It was midnight. It was New Orleans. And nearly 4,000 dispirited Eagles fans, crowded into a corner of New Orleans International Airport, were eager to get home.
You do the math.
Somehow, though, that combustible mix never ignited. Within six hours of the Eagles’ loss in Super Bowl XV on Jan. 25, 1981, all those disappointed, weary but safe and satisfied Eagles fans were back in Philadelphia, where one of the most remarkable and remarkably brief migrations of sports fans in the city’s history had been launched the previous morning.
This week, as Minneapolis-bound area residents brace for the headaches that inevitably accompany travel to the world’s biggest single sporting event, the almost forgotten story of that legion of Philadelphians and their 21-hour charter adventure to and from Super Bowl XV ought to be both instructive and inspirational.