Let be written that today - Monday, Feb. 4 - be declared a day of mourning across the nation.

OK, not the whole nation.

Just Eagles Nation.

Another team - in this case, the New York (expletive deleted) Giants - has passed us by.

A year ago, we were 10-6 and they were 8-8. A year ago, we beat them in the playoffs.

A year later, we're watching celebrate the discovery of pro football's holy grail.

There is one silver lining.

I called it, did I not?

In my column on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, I wrote that a victory by the New York Giants of the supposedly invincible New England Patriots was not a stretch of the imagination that required some LSD.

Who's your football daddy?

Me, that's who!

The 17-14 final was a surprise, yes. The stunner of all time? Nope.

Please, please, please don't fall for it.

If you do, you'll fall for anything - like WMDs in Iraq and the need to raise gas and oil prices when the big oil companies are showing record gains.

You probably heard the Giants' players were already singing the same old song after the game. You know how it goes: "Nobody gave us a chance. Everybody dissed us. It was us against the world."

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

Athletes have to tell themselves these things to get psyched up.

We don't have to listen.

The team that came into the game playing better football of late won what I hate to admit was a terrific game, period.

Give the Giants credit.

Ouch. My fingers hurt just from typing that.

Double ouch. My brother-in-law, a Giants fan, is going to have a grin affixed to his face forever.

But life goes on, as The Beatles say.

I watched the second half with my daughter on my lap. I'm not sure if she understands anything other than baby talk yet, but I told her that on one glorious Super Bowl Sunday when the Eagles actually reach the Promised Land (which I, like Moses, will probably not be allowed to see) to take a moment and think of her daddy.

The same daddy who was right when wrote of this purported earth-rocking upset.

NOTES: Were Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers amazing at halftime or what? From now on, only classic rockers who've proven themselves over decades should be allowed to take the stage. ... So I heard our buddy Sen. Arlen Specter, a frequent visitor to The Times Herald, is launching an investigation into the alleged wrongdoings of the New England Patriots during their era of dominance. Could we get a retroactive Super Bowl win out of it? I'll take the ring! ... My favorite commercial came early in the broadcast. It was for the Ronald McDonald House. If you missed it, I'm sure it'll remain in circulation. It shows a mother helping her baby take his or her first steps while the narrator explains some of the history of the Ronald McDonald House. The mother then picks up the baby and holds it closely while the screen reveals that the mother is a childhood cancer survivor. Yeah, I cried. I'm man enough to admit it. It's been one of those days.