Our beloved Philadelphia Eagles have landed in Bethlehem for training camp. All that blocking, tackling, running, and throwing builds an appetite. Average daily food consumption comes to 100 pounds of fruit, 30 pounds of fresh vegetables, and 60 pounds of salad bar items. That's a lot of roughage.
But these are the manliest of men. Besides the detested "rabbit food", our "Iggles" will chow down on 180 pounds of crab legs, 260 pounds of filet mignon, 80 pounds of shrimp, and 250 pounds of prime rib during their three week stay in the Lehigh Valley. This is in addition to an unspecified amount of more common meats. In short, it's good to be a professional football player in 2011.
It wasn't exactly crab legs and filet for high school gridders back in the early 60s. There wasn't time to head home for lunch between morning and afternoon practices so we would gather at the corner store and spend a whopping 40 cents for two packs of Krimpets and a Triple Cola. Fueled by pure sugar, we would play like Chicago Bears for the first thirty minutes in the afternoon heat and like Winnie the Pooh for the rest of the session. That desultory play carried over into our season as we went 3 - 7.
In 1964, a Stop 'N Go opened nearby. Now our 40 cents bought two 15 cent hamburgers and a small soda. We practiced better. We played better. The higher-protein diet allowed us to rise all the way to 4 - 6.
Fearless forecasters predict great things for our Eagles this year because they added All-Pro caliber players at key positions. I predict even greater things because those players will be fueled with crab legs, filet, shrimp, and prime rib. Step away from the Krimpets, guys, and it's off to the Super Bowl.
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