Heart (Un)divided

Issue #63

It’s Super Bowl time in the U.S.

If you’re in the Philly area like me, football talk is inescapable.

(If you’re unfamiliar with the sport, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to play the Kansas City Chiefs in the game where a 30-sec ad will cost $8 million just to air).

Football was alien to me when I first landed in America. I had no idea it had religious fervor and proselytizers aplenty. Especially in the city of Buffalo where the hometown Bills were demigods. In the blink of an eye, I went from not knowing what first-and-10 was to yelling at the quarterback for holding the ball too long.

My timing was fortuitous, or so it seemed.

After years of futility, in my very first year, the Buffalo Bills made it to the Super Bowl. Names like Jim Kelley, Bruce Smith, and Thurman Thomas were becoming iconic in western New York and well beyond, even among nerdy international grad students (the temp datasets in my SAS programs were named after Bills players).

Unfortunately, the Bills lost the Super Bowl in heartbreaking fashion to the New York Giants (potential game-winning field goal sailed wide right, by a yard).

Oh well, there’s always next year.

Indeed, there was. And the year after, and the year after that, and the year after that. Four straight Super Bowl appearances. But zero wins. No city had experienced such heartbreak.

When my time in red-white-and-blue Bills-land was done, I moved to green-and-white Eagles-country in Philadelphia. It was the early dawn of the Internet era and I could continue following the Bills. But slowly the familiar names faded, as did my interest. The Eagles became more interesting with the arrival of a young coach named Andy Reid and his handpicked quarterback, Donovan McNabb.

After a few close misses, the Eagles finally made it to the Super Bowl . . . but lost a close one to the New England Patriots thus kickstarting their dynasty. Maybe it was just me but it sure looked like the Pats had Emperor Palpatine guiding a young Anakin Skywalker.

Oh well, there’s always next year – thought us na?ve Eagles fans.

“Next year” took longer than Odysseus’s journey home from Troy. Fatefully, it was again Emperor Palpatine, this time with Anakin fully embodying Darth Vader. But we had our Luke and the doggone Rebellion . . . and finally the greasing of Philadelphia lampposts became worthwhile (it’s a Philly thing). ?

A new standard had been established, and the Eagles made it back to the Super bowl again a couple of years ago, only to lose to seemingly the State Farm insurance team – a more walrusy Andy Reid, another annoyingly great quarterback, and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. ?

Oh well, there’s always . . . two years later.

This year, the conference championship game for the Eagles was against the upstart, lower ranked Washington Commanders. But the other conference championship game was between Reid’s Chiefs and . . . the Buffalo Bills. So, there was a (12.5%) chance the Bills would face the Eagles in the Super Bowl.

Gulp.

I don’t know how many people like me exist. My neighbor Glen and his dad both have Buffalo roots and live in Eagles land, so maybe they can relate to my mental state. Though I’ve lived far more of my life in Eagles land my formative football years were in Buffalo and my first love was the Bills. Though out of sight they are not out of heart. I couldn’t imagine what emotions I would feel if they clashed.

Well, maybe I do have a sense of how many people like me exist. Most immigrants are like that, I think. Both India and America have my heart.

Perhaps I could even stretch it to all parents. My heart, my love, is not divided between my kids, they each have all of it. The heart is a wondrous thing that way.

But . . . what happens if India and the U.S. were to play for the Cricket World Cup or Olympic Gold in Basketball. Thankfully, that’s never going to happen (he says confidently). ?

Well, as it turned out, fate didn’t want to test me. The Buffalo Bills, in an enduring echo of that prediction from The X Files, yet again, fell short. ?

Oh well, there’s always next year.??????????????????

Maybe the fact that the Eagles’ best player Saquon Barkeley is from Penn State (like my kids) and was let go by the original team that broke Buffalo hearts (NY Giants) will be enough to have a parade down Broad Street. ?

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