“The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions! Eagles fans everywhere, this is for you! Let the celebrations begin!”

Every Eagles fan remembers those words from legendary Eagles radio announcer Merrill Reese after Philadelphia defeated Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 41–33 in Super Bowl LII in 2018.

“The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions!”

Those were the words Eagles fans had always dreamed of hearing. Some Eagles fans never lived to see the day.

The words carried extra resonance because Eagles fans had endured so much heartbreak. The Eagles lost a previous Super Bowl following the 1980 season. They had a legendary defense led by Reggie White and Randall Cunningham at quarterback in the late 1980s and early 1990s, yet that talented group produced only one playoff victory and one division title. The Eagles won another playoff game in the 1995 season, but soon became bottom-dwellers again.

That changed when Andy Reid was hired and Donovan McNabb became the quarterback. They arrived in 1999 and quickly turned things around. By 2000, the Eagles were 11–5.

Philadelphia then went 48–16 over the next four seasons, reached the NFC Championship Game every year, posted the best record in the NFC three times, and ultimately reached the Super Bowl following the 2004 season. The Eagles lost a close Super Bowl to the New England Patriots, a defeat that became even more complicated years later by revelations surrounding the Patriots’ videotaping scandal.

The Eagles remained contenders for much of the rest of the decade, including another NFC Championship Game appearance following the 2009 season.

The Reid-McNabb Eagles’ losses in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2009 were crushing for different reasons. Every Eagles fan remembers “Fourth and 26,” Joe Jurevicius and the other iconic moments—good and bad—from that era.

There were also the disappointments of 2006 and 2010, the latter of which featured Michael Vick putting together an MVP-caliber season.

Beginning in 2011, the Eagles bounced between being bad and being good but not quite good enough. The Chip Kelly era came and went. Then came 2017.

The Eagles had the best record in the NFL that season, but a championship was hardly guaranteed. Carson Wentz, who had been playing at an MVP level, suffered a season-ending injury late in the year.

Nick Foles, a career journeyman whom the Eagles had previously traded away, would have to lead Philadelphia to the promised land.

Almost nobody expected that to happen.

Of course, Foles delivered. His playoff performances improved as the stage grew larger, culminating in an unforgettable performance against Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. The Eagles finally had their championship.

The Eagles had a great team, a Super Bowl-winning coach in Doug Pederson, a great owner in Jeffrey Lurie, an outstanding general manager in Howie Roseman and Carson Wentz, who at the time was considered an elite quarterback.

Many Eagles fans, myself included, expected that group to contend for years and perhaps win another Super Bowl—or two or three.

Instead, the team won only one more playoff game, following the 2018 season, again with Foles at quarterback.

Pederson and Wentz were gone a few years later. The team had to be reconstructed once again.

Enter Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hurts.

Hurts had originally been drafted as Wentz’s backup, and few Eagles fans could have imagined in 2021 what was about to happen over the next several years.

Hurts blossomed into an elite quarterback. Sirianni proved his mettle as a head coach. Roseman once again built a championship-caliber roster, largely from scratch.

The Eagles went from missing the playoffs in 2020 to earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC in 2022.

Waiting for them was Patrick Mahomes, this generation’s Brady, along with Andy Reid—the same coach who had once helped turn the Eagles into a perennial contender.

Philadelphia led by 10 points at halftime and controlled much of the game. But the Chiefs came back and won narrowly at the end.

Another heartbreak.

The Eagles returned strong in 2023, only to collapse late in the season and exit in the first round of the playoffs. The coach, quarterback and others were questioned.

Then came 2024.

The Eagles silenced the critics by winning another Super Bowl against the same Chiefs—and this time, there was no heartbreak.

Philadelphia dominated Kansas City in Super Bowl LIX.

The heartaches and ups and downs of the 1990s, 2000s and first half of the 2010s made 2017 sweeter.

The quick tailspin after 2017—and the equally quick resurrection that followed—made 2024 even sweeter.

The NFL is king in the United States, as is often observed, but arguably no region has a stronger connection to its football team than the Philadelphia area has with the Eagles.

Eagles fans live and die with this team. They are there when the team wins four games, and they are there when it wins 14. They celebrate the great moments and endure the painful ones. They remember the heartbreaks, the missed opportunities and the players and teams that came so close but never got there.

If you had told me in 1995, 2005 or at any point before 2017 that the Eagles would win even one Super Bowl in my lifetime, I would have taken it.

To win two in an eight-year span?

Unbelievable.

And now the Eagles are poised to win more. We said the same thing after 2017, of course, and that optimism quickly unraveled. But this time feels different.

We are lucky to have Jeffrey Lurie as our owner, Howie Roseman as our general manager, Jalen Hurts as our quarterback and leader on and off the field, and Nick Sirianni as our coach.

After everything Eagles fans have endured, perhaps the greatest gift is simply being able to hear those words again:

“The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions!”

Fly Eagles Fly!