The Eagles Blow. What's Everyone Doing With Their Sunday?

For as long as anyone can remember, Sunday at 1 p.m. in Philadelphia belonged to the Eagles. You didn't decide what to do with it. It was decided for you. The jersey went on, the wings got ordered, the couch got claimed, and the rest of the day bent around whatever the Birds did.

That is over now. Not officially, but spiritually. The Eagles are 2-6, last in the NFC East, losers of six straight, and on Sunday they are 3-point underdogs at home against the Giants. At home. Against the Giants. The offense scores 17.1 points a game, 30th in the league, and gains fewer yards than any team in football. Jalen Hurts is out for the year, Sean Mannion is calling the plays, and Nick Sirianni is coaching for his job in front of a fan base that has already made up its mind.

So the most valuable thing in Philadelphia this weekend is a free Sunday. The first one in years. And nobody knows what to do with it. Here are the options.

Option 1: Watch the Eagles anyway, because you're sick

Kickoff is 1 p.m. Sunday at the Linc, Giants-Eagles on FOX. This is the sickos' option. You know exactly what it will look like. Ten points in the first quarter, nothing after halftime, a third quarter that feels like a root canal, and a group chat full of people pretending they didn't watch it. The upside is that the Giants lead the division at 4-2-1, so losing to them is at least losing to a good team, which is a sentence nobody in this city has ever said about the Giants before. The downside is everything else. If you pick this one, you don't get to complain. You chose this. You always choose this.

Option 2: Watch the one Philly team that's actually good

The Sixers play at Chicago on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. They started the weekend 8-1, the best record in the league, and they are the only team in this city that hasn't ruined a weekend yet. Yes, they were losing in Cleveland on Friday night, and yes, this is Philadelphia, so you are already bracing for the other shoe. But 3:30 on a Sunday is a perfect basketball time. The Eagles game will be over or miserable by then. The Sixers are the cleanest three hours on the board. Take them.

Option 3: Stay up late for the Flyers, if you hate yourself slightly less

The Flyers are at Calgary on Sunday night, 7 p.m. Eastern, on ESPN+ and NBC Sports Philly. They are 4-10-4, 30th in the league, minus-22 in goal differential a month into the season. This is not a good option. This is the option for people who watched the Eagles at 1, the Sixers at 3:30, and thought, you know what, I haven't suffered enough today. Calgary is 7-9-1 and beatable, which in Flyers terms means the loss will be creative.

Option 4: Watch football that has nothing to do with you

This is the RedZone option, and it might be the smartest one on the list. The league gave you a full day: Bengals-Falcons from Madrid at 9:30 in the morning, seven games at 1 p.m., Packers-Patriots at 4:25, and Bucs-Bears on Sunday night at 8:20. You can watch all of it, care about none of it, and check your fantasy team without your stomach dropping every time a team in green does something stupid. Fantasy football was invented for exactly this moment: caring about football without caring about the Eagles. Use it.

Option 5: Deal with what the Union did today

Decision Day was today at 4 p.m., Toronto at Subaru Park. And the Union took care of business. Cavan Sullivan scored twice, Quinn Sullivan buried a penalty, Bruno Damiani added one from the spot, and the Union beat Toronto 4-1. That locks them into the sixth seed, and now they open a best-of-three first-round series with New England, starting Nov. 20 at Gillette Stadium. The most pleasant surprise in the city, and the one Philly team that actually handled its business today.

Option 6: Go to the bar anyway

This is the secret best option. Go to the bar. Sit in the same seat. Order the same thing. Watch whatever is on the biggest TV. The ritual was never really about the Eagles, it was about the room, the noise, the people who all agreed to be disappointed together. You can have all of that without the dread. Day drinking hits different when nothing is on the line. The wings taste the same. The city looks the same. Only the score is missing, and honestly, good riddance. And if you want somewhere to actually go, there are real watch parties on. Stateside Live on Pattison has the Bird Bash from 1 to 4, food, an open bar, and $500 cash giveaways every half hour, plus a tailgate from 8 in the morning. Fringe Bar on Columbus Boulevard opens its party at noon. Evil Genius on Front Street and Topside Tavern on 20th are both showing it at 1. 7C Lounge is doing tables, call 215-629-3625 to reserve. Pick one and get there early.

Option 7: Do the stuff the Eagles stole from you for years

This is the radical one. Go run the errands. Coach the kid's game. Take the walk. Fix the thing in the house that's been broken since September. Go to the place your partner has been asking you to go to since the season started. For years, every Sunday from September to January belonged to a football team, and the team just handed it back. It turns out the rest of your life was still there, waiting. It missed you.

Bonus option: Go to the Palestra

Temple plays Richmond on Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Palestra, on ESPN2. Real college basketball, in the most Philly building there is, for a fraction of what the Linc costs you. Jordan Marsh, the USC transfer, dropped 16 in his Temple debut on Monday. The Big 5 season is a week old and this is the best game on the Sunday board that nobody is talking about. Go sit in a building that smells like a hundred years of Philly basketball and watch a game that actually matters to the people in it.

The kicker

Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: this might be the best Sunday of the season. Not because the Eagles are good. They are not good. They are 2-6 and underdogs at home to the Giants. But because for one Sunday, the day belongs to you again, and you get to decide what a Philly sports fan does with a free afternoon in November.

The Eagles will be back next Sunday. They always come back. There's always next year. Every year. But this Sunday? This Sunday is yours.