THE BIRD BLOG

First of all, allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is Michael Berquist, and I am an Eagles fan.

I created the Bird Blog in the Spring of 2004 during the heady days of Kearse, T.O., and the promise of the Super Bowl as an outlet for the prodigious enthusiasm for the team. With the baseball season starting, I created a blog for the Phillies in the interim and proceeded to pour my energies into it, allowing The Bird Blog to fall by the wayside. Even though the Birds went to Super Bowl, I retired the Bird Blog in December while the team had a 9-1 record. I kept my Phillies blog, A Citizen's Blog, going for another year. I never thought that I'd be back blogging.

But here I am.

Why did I quit blogging? I quit A Citizen's Blog back in August because I was fairly burned out from work, moving into a new house, and the frustration of watching the Phillies flail away at the playoffs. I couldn't keep breaking down stats and pouring over information in an effort to understand the game because my heart simply wasn't in it anymore. I finally quit because I had ceased to care about the game.

So why am I back? I have an incurable love of football and letting people know what my opinion is. I love the Eagles too.* This season was painful to watch: the team basically disintegrated and fell apart, just one year removed from nearly winning the Super Bowl.

I think that they'll be back in '06 stronger than ever. I think they'll make a good run for the Super Bowl again, and I want to chronicle that journey for you all.

So stay tuned, I'll post as often as I can...

* I root for the Eagles, but I live in Pittsburgh. Why? I grew up in Downingtown, a suburb about thirty miles west in Chester County, but I went west for college in '95. I graduated from Pitt in '99, went to law school in Pittsburgh, graduated and got married. Right now I live in the south hills of Pittsburgh and I work downtown as an attorney. My wife is from the Steel City so we live here.

I have nothing against the Steelers, I root for them, but my favorite team is still the Eagles. People leave, travel far and wide, and keep their allegiances to their home teams. (By the way, I've always found Steelers fans to be pretty cool about Eagles fans living in their midst.) I live in a place where the loyalty to the home team runs deep, but I can't go against my roots. I'm an Eagles fan.