I was channel surfing on Sunday morning, waiting for ESPN’s The Sports Reporters to begin, when I came across the last few minutes of CBS News Sunday Morning, which closed with a sort of visual poem to the bald eagles that are now thriving along the lower Wisconsin River.

I called the GF into the room and said, “This has to be a sign, right?”

As we watched the quiet majesty of the birds soaring to and from different perches across the icy river and along its snowy banks, I couldn’t help but feel that this would be the day to put all those demons to rest.

It was.

Five hours later the Philadelphia Eagles began their domination of a clearly inferior Atlanta Falcons team and finally punched their ticket to the Super Bowl.

Now as we endure two weeks of will-he, won’t-he questions about T.O. taking the field and pundits gushing over the long-term success of the New England Patriots, it’s important to note one thing: The Eagles can win this game.

This isn’t a guarantee, or even a prediction; but the Eagles have a far better chance to win this game than most people are giving them, including Vegas, where the line is currently seven points in New England’s favor.

The reason is defense.

Week after week, coordinator Jim Johnson and his defense have dominated opponents in obscurity because they give up more yards than a “good” defense is supposed to (yards allowed is how defenses are ranked in the NFL). Throw in their unusual and frequent blitzing schemes, and the Eagles defense seems more like a novelty act than a unit to be feared and respected.

But the pundits are overlooking the most important defensive statistic there is, the one NFL defenses should be measured by: points allowed. The Eagles defense puts pressure on the quarterback, they tackle well and, excluding the last two games of the regular season when they weren’t even trying, they allow an average of 14 points per game.

If they do that next Sunday, the Eagles and their fans will be celebrating what used to be the unthinkable: an NFL Championship.

I haven’t written much about the Eagles lately, partly because they took the last month off, but mostly because I’ve been trying to lay low and temper my expectations. There’s a lot of nervous excitement surrounding the Eagles and the city of Philadelphia right now. It’s building, and I can feel it 130 miles down I-95.

Tomorrow, the Eagles will host birds of a different feather – the Atlanta Falcons – in the NFC Championship game. This is the fourth consecutive year the Eagles will play in this game and the third consecutive year at home; in case you didn’t notice, the Eagles haven’t played in the Super Bowl since 1981, meaning they’ve lost the NFC Championship game three straight times.

I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of tomorrow’s game and why the Eagles should win. Frankly, the reason is basically the same as the last two years. The Eagles are the better team, plain and simple, and that should be enough.

But it hasn’t been, and that’s what’s so scary.

It’s hard to fathom what another loss in the NFC Championship would mean to the city of Philadelphia and Eagles fans everywhere. It’s hard to even think about the possibility – alas, a very real possibility.

Expecting the worst and hoping for the best, or expecting the best and fearing the worst, is a tough way to go through life; but that’s what it is to be a Philadelphia sports fan (the trick is to limit that emotional state of dread to sports). And that’s what it is to wait for this game. It’s all we can do.



High anxiety indeed.

Maybe I’m being foolishly optimistic (is there any other kind of optimism when it comes to the Phillies?), but considering the contracts other free-agent pitchers have signed this off-season, the Phillies’ acquisition of Jon Lieber may prove to be the best free-agent pitching deal on the hot stove.

The Phils got Lieber for $21 million over three years. Yes, he had Tommy John surgery a few years ago, but he’s also a former 20-game winner and the only pitcher who was money for the Yankees down the stretch last season. Most importantly, he’s a ground-ball pitcher who doesn’t walk anybody – two qualities of which the Phillies rotation is in desperate need.

Now compare Lieber’s signing with some of the other deals this year (keep in mind, these are only free-agent pitchers; I’ll get to the trades in a moment):

– The obvious place to start is with the free-wheeling Yankees, who doled out $40 million to Carl Pavano and $21 million to Jaret Wright, two pitchers with only one good season under their belts. If they pitch as well as they did last season, it’s money well spent – but that’s a big IF.

- The Diamondbacks, who are supposedly deep in the red, will spend $33 million over four years on Russ “Walking” Ortiz, who joins Brandon “Four Balls” Webb at the top of their rotation. For good measure, they spent $2.5 million for one year on Colorado “ace” Shawn Estes. Yikes.

- The Indians forked over $7 million to Kevin Millwood for a one-year deal. I think we all feel confident that they overpaid by about $6 million.

- In a potentially iffy move, the Dodgers gave four years and $36 million to Derek Lowe, a groundball pitcher who should thrive at Dodger Stadium. Then again, he has a history of confidence problems. The Dodgers also paid $24 million (that’s $3 million more than Lieber) to keep Odalis Perez for another three years, who is presumably worth that much because he’s a lefty?

- Eric Milton leaves one hitters’ park for another, signing with the Reds of all teams for three years and $25.5 million, probably less than Ed Wade thought he’d have to pay to keep him.

- For a few more million (three years/$25.5 million), the Phillies could have gone much younger with Matt Clement. Of course, he would have had to choose the Phillies over the World Champion Red Sox (it’s still weird writing that). But even Boston threw in a head-scratcher – two years and $8 million for 41-year-old, 400-pound lefty David Wells. I guess when you’ve got money to burn…

- Speaking of money to burn, thank God for the Mets. What other team would sign an obviously declining A-list pitcher like Pedro Martinez to a four-year, $53 million deal? This has Mo Vaughan written all over it. Two years? Sure, take the chance. Four years, for a pitcher with a torn labrum who can barely get past the sixth inning anymore? Lunacy. Oh, and they also re-signed the still unproven, overrated Kris Benson to a three-year, $22.5 million deal. On the plus side, it’s a package deal that includes Mrs. Anna Benson. Ah, the Mets.

The point is, with the exception of Pedro Martinez, none of the above pitchers have particularly stellar track records (certainly not any better than Lieber’s, some much worse), and most of them cost as much or more than Lieber.

Where the Phillies got pounded was on the trade circuit, especially in their own division. In a deal reminiscent of the Dutch buying Manhattan off a different group of Braves, Atlanta acquired Tim Hudson, certainly the best young pitcher in baseball, for a proverbial song. Even though the Braves offense doesn’t look all that fearsome with the departure of J.D. Drew, the Braves have once again done their best to insure their stay at the top of the NL East.

Adding Hudson and putting John Smoltz back in the rotation (though watching him kill my fantasy team out of the bullpen at the end of last season has me convinced he’s running out of gas) means the Phillies will have to work hard not to finish second yet again.

Closer

Directed by Mike Nichols

Starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen

Synopsis

Two London couples have affairs with each other and work really hard to screw up the various relationships that develop.

Review

If the French had made this movie, it would have featured real actors having real sex. However, since it was directed by American cinema icon Mike Nichols and stars a group of A-list actors, that obviously wasn’t going to happen. But it didn’t stop them from talking real dirty and delving deep into the recesses of the human soul, where jealousy and deception rear their ugly heads and make sure all of them manage to wreck the good things they have. Closer closely resembles Nichols’ directorial debut of almost 40 years ago, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It’s like traveling forward in time to see what might have happened to the characters from that film as younger people in this day and age. On a less appealing note, it also resembles Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? because its source material was also a play; and that’s what the film looks like – a play – one of the potential drawbacks when moving from the stage to the screen. Still, the frank dialogue and performances make it difficult to take your eyes off this repulsive, yet fascinating cast of characters.



Grade: B

Sideways

Directed by Alexander Payne

Starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh

Synopsis

Two best friends take a road trip through California wine country as a send off to the one getting married, while the other is still reeling from his divorce and life in general, for which the wine becomes a metaphor.

Review

Sideways is such a well-written and well-acted film, it is hard to be critical of it (for instance, how these two guys remained best friends over the years since meeting in college stretches believability). But the most accomplished trait in Sideways is how personal it is – not to the audience, not to the director – but to the characters in the story. The nature of each player on the stage is so nuanced – the grief, the immaturity, the longing, the desperation. It reminds us that even though we all go through similar trials and tribulations, the specifics of them are ours and ours alone. While the humor isn’t as sharp as Election (Payne’s first film), or as poignant as About Schmidt, Sideways is a far more intimate endeavor that proves the value of great writing and great acting.

Grade: A-