By Mike Gibson
Last night there was an interview with Vince Papale broadcast over the Bravo Network.
Papale, the former Philadelphia Eagles’ walk-on, talked a little about the movie Invincible, made about his life.
The more I watched, the closer I listened.
“This isn’t a movie about me or about the Eagles or even about pro football,” Papale said. “It’s about everybody who has been told they couldn’t or that they can’t or that they won’t or that they should just stop trying and give up.”
It’s about Temple football, the movie Invincible is, in its own way.
How many of us in the Temple family have been told to give up, to stop trying, that they couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to succeed?
Just about everyone, I’d imagine.
“This is a story about underdogs,” Papale said.
That’s what made Saturday so great _ not that a 19-point underdog rose up and won by two touchdowns, but that the same program people said wouldn’t or couldn’t win a game did just that.
It’s the first of many.
The pain of being a Temple football person has been a deep and cutting one, and writing about it while in this 16-year intensive care state has been catartic for me, as evidenced in this post about going to Heaven and this one about Lost in Space but the bleeding has stopped and the wounds are beginning to heal.
The losses aren’t over, but this patient is no longer in critical condition.
In fact, the long-term prognosis is good.
Very good.