Letters

Rocky Road

As a native Philadelphian, I was excited to see Jeremiah Trotter on your Jan. 31 cover celebrating the Eagles' first trip to the Super Bowl in 24 years, but I was upset by the line touting Million Dollar Baby as a better boxing movie than Philly's beloved Rocky.

Patrick Burland
Rockville, Md.

If anyone was looking for a reason to root against the Eagles (Super Effort, Jan. 31), there was Philadelphia wide receiver Freddie Mitchell saying that "the [ Eagles'] loss to Carolina last year hit some people harder than anything since 9/11." The world has not stopped turning without the NHL, and somehow, I think, we'd be able to get by without the NFL. Putting a football game and 9/11 in the same sentence is shockingly insensitive, at best.

Chris Marzuk, Greenlawn, N.Y.

Shadow Boxing

Kudos to John Schulian, who has once again proven himself the undisputed champion of modern-day boxing scribes with his review of Million Dollar Baby and his commentary on Hollywood's frequent and often regrettable ventures into the world of boxing (One Tough Baby, Jan. 31). While Hilary Swank delivers a knockout performance, most of her male counterparts through the years have been far less believable. Without question the most convincing boxer was Jon Voight in the 1979 remake of The Champ. As a longtime observer of the sport and former president of the World Boxing Hall of Fame, I assure you that as a young man Voight could box. (Yes, he coulda been a contendah.)

Bill O'Neill
Riverside, Calif.

A boxing film comes out, and you decide to rate the greatest fight flicks of all time. Meanwhile, a real fight between Arturo Gatti--the most exciting boxer on the planet--and Jesse James Leija is ignored. Let Richard Hoffer do his thing, and make some space for the genuine article.

Matt Aguilar, El Paso