Philly Plain Dealer

People associate the Eagles with more than just football. It’s about family, friends and breaking bread. That’s all true for me, but it’s also about the sounds of the game. I’m not talking about the iconic, old-school NFL FIlms score, but what I’m listening to during the lead-up to gameday and on Sunday itself.

My dad and I would tailgate for years, beginning in my college years through my late 20s. A lot of this happened in a pre-Super Bowl world. People got nuts tailgating, but it wasn’t this city-stopping, all-encompassing behemoth that it’s morphed into as of late. We would frequently be lined up as one of the first people outside of Jetro waiting for the lots to open. As soon as we would enter and get our classic spot, my job was not to set up chairs, tables and the grill, but to get the boombox going.

I have a roughly 10-hour “tailgate” playlist on Spotify that’s 156 songs deep, but the two songs we’d always play first were “Beautiful Day” by U2 and “Take It Easy” by Eagles Clichéd? Sure. That’s some quintessential middle-aged dad rock, but tell me your juices wouldn’t start flowing if you cracked a cold one on a breezy fall morning and started to hear, “Well, I’m runnin’ down the road tryin’ to loosen my load…”

I’d associate the related sounds you’d expect with that as well, your Springsteens and Pettys and so forth, but this is Philly after all. There’s been a thriving indie scene here for a decade-plus at this point. If you don’t think I’m getting hype to The Wonder Years and The Menzingers before the Eagles begin their Super Bowl defense against the Cowboys on Thursday evening, you are badly mistaken. “I’ve got my grandmother’s veins in the back of my hand and just a hint of a South Philly accent…” on “Hoodie Weather” by The Wonder Years makes me want to suit up, run out of the tunnel Brian Dawkins style and try to sack Dak Prescott myself. 

This extends to the team itself, too.

It’s hard to think of the 2017 Eagles and the way they overcame devastating injury after devastating injury on the road to the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl win without thinking of their team introduction in the Big Game itself in Minnesota. They came roaring out to “Dreams and Nightmares” by Meek Mill. “Hold up, wait a minute. Y’all thought I was finished?” perfectly encapsulated a team that had been written off following the loss of their MVP-caliber quarterback. 

“Blow the Whistle” by Too $hort became that anthem for the Eagles’ latest run to the Lombardi Trophy last season. The tailgate lots before games and Broad Street for the postseason celebrations were filled with Birds blasting whistles of their own to go along with the song. I have one from the night of the Super Bowl hanging in the “Eagles section” of my apartment. 

I curated my new “eagles 2025” playlist over the last week to get myself going on gameday this season, during a commute or really, anytime I’m thinking about the Birds, which, usually is most of the time! Are the Eagles going to run out of the tunnel in next February’s Super Bowl to “Psycho Killer” by Taking Heads, “Party Hard” by Andrew W.K. or “And We Danced” by the Hooters? No, of course not, but tracks like those will power me and my love for the Eagles until then.