BLOG: Historical Look At Postponement Of Eagles Game
By Bill Campbell
Until Tuesday night, the big question was, "Should they have postponed the Eagles game?" I saw the poll reflecting the feelings of over 5,000 fans, 62% of whom said it was the wrong decision. While I agreed with the nay-sayers, the result of the poll both pleased and surprised me.
There wasn't much doubt that this was strictly a league decision, although the NFL tried to implicate Mayor Nutter in the finding.
There were some interesting comments from some of the folks involved. Joe Banner, the Eagles' President, defended Nutter when he said that, although the mayor had declared a snow emergency in Philadelphia, the final decision was made by the NFL and was strictly a football decision.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell didn't agree with it at all and spent most of the time blaming everyone. He said that football has always been a tough game and that this was just more evidence that we were becoming a bunch of "wussies."
Governor Rendell isn't on anyone's political ballot at the moment, which probably allows him the opportunity to freely speak his mind. It might ruffle the feathers of the Eagles and possibly the folks at Comcast Sportsnet, where Rendell has spent much time lately as a commentator and observer. But it is his opinion.
I must admit here of writing with some prejudice. We have played games in less than ideal conditions in the past, even in a blizzard. We once played a championship game in conditions worse than last week and it produced a memorable moment in Eagles history. Had we played last Sunday as originally scheduled, we might have created an even more dramatic event. But unfortunately we'll never know.
It was 1948, 52 years ago. There are times for me when that seems like last week. I was 23-years-old, an aspiring sports broadcaster trying mightily to do the only thing in this life I ever wanted to do: broadcast sports. The commissioner of the NFL was an unforgettable guy named Bert Bell, who did more to establish pro football in this country than anyone could possibly imagine.
The NFL championship game was coming up and it snowed – did it ever. It reached blizzard proportions in almost an instant, but Bert Bell wasn't going to let anything or anyone cancel his championship game. The Super Bowl hadn't yet come about. This was a contest between the Eagles and then-Chicago Cardinals who had the best won-loss record in the league. I often wonder now how Bert Bell would have handled the Super Bowl.
We should remember there was network radio in 1948, but no TV, which was a gigantic consideration leading to last week's decision to postpone.
And, yes, the players had to be a concern. You can't play the game in any year, on any field, indoors or outdoors, in rain or snow, without the players.
And then another consideration: the venue - where to play and on what kind of a field?
In 1948, that created a special question concerning which team had enough employees in its organization to plow snow off an entire football field.
Would you believe how they answered that problem in 1948? The players did it. They all pitched in, players on both teams, to help the weary, struggling ground crew. They all got behind those plows and cleared the field. And they played the game. It took a while and the starting time was delayed, but they played with 30,000 fans in Shibe Park – including me.
In those days football players worked two jobs: football in autumn and winter, and whatever they could find in spring and summer that provided year-round income to support their families, some of whom really struggled occasionally. They sold cars or bricks, drove cabs, packed groceries, whatever – anything for support on the home front.
In these much different times, one can't help but wonder how many of our prima donna players would have handled similar situations. Would they have plowed the field so they could play their game?
The best player in the game back then was a guy named Steve Van Buren. He almost didn't get to play in the 1948 title game because of the storm and difficult travel problems. Not everyone had a car in 1948 and hardly anyone had two. Van Buren finally got there and scored the only touchdown in the game in the Eagles 7-0 victory. The Eagles did record another touchdown in that game. It was a pass to end Jack Ferrante that was disqualified because of an off-sides penalty. Who do you think was off-sides on the play? You guessed it: Ferrante.
The bonus pick in the college draft that year, which was named after Bert Bell, was a kid from Penn named Charles Bednarik, a center-linebacker. He went on to become a terrific player and, before his rookie year was very old, acquired the nickname "Concrete Charlie" because that was what he did: played football and, in the off-season, sold concrete to insure a paycheck 12 months of the year.
I suppose there are many fans around here asking themselves today, why did they bother to postpone Sunday's Eagles game? Playing on Tuesday night left the Eagles only four days to prepare for the Cowboys and another unknown quarterback.
To recapitulate this game, which was finally played on Tuesday night, Andy Reid's post-game comment made more sense than any comment by anyone, before or since. When asked what happened in the Tuesday night game, Reid replied, "They played. We didn't play."
