Super Bowl 2018: Wide-eyed Eagles soak in the moment as title game approaches

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Philadelphia Eagles are watched every week by tens of thousands of in-person fans and countless more across the globe as part of the multi-billion-dollar operation that is the NFL.

Up until Monday evening inside the confines of St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center, however, they'd never been a part of a show quite like Super Bowl Opening Night.

A prime-time, made-for-TV special enabling an unprecedented amount of credentialed media to mingle with and ask questions of the NFL's top two teams six days before the big game, the scene was filled to the brim with theatrics. A stage standing above what usually serves as the home ice for the Twin Cities' Minnesota Wild glistened with purple-haze lighting -- a nod to the hometown Vikings fans in the house -- and would soon produce both indoor fireworks and cinematic introduction music for the unveiling of the night's dignitary teams. Fans gawked from above, seated around the stadium and overlooking the arena floor, where throngs of reporters, camera crews and celebrity guests prepped themselves for roughly three hours of interview time.

Some of the former Eagles players who graced the festivities weren't too far removed from their own NFL careers when Philadelphia last appeared in the Super Bowl, but in January 2005, Opening Night was just an afternoon Media Day, a shade of itself before the dawn of the Internet era.

In 2018, in large part due to efforts by the league to milk views from its insatiable year-round audience, it is an event -- capital "E."

For the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, a powerhouse with mostly stoic figures, shrugging off the novelty of the night, either through "been there, done that" attitudes or an utter distaste for the silliness that often comes with thousands upon thousands of questions (some more serious than others), was like clockwork. Outside of some rare smiles from coach Bill Belichick or the mere sight of quarterback Tom Brady wearing a glove on each hand as he conducted his own podium session, there wasn't much from New England's end that screamed excitement. (And, in a sense, why would it when the team knows better than anyone that the true glory comes on Sunday, not the Monday before?)

But the Eagles were different.

If there's one thing they don't have to worry about as they approach just their third Super Bowl in franchise history, in fact, it's soaking in the moment. For them, Opening Night may not have always carried an air of seriousness -- even defensive end Brandon Graham spent part of his interview time showcasing the latest "underdog" mask to hit the Eagles' locker room. But that's exactly what so starkly differentiated them from the Patriots and defined Philadelphia's big appearance under the Xcel lights, soon to be on the grandest stage of a season that so often had them written off: Looseness. Excitement. And a whole lot of having fun.

Safety Rodney McLeod, who took the Opening Night stage with a camera in hand, recording the media that were about to record him, was among dozens of Eagles who milled about the arena floor as the night crept just a few hours from midnight Eastern time. Like plenty of his teammates and unlike many of the Patriots who were required to do the same to start the night, his eyes rarely stopped scanning the room, absorbing the sights and, most of all, celebrating his team's unlikely journey to Super Sunday.

"You never know when you're going to be back on this stage again," he said with a smile. "I'm taking it in with all of my brothers. It's special because of our journey. Nobody thought we would be here."

McLeod's fellow defensive back, the NFC Championship pick-six artist Patrick Robinson, echoed the thrill as soon as he arrived on the Xcel media floor, saying with a wide grin that he was "trying to enjoy it as much as possible." Ditto for Corey Graham, another veteran in the Eagles' secondary, who got a kick out of Eagles fans in the audience reigniting Minnesota's signature "Skol" chant and, as one of just seven Birds with Super Bowl experience compared to 32 on New England's roster, talked up the atmosphere that comes with a championship bout.

"Very excited," he said of the Eagles. "It feels real now since we're finally down here."

It'll be even more real, of course, when Graham and Co. actually take the field against Brady, Belichick and the Patriots on Sunday. By that point, it won't matter much how anyone acted during the NFL's Monday night production to start the big week. That's doubly the case when New England boasts five-time title winners in those ultra-important positions of quarterback and head coach.

For now, though, with the rest of an important week crawling forward, Eagles fans can rest assured that, with the biggest show of their team's season just around the corner, Philadelphia is embracing every minute of its journey.

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