Tonight the Eagles will hold their second annual "Flight Night" at the Linc. It's essentially a live practice with a sort of carnival atmosphere. They've got fireworks, a bunch of stuff for kids, and a real live Eagles practice in front of 30,000 or so fans at the Linc.
Oh and last year Stewart Bradley tore his ACL at the event.
That's led to some talk about a "curse" of Flight Night and whether the event is actually worth having. In fact, I was having this very discussion with a few media types after the morning practice ended at Lehigh the other day. I was the guy skeptical of the event, but Daily News columnist John Smallwood kind of changed my mind. Here were his points.
The risk of injury is no higher than it is at camp. The Linc is this team's home field, it's not like anything is unfamiliar to them. Plus, they're no more likely to get hurt there then they are at Lehigh. His point was more or less proven that afternoon when Jeremy Maclin went down in a no pads, no contact drill, where he wasn't even part of the play. Injuries can happen anytime and you can't really say it's any more likely to happen at a practice at the Linc than it is at Lehigh. Remember, we lost a guy for the season an OTA at the NovaCare complex this year.
Second, it's for a good cause. All money made from this event goes to the Eagles Youth Partnership charity.
Finally, Smallwood's biggest point was that it gave people a chance to take their family to see the team on the cheap. Tickets for kids are only $10. Compare that to $70 a ticket to a regular Eagles game and that's only if you're lucky enough to get one for face value. It's a family event with lots of stuff for kids to do and they don't even sell alcohol.
So I gotta say that Smallwood changed my mind. The event really is fine ... I think I'll still be just a bit nervous though.