THE year was 1960. The place was Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Our Philadelphia Eagles defeated the visiting Green Bay Packers 17-13 to win the NFL Championship title in what would become the only playoff loss in the career of head coach Vince Lombardi.

It was the only time Lombardi would ever face us in the playoffs. He would die 0-1 and be (by some accounts) forever scarred by it.

Our rivals like to make sport of the fact that we don’t own a copy of the annual replica that bears Vince Lombardi’s name. They attempt to invalidate all that we have done by saying that we don’t own a Lombardi Trophy.

This is incorrect. We don’t own a Lombardi Trophy, we own THE Lombardi Trophy.

As in the man himself.

Better still, our ownership doesn’t have to be renewed year to year. We own him forever. Or least until he beats us in a playoff game. Like it or not it’s the truth.

At some point we’ll get around to winning one of those copies, and we’ll of course have a parade over it. Because on that day, we’ll own BOTH kinds of Lombardi, the one that passes from hand to hand, and the one that belongs to us and us alone.