"Back in high school, many of us old-timers were forced to read The Grapes of Wrath in our dreaded American Literature class, making ourselves feel like we suffered as much as Tom Joad himself.

The Eagles should read the novel today instead of watching the NFC Championship game, not punitively because they made their fans suffer this season, but for an old fashioned lesson.

Although tough for high school kids to digest, John Steinbeck's classic illustrates the ruinous false hope held by the starving Okies and poor Tom Joad, packing up their families and leaving Oklahoma's dust bowl during the Great Depression for the unfulfilled promise of fruitful farms and a dignified future in California.

The Eagles can't ride a similar doomed Highway of False Hopes, thinking they are anywhere near as good as the Giants. Truly, the danger is the Eagles — all of them, management and players — will watch the NFC Championship game this afternoon and think "what if?""