10 Things To Do To Prepare for Super Bowl LVII

It is Super Bowl weekend ladies and gentleman! The long and grueling two week buildup has almost come to an end. Now that the working week is done, we have all day Saturday and Sunday morning to wait for kickoff.

Every minute of every hour leading up to gameplay will be grueling.

Our palms will be sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy, mom’s spaghetti.

So in the meantime here’s some stuff we can do until the actual Super Bowl game starts.

 

 

1. Read Ray Didinger’s Champions Edition of the Eagles Encyclopedia 

 

 

There have been countless books written about the Philadelphia Eagles, but I think the definitive one is the Eagles Encyclopedia by the great Ray Didinger. He’s released a few updated encyclopedias since publishing the original, but the most recent and best edition was released in 2018 shortly after the Eagles finally won the Super Bowl. While the NFL and the Eagles continue to move into the future, the Champions Edition of the Encyclopedia gives readers that warm feeling of Happily Ever After when seeing the end of the story. Perhaps he’ll need to put out yet another follow-up book 6 months from now.

 

 

2. Watch Rocky III

 

 

If Super Bowl 39 was Rocky I and Super Bowl 52 was Rocky II, then it only makes sense that Super Bowl 57 is Rocky III. While that movie is best remembered in the pop culture lexicon for introducing the world to Hulk Hogan, Mr. T’s Clubber Lang and the song Eye of the Tiger, Rocky III would have been a solid end to the franchise had it stayed as a trilogy (instead of the countless sequels and spin-offs its spawned since.)

Rocky Balboa was the reigning champion and a worldwide celebrity, but his newfound fame and fortune caused him to lose his edge in the ring and get soft. This leads to a humiliating loss to Clubber Lang, around the same time his mentor Mickey passes away. But rather than retire on a whimper, his old rival Adonis Creed helps him get his groove back. Balboa gets his rematch with Lang and shows the world that he’s still got, allowing him to retire on top.

You can picture it now can’t you? Patrick Mahomes with that mohawk and that earring Mr. T style? Now that’s quite an opponent.

 

 

3. Watch the 2017 Eagles DVD

 

 

It should be a yearly tradition that on the day of every Super Bowl Eagles fans should watch the 2017 Eagles DVD special. Yes the other NFL Network documentaries on the 2017 Eagles are very good, but this DVD to me is the best presentation of how fun and thrilling that first Super Bowl season was.

 

4. Watch Super Bowl LII in its entirety

 

 

Watching all the pageantry and spectacle of the Super Bowl when your team is in it gets you nervous, so how about watching the last time the Eagles were in the Big Game to get used to Sunday’s festivities. The national anthem, the team introductions, the endless pregame shows, the commercials, all of that adds to the stress of how big this game is. But re-watching all of that stuff from Super Bowl LII will help us get used to what’s to come this Sunday night.

 

 

5. Watch Game 5 of the 2022 NLCS in its entirety

 

 

Hey, if you’re itching for more epic games after watching Super Bowl LII, why not put on Game 5 of last year’s NLCS? That game instantly became one of the greatest games in Phillies history, and re-watching it will get us excited about Spring Training coming up.

 

 

6. Look into Super Bowl Bets

 

 

Look I don’t really bet much but I know there’s a ton of bets to make on literally anything Super Bowl related. Just bet wisely.

 

 

7. Watch highlights from All 16 wins from the 2022 season

 

 

As great as it is to see the Eagles in the Super Bowl, it’s bittersweet because this will be the last game this particular Eagles team will play. When it comes to talent and the ability to dominate their opponent, this is probably the best team in franchise history. Hopefully most of the team returns next year, but it’s still rare to have a team this consistently good and able to overcome bumps in the road such as the loss to Washington last November and the Jalen Hurts injury.

So feel free to go on YouTube and watch every highlight from each win, reminding ourselves just how fun this season has been.

 

 

8. Buy tickets for Tommy and Me

 

 

August Wilson, Tennessee Williams and Ray Didinger?

That’s right, Ray Didinger is also a playwright who wrote penned the stage play Tommy & Me. An autobiographic story about his relationship with Eagles legend Tommy McDonald. McDonald was Ray’s favorite player growing up as a kid, and as he became a prominent sportswriter he campaigned the hardest for McDonald’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When McDonald was finally inducted in the late ’90s, he chose Didinger himself to present him at Canton.

It’s a heartwarming story of boy’s dream coming true in helping his sports idol achieve sports immortality.

While it’s hard to find a theater where its running this year, I did find it’s being played this May and June at Bucks County theater. Below is a link to the website for tickets.

https://bcptheater.org/subscriptions/

 

 

9. Check out The Ringer Philly Special and other Philly podcasts

 

 

As entertaining as Bill Simmons and other Ringer shows are, we can only take so much of his Celtics and Jokic worship. That’s why it’s great that we finally got a Ringer show by Philly fans for Philly fans, appropriately titled Philly Special. They have been quite busy since kicking off last year, covering the Phillies World Series run and the Eagles magical season. So feel free to listen to their Super Bowl coverage along with other Eagles podcasts such as Bleeding Green Nation.

 

 

10. Travel to the Rocky statue and Art Museum 

 

 

On the one hand it’s disrespectful to see another teams jersey on our beloved statue, on the other hand its great. Every time someone puts their team’s jersey on it they lose in embarrassing fashion. So feel free to let any dumb Chiefs fan put their Kansas City gear on the statue because we all know how that usually turns out.

At the same time there’s nothing like going on a jog throughout the streets of Philadelphia, especially when passing by the statue and at the famous steps of the Art Museum. Not to mention that it’ll be good to walk since we’ll be glued to the TV screen all day Sunday. And if they win it’ll probably be best to stay indoors.