Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Random Stuff

Posted June 20th, 2026 | No Comments »

I’m going to experiment today. Rather than talking about the Eagles or football, I’m going to post thoughts on some random things. It won’t be as random as Larry King’s old pieces from his USA Today days (which were great), but I will be creative.

I hope everyone is enjoying the World Cup. I first watched US soccer in 1994. I had a roommate whose family was from Chile and he taught me some stuff about the sport. I played for one year back in 1977, but it didn’t take. The US team wasn’t anything special back then. It is crazy to watch them now and see the progress the program has made. This is a legitimately good team that is fun to watch. It will be interesting to see how far they go. So far the team is 2-0 and has already advanced to the round of 32. Very cool to see just how far the program has come.

Former Eagle WR Antonio Freeman’s son scored a goal yesterday.

I guess I did find a way to talk about the Eagles.

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Since I’ve been at home a lot this year I’ve had to be creative with my time. You can only watch so much Netflix. I discovered a guy named Rick Beato on YouTube. He is a musician/producer who created a channel that features lots of music content. My favorite videos are his long form conversations with musicians, producers, mixers, engineers and anyone else with good stories. He did a long one with Eddie Kramer who worked with Hendrix, Zeppelin and all kinds of great bands. That was really cool to listen to. The best one so far is his video with Rick Rubin. I had no idea of Rubin’s background or origin story. Very interesting.

It is 2 hours long, but incredibly fascinating. These conversations are filled with good stories and personal histories. It is crazy to hear how some of these guys got into the business. Most of them were grinders and hustlers just looking for a chance.

There are lots of good life lessons in these conversations. For the young people out there, just try to get your foot in the door. One famous producer got his start in the recording world because he was hired to clean the studio’s toilets and organize the tape closet. All you can ask for is an opportunity. What happens after that is up to you. Grind. Hustle. Show your value. Listen and learn. That’s true for anything, not just the music business.

Old man lecture is now over.

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Saturday mornings in the 70’s and 80’s meant you could watch This Week in Baseball. Mel Allen was the host and went over the highlights and memorable moments from the previous week of MLB action. What a great show. The music is amazing and so is Allen and the clips.

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Congrats to the Carolina Hurricanes on winning the Stanley Cup. Do you know who their GM is?

Eric is from Philly and is a die hard Eagles fan so you can be happy for him without betraying your Flyers fandom. He has a really interesting background and story of how he got to where he is.

The Canes won the Stanley Cup back in 2006. A month or so after that I got a call one night. Be at Linda’s Bar & Grill at 10pm. My buddy didn’t say why, but said it would be worth it. I headed down there. It was my watering hole of choice so they didn’t exactly have to twist my arm. I got to Linda’s and went downstairs, as instructed. The friggin Stanley Cup was there. I got to hold it and chug beer from it. I made sure to look for Bobby Clarke, Reggie Leach, Bernie Parent, etc. That was incredibly cool.

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Have you ever heard of a 70’s band called Television? I hadn’t until recently. They were part of the New York CBGBs scene back in the day. I heard several people mention them and decided to give them a listen. Their debut album was called Marquee Moon and it is amazing. They kind of remind me of Blondie or the early Cars. Here is the title track from the album. If you dig good guitar, you’ll dig this.

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If you get a chance, watch the PBS documentary on the American Revolution. Ken Burns and his crew did it. I’ve read a lot about the Revolutionary War over the years. I’ve been to forts and battlefields. My mom was a history buff and I picked that up from her. Burns still had plenty of new material in there. He also has a great way of finding specific people and mixing their story with the overall big picture.

It was interesting to hear how many mutinies/near mutinies George Washington had to deal with. It is hard to fault the soldiers. They weren’t being paid regularly. They weren’t being fed or properly supplied. The fact Washington kept everything together is a near miracle.

Here is the first episode.

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Thanks for pointing out the PayPal link isn’t working. I’ll get that fixed.

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More on the Favorite Games

Posted June 19th, 2026 | 1 Comment »

I got a lot of great feedback after yesterday’s post on my favorite games of the 90’s. I enjoyed writing it so I figured you would like that trip down memory lane. I will definitely do the 2000’s, 2010’s and 2020’s in the coming weeks.

Some of you asked why I didn’t include playoff games. I felt they were too obvious and too easy. The 1995 wild card win over the Lions is one of my favorite all-time games. I rewatched that with my nephew a couple of years ago. He is a degenerate Saints fan (I assume my sister dropped him on his head too much as a baby) and I wanted to let him know you don’t need Super Bowls to love your team and have great memories. That 58-37 win over the Lions was special, even if it didn’t result in a trophy or a ring. You have to be able to embrace moments like that.

The biggest argument you had was 1995. I chose an OT shootout with the Skins instead of the “We stopped him again” win over Dallas. I thought long and hard about that one. I didn’t want to put too many wins over Dallas on the list. I mean I could have gone with this.

1991 – 11 sack win over Dallas
1992 – 31-7 game over Dallas
1995 – 4th down stop vs Dallas
1996 – 31-21 over Dallas
1997 – 13-12 win over Dallas…Aikman knocked out of the game
1999 – 13-10 over Dallas…Andy Reid’s first win

Here are highlights from the 97 game. Pretty entertaining.

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Someone asked me to do the worst losses for each year. Asking a guy with cancer to do that? Are you trying to put me in the grave this week? I’m a calm guy now, but 30 years ago I lived and died with every game. I wore my emotions on my sleeve and it made for a miserable existence after bad losses. Here are a couple of examples.

1992 – loss to Dallas when Emmitt finally ran for 100+ vs Eagles…pure torture
1993 – loss to Bears…Bubby picked off by 2 DL
1994 – loss to Dallas at the Vet…long Darren Woodson pick-six turned a comeback into devastation
1995 – For who? For what? Crushing start
1996 – Loss to Buffalo. Detmer had us inside the 10 and choked late
1997 – Tommy Hutton…I probably have PTSD from that moment
1998 – Loss to SD. Hugh had 4.5 sacks, but the offense was horrid. I was miserable for days.
1999 – Loss to Tampa.

I didn’t have to look any of that up. Those games are seared into my soul. The Super Bowl wins have taken away some of the sting, but when you live through torturous sports moments, they tend to stay forever.

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Someone suggested I do All-Eagles team from each decade. That’s a terrific suggestion. I’ll work on that. It will be a tough, but fun exercise.

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A little current Eagles talk.

Nice piece by Mr. Z. The continuity helps the players understand the scheme better and better. It also helps them know each other and the assignments of the players around them. It is also great for communication. They can talk between plays and know what’s going on better than ever. They don’t have to wait to get to the sideline and have the coaches talk to them.

I am excited to see what this defense does this season. So much potential.

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Some site talk for a minute. I hope you all are enjoying all the changes that were made. The ad-free look is so much better. And you guys have done a great job of supporting me and the site. Thank you very much for that.

There were some issues with Disqus that someone brought to my attention. I think I got them all cleaned up, but please let me know if there are any more that I need to work on.

I am still trying to get the Disqus ads to go away. I’ll keep working on that until I figure it out.

Please let me know if there are any other issues you have and I’ll look into them.

Alex and I have a couple of things to do to the site. More him than me. He’s the smart one. I’m the guy still trying to get over losses from 1998.

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Would you guys have any interest in a post about sports cards?

I’ve gotten back into collecting them in recent years.

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