Eagles Training Camp Meets the DNC: Practice, Protestors and Pokemon

PHILADELPHIA — Traffic slowed to a crawl around mid-span of the Walt Whitman Bridge, like it does about two hours before kickoff of an Eagles playoff game. But this was 7:45 on a Monday morning. 

The jam persisted through the tolls and past the I-95 interchange. Trucks are banned from I-95, the corridor from everywhere to everywhere, for the entire week. All traffic around the Philadelphia sports complex is also banned or tightly controlled. So tractor-trailers and the NFL media were all shunted onto little Penrose Avenue.

After a half-hour of car-length-at-a-time progress, I finally turned onto Pattison Avenue a half mile west of Eagles headquarters. I soon reached a roadblock: concrete barricades, two police cruisers and the ultimate urban deterrent vehicle: a parked Philly trash truck.

Some ID checks later, I drove the final few blocks toward Eagles camp with a peloton of bicycle cops pedaling straight for me. I ducked into a parking lot as they coasted to a stop outside Eagles HQ. I hustled past them on foot, waving my media credential with a kind of manic paranoia.

The Democratic National Convention is in Philadelphia, and the first speaker is…Doug Pederson?

“The first day’s always exciting,” the Eagles’ new head coach said. “I’m almost like a little kid. I just love being around the guys, being out on the grass and playing some ball.”

Not exactly a rousing speech. But then, Lou Holtz was unavailable.

To clear up the confusion: The Democratic National Convention is at the Wells Fargo Center, home of Philly’s most beloved hockey team (the Flyers) and basketball team (the Villanova Wildcats). I am at Eagles training camp, precisely 0.6 miles away, a five-minute drive or 14-minute walk if you could actually drive or walk anywhere around South Philly this week without going through customs multiple times.

Major political decisions are being made 3,200 feet away, and I am listening to Sam Bradford’s acceptance speech as the Eagles starting quarterback. My priorities are either hopelessly skewed or perfectly balanced.

The Eagles media relations department warned us about the barricades. I picked up my credential a week early, GPS’ed alternate routes through South Philly that would make Rocky collapse in exhaustion and equipped myself with my driver’s license, passport, birth certificate and autographed posters of Brian Dawkins, Joe Biden and—in case I had to stop in a local bar for directions—Louis Prima.

But security isn’t quite as tight as law enforcement thinks. Eagles camp is swarming with Pokemon.

Yes, I downloaded Pokemon Go as a combination parental bonding/Internet comedy/stress-relief exercise. Eagles headquarters happens to be a Pokemon gym, which makes a kind of sense. During a quiet moment of on-field stretching, I even caught a Pidgey on the sideline. I caught a Pidgey on the sideline at Eagles camp last year, but Tim Tebow threw it, so it wasn’t the same thing.

So, we should probably lean toward “my priorities are hopelessly skewed.” But if the Internet tells me anything, it’s that I should #StickToFootball when it comes to politics.

Unlike the major political parties, the Eagles are not faced with a split ticket. Carson Wentz dropped out of the primaries in the spring. The junior …

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