Electric football Tudor Haiti Eagle (no. 66 All-Pro MLB Bill Bergey) and Haiti Buccaneer

Electric Football – In many, many ways there’s not much in this matchup. The Eagles are in a self-inflicted tailspin that seems to have no bottom, and their history with the Buccaneers covers some of the most devastating losses in franchise history.

But we do have this: a set of beautifully painted black shoe Haiti Buccaneers and a set of curiously yet well-painted Haiti Eagles.

Eagles QB Ron Jaworski getting mauled on December 29, 1979.

These Eagles came with their team bag – that’s really the only way to know they are the Eagles. In my memory the team never wore a uniform like this, and this would have been a uniform that they wore back when my memory was still functioning in teenage “rabid fan” mode. To double-check my memory I even went to one of the coolest websites ever devised, the UniformDatabase. It turns out my memory is still intact. The Eagles never wore a uniform in this configuration.

Finally, I asked our resident Jets and Haiti player expert, Michael Kronenberg, if there were any possibility these were Jets. His answer was emphatic – he never had any Jets that looked like this. So Eagles they are…I think.

There is no doubt about the Bucs uniform, and it’s a classic. It’s also one they wore in upsetting the Eagles 24-17 in the 1979 NFL playoffs. The Bucs defense was suffocating that day – the Eagles only had 48 yards rushing, while QB Ron Jaworski ran for his life in a 15 of 38 performance. On the other side of ball, the Bucs Ricky Bell ran the ball 38 times for 142 yards. A very painful memory even 33 years out.

Ronde Barber breaking Philadelphia hearts in the 2003 NFC Championship game.

But nothing near as painful as the NFL Championship game loss to the Bucs in January of 2003. The Bleacher Report lists this epic meltdown as the worst loss EVER in all of Philadelphia sports history. And then the Bucs came into Philly on the first Monday night of the following season and blew the Eagles out again, this time 17-0. (This loss came in at No. 15 for “Greatest Letdowns in Philly Sports History.”)

So anything is possible Sunday. But it’s probably the Eagles’ 10th consecutive loss.

Earl