Villanova's Status As A Philly School Has Officially Been Revoked After Blowing This 10-Point Lead With Less Than A Minute Left In The Game
Personally speaking, I love Villanova. My own mother went to Villanova. I grew up 15 minutes down the Blue Route from Villanova. They used to be home to the Philadelphia Barrage of the MLL.
But I'm also a world renowned journalist. And part of being one of the most trusted journalists in the media is the ability to remain completely unbiased. The job is about presenting the facts, and nothing but the facts. And after last night's meltdown in their season opener against William & Mary, the fact is that Villanova can no longer be considered a Philly school.
Nova is in a weird spot. It's situated right on the Main Line, about 20 minutes outside of the city of Philadelphia. Is it a Philly school compared to a place like Penn State, which is 3 hours away? Certainly. But is it a Philly school compared to places like Penn, Temple, St. Joe's, Drexel, and La Salle? No it is not. The validity of Villanova's "Philly School" status is constantly up for debate. It comes down to "what have you done for me lately?".
When Villanova is winning National Championships in basketball, they are Philly's team. They play their games at Xfinity Mobile Arena. They have their parade going through the streets of Philadelphia. They are everything that Philadelphia stands for. But the final 53 seconds of this game last night? We, as a city, simply cannot afford to have that stink attached to us.
Field goal, onsides kick recovery, getting absolutely torched for a game tying touchdown, thrown interception, death by kicker. It's as bad of a sequence as you'll ever see. One of those insane comebacks that all the stat graph nerds cum their pants over when a team has a 99% chance of winning and then at the final moment, a giant spike appears in the graph.
We're trying to do something special here in Philly right now. The Sixers got LeBron. The Flyers have 19 nationally televised games next year after finally making the playoffs again last year. The Phillies are finally starting to look like they have some magic in them after since their Field of Dreams game.
The last thing we need in our lives right now is Villanova football dragging us down. So for the time being, Villanova is strictly a Main Line school. They are a Bryn Mawr school, a Radnor school, a Wayne school. Nothing more, nothing less. At least not until the basketball team wins a tournament game again.