By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
It has happened. Finally.
The city of Philadelphia is home to the Lombardi Trophy. The Eagles have won a Super Bowl.
The Eagles win in Super Bowl LII was a long-awaited celebration for a fan base that desires success, lives through a team of 53 players and coaches and bleeds green with a passion that is unmatched.
This wasn’t just another win for the Eagles in a football game of epic proportions. This was a win for Philadelphia.
It’s a win for Jeffrey Lurie.
Let’s face it, the owner of the team essentially fessed up to a mistake two years ago. He was willing to take a step back to move forward, get back on track after the Chip Kelly debacle. He hired a coach that didn’t jump off the page.
Essentially, he asked the same thing that every other team in the city was asking: patience. The first season under a new regime, they went 7-9. The next year, they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy as the confetti flew in Minnesota at the Super Bowl. Amazing.
It’s a win for Howie Roseman.
Roseman was essentially asked to clean up the mess Chip Kelly left behind. And it was a pretty big mess. He had to essentially reconstruct the roster from top to bottom. He had to pull a lot of strings to put the team back in a position to even be a contender. But his brilliance shaped this roster, a championship roster.
It’s a win for Doug Pederson.
Yes, Doug Pederson really might be just like Charlie Manuel. He’s got a personality that makes him a likable figure, but perfectly knows how to balance everything to get his players to buy into everything while being a player’s coach, someone the team can trust.
In this game, he essentially conquered the evil empire. In a game where the evil genius that is Bill Belichick stood on the opposing sideline, Pederson made the gutsy calls and matched the smarts of the Hall-of-Fame coach.
But more than anything, Doug Pederson, the lifelong backup quarterback, did what none of his predecessors could. Not his mentor Andy Reid. Not the supposed savior Chip Kelly. Not Dick Vermeil or Buddy Ryan or Rich Kotite or anybody else in between. He won the Super Bowl. He reached the ultimate goal.
It’s a win for Nick Foles…and Carson Wentz.
There is no playoff run without Carson Wentz. He was the MVP of this team in the regular season and given that the Eagles lost just two games all year with Wentz and sealed up the NFC East in his final game before the ACL injury that ended his year, the Eagles were playoff bound long before Nick Foles ever had to take the field.
That injury felt like the blow that ended the season though. That was the day it seemed to just slip away. This was the year, and now the player that was orchestrating everything was done.
But it was also on that day that the underdogs came to play. And they embraced the role. They embraced the title. They molded to the city, who so often felt like underdogs anyway, and thought “why not us?”
Nick Foles, the backup, the ultimate underdog, the quarterback who almost gave it all up because the game simply didn’t bring him joy anymore, did the rest. Nick Foles, the quarterback who put together a tremendous season in 2013, a run to the playoffs, put the Eagles in position to win a playoff game that the defense couldn’t hold, but was always never regarded as the quarterback of the future. Sure, Foles didn’t look good in his first games starting this season. But in his last two, the NFC Championship Game at the Linc and the Super Bowl, he was tremendous. And in this wild ride for the Eagles, the backup quarterback went from backup, to starter, to Super Bowl MVP. That is the story of a legend.
It’s a win for the Eagles offense.
It’s for the longtime pieces — Jason Kelce, Brent Celek, Zach Ertz. It’s for the injured players that didn’t make it this far — Darren Sproles and Jason Peters. It’s for the group of receivers who all had their own story.
Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith came to Philadelphia to contend with the Eagles. Nelson Agholor had to reshape himself, hit rock bottom and rise from the ashes to become a key figure.
It’s for an offensive line that continued to rise to the occasion week after week, becoming one of the best in the league at protecting the quarterback.
It’s for the dynamic trio of running backs. LeGarrette Blount, who showed no mercy on his former team in the big game and proved to be an asset to the redzone running game throughout the season. Jay Ajayi, the little train that could, coming mid-season in a trade and instantly becoming a go-to guy in the running game. And Corey Clement, the undrafted local back who played an all-around game that makes him an unknown no more.
It’s a win for the defense. For Brandon Graham, who made the big play at the right time. For Chris Long, who played selflessly all year. For Fletcher Cox and Malcolm Jenkins, the players who put in the time to understand the city’s suffering. For the tremendous pass rush, for the top-notch run defense, for the secondary that made things difficult on opponents for so much of the year.
It’s a win for the special teams unit. For all of the grinders on kick coverage. For Jake Elliott, who came from out of nowhere to be clutch on kicks throughout the year, from his 61-yard game-winner in Week 3 right down to one last rookie record, a 46-yard field goal with just over a minute to go in the Super Bowl. For Donnie Jones, the most veteran player on the team with 13 years in the NFL.
It’s a win for all the Eagles of the past. For Reggie. For Jerome. For Jaws. For Weapon X. And so many more that have come close and tried to put an end to the suffering only to watch it slip away.
And finally, it’s a win for us, for the city of Philadelphia, for Eagles fans everywhere.
It’s no secret this doesn’t happen often. Championships are few and far between in this city. Success is so hard-earned and things never come easy.
The Super Bowl did not come to Philadelphia easily by any stretch. This was a fight. This was a shootout. It was probably the last thing you expected and the one thing you feared. But for one night, the heavens smiled down on Philadelphia. This wasn’t just for the city of Philadelphia and Eagles fans who lived to witness it. It was for everyone who didn’t get to see the day.
This is no ordinary championship. The Eagles have won titles before, but not the Lombardi Trophy. Not the Super Bowl. It was the one championship that had eluded the city. There have been Stanley Cups. There have been NBA championships. There have been World Series wins. And even if most of them have not come recently, they are no different than any other title that any team has ever won. Once it’s over and the confetti flies and the trophy is handed over, they can’t take it away.
But this was the one title that just didn’t come around. It was an accomplishment for the Eagles to make it to the big game twice in 51 years, but the results that followed were familiar. Disappointment, sadness, despair. And as the years went by and the franchise continued to turn, there was the thought that this day would never come.
Feb. 4, 2018: the day the Super Bowl came to Philadelphia. It’s one that this city, this franchise and all Eagles fans will never forget.
