What a weekend.
We got to honor Dawk and Doc and the 2008 World Champions of baseball. We got to see our favorite athlete ever get immortalized. We got to shed a tear for our favorite workhorse. We got to remember the team that broke the championship curse. And then we got to see the Super Bowl champions back in their nest.
Nostalgia is such a powerful thing in sports, and this weekend was full of it in Philadelphia.
Think about everything that went down:
• Brian Dawkins went into the Hall of Fame and on a day he was honored, made his speech about helping others struggling with depression (see story). Of course he did.
• Roy Halladay and Pat Gillick were inducted into the Phillies' Wall of Fame. Halladay was honored posthumously and there wasn't a dry eye at Citizens Bank Park.
• The 2008 Phillies celebrated the 10th anniversary of their World Series win and brought back most of the members from that team. Even Jayson Werth, who fell out of favor with fans after going to the Nationals as a free agent, returned to a deserving hero's welcome. It was a touching moment from an intelligent fanbase.
Philadelphia Eagles
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia Eagles and their NFL rivals from NBC Sports Philadelphia.
And then we saw these first-place Phillies pull off a sweep (see story).
• And the weekend was capped by thousands of Eagles fans showing up for an August practice to see the defending Super Bowl champions at Lincoln Financial Field. It was the first time the Birds were all together at the Linc in uniform since the NFC Championship Game that became a blowout party and sent them to Minnesota.
Sometimes, as sports fans, we get caught up in nostalgia. We remember things from the past fondly and sometimes even neglect the present. But this weekend, it was impossible to not get caught up in the magic. And, man, it was fun.
This weekend reminded me of why we're all sports fans in the first place. These teams and these players connect us. How many people watched Dawk's Hall of Fame speech with their dad or brothers or sisters? How many families watched the opening of Saturday's Phillies game and shed a tear together remembering Doc?
How many folks double dipped on Sunday, getting a chance to see the last World Series champions at Citizens Bank Park and then walked down the street to see the Super Bowl champs at night? That had to be a great day.
A lot of times, we push sports to the back burner in the summer. We go to the beach, we go on vacation, we sit by the pool. But I'm guessing a lot of people this weekend pushed those other things aside and had themselves a great sports weekend.
There will be plenty of new memories to make and heroes to crown. But over the last few days, it was nice to remember the ones who came before.
