Eagles team, Philly Special snubbed at ESPY Awards

By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 

We all get the Houston Astros love, we really do. They deserved to win the World Series as much as anyone and they got the job done in remarkable fashion.

And Arike Ogunbowale's buzzer-beating shot to lead the Notre Dame women to a national championship victory was mighty impressive.

But is it really impressive enough to knock off the "Philly Special?" Our Philly Special? The Corey Clement to Trey Burton to Nick Foles Philly Special? Debatable.

And for the ESPY Award committee to select the Astros over the Philadelphia Eagles for "Best Team" is absurd. Yes, the team might have one of the best lineups in years, led by MVP Jose Altuve and World Series MVP George Springer, but when you put that lineup against a Philadelphia Eagles team consisting of Nick Foles, Alshon Jeffery, Brandon Graham, Malcolm Jenkins, and so many other dominating players, is it really that comparable.

How can our Birds not be the best team of the year?

Everything about the Eagles was surrounded by the concept of "team" this season. The way the team persevered through injury and hardship, overcame underdog status week after week, proved everyone wrong and won arguably the greatest honor a team can win in professional sports, a Super Bowl Championship.

The Eagles have always ended up being the butt of everyone's jokes at year's end. The "no rings jokes" especially, which fittingly ended once the Eagles captured the crown on February 4.

The Eagles were a team of destiny, largely because of the team's lovable personalities and incredible coaching from Doug Pederson. Chris Long was extremely charitable, Carson Wentz is an all-around great individual, and even Nelson Agholor emerged as a slot receiver no one else saw coming before this season started.

While the Eagles were snubbed by the ESPY committee on two awards on Wednesday night, at least they got one of them right: Giving Nick Foles the honor of Best Championship Performance.