Philly Front Office

The Eagles and Lions don’t have a rivalry. Yeah, they think they would have beaten us in the NFC Championship last year, but that’s just we-turned-the-ball-over-5-times-to-Washington talk. A few trades here and there, some shared players like Darius Slay, and one playoff game ever: really, not much to speak of. However, there is maybe the most memorable regular season game in Eagles history. On December 8, 2013 the Eagles and Lions played “The Snow Game.” Do you remember what you were doing that day?

Sunday, November 16, 2025 – Detroit Lions at Eagles
8pm on NBC at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA

I do. That game just happened to be on my bachelor party weekend. I won’t get into Friday and Saturday night, but we were in NYC at a decent sized bar called Hair of the Dog all day to watch football. Starting around 11a, we were already into it and getting alerts that it was going to snow pretty hard in Philly that day. By the time the broadcast started, we were still shocked to the whiteout on screen. Not only was the field covered, but the cameras were struggling in the snow, like watching in a standard definition tv.

Things didn’t exactly start well. Nobody seemed to know what to do in the first half other than turn the ball over and punt. Then Nick Foles threw his first INT of the season (this was the year he went 27-2) and the Lions scored 2 minutes later. The bar was packed but lifeless and turning angry. This was right around the time that the Miami Dolphins scored on a far television. Who cares? Well one of my friends is a Dolphins fan and he starts singing their ridiculous fight song at the top of his lungs. Hearing it, another guy across the bar starts yell-singing too and runs to greet him in the middle of the room where they sing the whole damn thing to the astonishment and cheers of the crowd. This got everyone ready for halftime shots.

Another friend of mine has a standing going-out order of pouring amaretto shots in his beers. He had about half a dozen already, so the waitress was used to it at this point. Why am I telling you? Because when she brought our beers, she mixed up his amaretto with our Fireballs, dumped it in, and thus Firebeers were born. What he did accidentally was now our drink the rest of the day.

Detroit scored and the Eagles answered to make it 14-6 going into the 4th. Then the LeSean McCoy show started. 18 seconds into the quarter, McCoy broke one for 40 yards to tie the game. Unfortunately, the high-5s were still warm in our hands when Justyn Ross returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards to give the lead right back. Damnit! 3 plays later it was a 57-yard TD for Shady. Un-damnit! With the 2-point conversion (no one would dare kick in this mess) it was a 22-20 Eagles lead for the first time. The Firebeers were flowing now.

Eagles Weekend Rooting Guide: Coming into Focus

After a punt, the Eagles ran right down the field and Foles punched it in at 4th and goal. Ross took the next kickoff only 46 yards this time. Joique Bell got the Lions immediately into position to score with a long run where he hurdled Nate Allen. On the next play though, Matt Stafford botched the shotgun snap and looked around helplessly trying to find it…the Eagles had the ball. Some more Shady McCoy followed by a 38-yard TD by Chris Polk sealed one of the most fun games you’ll ever see.

Around this time, my friend with the best job had to leave and told us to keep his tab open and close it out later. The waitress got the best damn tip she’d had in a long time. My friend was none too happy with his own generosity when he found out the next day.

Someone else that was pleasantly surprised with their performance was Shady McCoy. McCoy looked like the only player who knew how to run in the snow that day. He broke the Eagles single game rushing record that had stood for over 60 years with 217 yards. That record would stand for another 11 years before it was broken by Saquon Barkley against Matt Stafford again. No word if Stafford played for the Steelers in 1949 when Steve van Buren set the original record.

I don’t remember much of the rest of the afternoon and night, but there was one more thing from that weekend. The next morning, I couldn’t find my credit card when I woke up. My friends were paying for my drinks for 12+ hours, so someone must have stolen it right? I checked my transaction log and there was one charge for $5 at the same bar. Apparently, my drunk ass decided it needed one more single beer, opened up a tab, and then left. Since I needed to catch a plane, that card was lost and needed to be cancelled. Something very annoying with my wedding less than 2 weeks away. One beer and one lost card, wtf?

What did you do during the Snow Game?¹

1. I’m not calling it the Snow Bowl ↩︎