Super Bowl L11: Eagles fly to rarefied space in historic win

The Philadelphia Eagles had not won the NFL title since 1960 — seven years before the Super Bowl phenomenon began.

Philadelphia Eagles’ Zach Ertz dives into the endzone for a 11-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Picture: Getty Images.

There’s magic in the flight of a spiralling American football. It seems to grow a pair of wings and hover like a hummingbird while deciding where it wants to land on the field.

The journey from the quarterback to the receiver appears to take half the night before the ball finally stops riding the wind and gently falls from the sky.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles threw a long, gliding ball for lightning-quick wide receiver Alshon Jeffery in the opening quarter of Super Bowl LII. You thought the hummingbird may stay up there forever.

Nearly 70,000 sets of unblinking eyes belonging to players, coaches, officials, cheer girls, offensive teams, defensive teams, specialist teams, medical teams, marching-band teams, Pink, Justin Timberlake, Hollywood actors, military heroes and Hall-of-Famers watched the ball glide over the in-zone before Jeffery took a beautifully acrobatic and athletic catch to send the Eagles on the way to their first Super Bowl victory.

“I don’t know if there are words that can really explain what Philadelphia will be like if the Eagles win the Super Bowl,” former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworksi said before kick-off.

“It will be the biggest parade ever. I run into people all the time and it’s like, ‘I don’t want to die before the Eagles win a Super Bowl. It’s the one thing I have in my life.’ There’s incredible passion for this team.”

Cue the theme music to Rocky. Which they did inside the rumbling US Bank Stadium. Cue Elton John’s Philadelphia Freedom. Which they did. Super Bowl LII was Patriots vs. Everybody, and Everybody won! Thank God! Because that’s what the Eagles did after their 41-33 victory. Virtually every last one of them. Foles thanked God. He wants to become a pastor. Coach Doug Pederson thanked God. Basically every player being interviewed started the discussion by thanking God.

The Eagles had not won the NFL title since 1960 — seven years before the Super Bowl phenomenon began.

“All glory to God,” Foles said after a nerveless display of throwing for 373 yards, three touchdowns and scoring one himself.

“This is unbelievable. I really can’t believe it. The emotions are crazy right now.

“It’s something special to look in your teammate’s eyes when you’ve achieved something like this. We kept working. Grinding. Believing.

“Now we’re world champions. These are the guys I work with every day. These are the guys that I love. That was a battle.”

Foles was the Eagles’ second-string quarterback until Carson Wentz went down with a season-ending knee injury.

Doubts existed about his ability to handle a Super Bowl. He would have been worth a flutter. That early hummingbird pass to Jeffery set the tone.

“You never really know what it’s going to be like when you’re going into a Super Bowl,” he said.

“I felt good. I’ve never been here before, so the nerves are normal. You’ve got butterflies. It’s a big game. It doesn’t get any bigger than this, but I felt calm. I think the big thing that helped me was knowing that I didn’t have to be Superman.

“I have amazing teammates. Amazing coaches. I wasn’t worried about the scoreboard. I wasn’t worried about the time. I just wanted to go out there and play hard. Whatever play Doug called, I was just going to go out there and rip it.”

He added: “Being on the podium with my wife, Tori, my daughter, Lilly, that’s what life is about, right there. We’re Super Bowl champs but time does stop when you look in your daughter’s eyes and you get to celebrate the moment. I got to look in my wife’s eyes. I got to celebrate this with her. My wife’s been there through everything. To be in this moment, to celebrate this moment, that’s what it’s about. and I’m just grateful.”

After Foles played his brilliantly steady hand there was magic, too, in the brutality of the snarling 188cm, 122kg defensive end Brandon Graham smashing the right arm of arguably the greatest NFL player in history to put the result beyond reasonable doubt. Rookie Derek Barnett grabbed the loose ball and that was all she wrote.

Philadelphia is a fiercely proud sporting city and this was emotional. Holy smokes. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had two minutes to conjure the win, he took the ball, he considered his options, he failed to see the raging ball coming at him, he was strip-sacked. Underdogs? Top dogs.

“I knew I had it,” Graham said. “Tom Brady’s arm was right there and I smashed it. It was all about the stop we had to make. We know he’s the best. We knew we were playing the best. That makes it sweeter to win. We the champs!”

It was a night in which sport, entertainment and the military collided to staggering effect.

Pink’s rendition of the national anthem was stirring from a chick who had the flu and appeared to spit out a lozenge right before she started.

The toss of the coin was performed by Woody Williams, a 93-year-old ex-Marine who received the Medal of Honour for his bravery in the Battle of Iwo Jima in WWII. Stirring stuff.

The best part of Justin Timberlake’s appearance in the halftime show was Prince’s appearance in the halftime show. Well, a hologram of Prince. Timberlake finished with a flourish, but the Patriots did not.

The crowd was 99 per cent behind the Eagles. Brady had one final chance to win a sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy when he sent a soaring long pass to the end zone in the hope that someone in a Patriots jersey would catch it. It had wings. It hovered. It slowly descended.

But his Hail Mary went unanswered. He was abjectly disappointed. America’s most hated team was defeated. He had a whale of a game. His 505 yards was a Super Bowl record, and he nailed three touchdowns, but still he lost and suffered the ignominy of the turnover from Graham’s thunderous hit.

“I’d obviously love to not have it stripped from me,” Brady said in a downcast Patriots locker room.

“I was just holding the ball, trying to get it downfield. those guys had a good rush and got in there and made a good play at the right time. They made one good play at the right time. You always hope you come out on the winning end of a shootout, but we didn’t win it today.

“I don’t think anyone wallows on our team. We played hard. We just didn’t make enough plays or score enough points. We’ll evaluate like we always do. Everyone is pretty tired after a long year. That’s football.

“No one is going to feel sorry for us. It does suck. It sucks. Just fell short on the Hail Mary.”