some of the best quarterback battles of all time, from Joe Montana versus Danny White to Steve Young versus Troy Aikman.
On Monday, it was 40 years ago that Joe Montana threw a touchdown pass to tight end Dwight Clarke known as “The Catch” that sent the 49ers to Super Bowl XVI, beating the Dallas Cowboys 28-27. The 49ers would go on to win the Super Bowl over the Cincinnati Bengals.
It’s games like these that should get people excited. Except, they don’t feel like that anymore. They are just regular games with no meaning behind them except the playoffs. That’s why you see broadcast companies putting video packages together to show the viewers the history of the team rivalries like the 49ers and Cowboys.
Rivalries are not a thing in the past, they are just forgotten in certain sports, and it’s important to keep telling the history of these rivalries. Without rivalries, sports would be no fun to watch, no fun to talk about, and no fun to attend a game in person.
