Now for the main event ... a week of Super Bowl hype
The bags are packed and the hay is in the barn.
Now the Eagles need to focus on the New England Patriots, not the relentless hype streaming out of the singlemost talked about game of the year. Good luck with that, guys.
Super Bowl LII is Bradley Cooper and Mike Trout, who worship the Eagles, against Patriots counterparts Ben Affleck and Mark Wahlberg.
It’s Eagles fanatics Julie Johnston-Ertz and Pink against Patriots complements Gisele Bundchen and Jon Bon Jovi.
Better bring the boots, celebrity stars. Though the game is inside U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, you’ll have to tiptoe through four feet of snow to get in. The wife forgot her Saint Laurent Niki over the knee boots? Fear not, there’s a Nordstrom’s at the Mall of America.
And you won’t pay tax on that $1,795.00 item in Minnesota.
Like the Nordic freeze that sprouts hair on the chests of Midwesterners, this Super Bowl has a charm of its own. It features coach Bill Belichick and his Evil Empire vs. coach Doug Pederson and his Rebel Alliance.
Spygate, Deflategate, Thumbgate — Patriots.
Next man up, underdog cries, we’re all we have — Eagles.
Five Super Bowl titles — Patriots.
Oh-for-2 in Super Bowls — Eagles.
The Patriot Way and the Howie Roseman Play.
The shepherds of the game take on ... the German shepherd masks.
Do we need to mention the Patriots have 4.11 million Twitter followers vs. the Eagles’ 2.91 million?
From the iconic Tom Brady to Belichick, the bitter old man during news conferences, the Patriots gnaw at the competition.
Outspoken Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson wants to topple the Patriots from their pedestal.
“It’s anybody’s game,” Johnson said. “The Patriots obviously have been there for a long time. I think it’s time for them to be dethroned.”
Johnson’s predictions typically ring true. He penned a story saying the Eagles would go to Washington to kick butt in the season opener. And it wasn’t a fairy tale. He was a kid when the Eagles were beaten, 24-21, by the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville. It didn’t mean much to him then when Donovan McNabb threw two interceptions on the first possession, one nullified by a Patriots penalty. Or when Belichick, mikedup for a Super Bowl documentary, trashed the socalled hurry-up offense of the Eagles and Andy Reid while it operated in slow motion in the fourth quarter.
No one is around from the Eagles’ last Super Bowl team, unless you want to include Brian Dawkins, the biggest, most passionate cheerleader on their staff.
But McNabb will make the rounds on Radio Row throughout the week, denying reports he’d been vomiting, hyperventilating or suffering from the effects of dehydration during that late drive in Florida all those years ago.
McNabb and the Eagles didn’t blame the defeat on the alleged illegal videotaping of their practices and walkthroughs by the Patriots, who almost certainly would have used it to enhance their ability to make stellar adjustments. Several other players called the Patriots out at various junctures, including Marshall Faulk, who claims Belichick had adjustments for new plays the Rams had run only in practice. Go figure.
Long after Belichick was fined in 2007, and the Patriots were docked a first-round draft pick, he finally confess to violating the rule against videotaping. And he did it before the 2015 Super Bowl while trying to clear the air about Brady’s role in Deflategate.
Belichick gave a confusing explanation based on fluctuating air pressures in footballs his staff used as a defense for Brady ... who now is his enemy, if you believe the ESPN The Magazine story by Seth Wickersham.
Belichick and Brady have been at odds since Belichick kicked Brady’s personal trainer out of Patriot Place, around the same time the Patriots traded quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, the heir apparent to Brady, because Brady didn’t like him. Neither did Bob Kraft, who signed off on the deal, if you believe all of the speculation. The Patriots issued a statement denying the rift, and are within one win of a sixth Super Bowl to back it up.
As for Pederson, there haven’t been any scandals to speak of. But the respect for what he’s done has come grudgingly. He’s the Maxwell Football Club’s coach of the year, but not the PFWAA coach of the year, the latter honor going to the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay, who Pederson beat with, um, a backup quarterback.
Pederson dismantled the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC title game, the Eagles scoring 38 straight points after trailing, 7-0.
Think Big Red could glean something from such Eagles game management?
Coach Doug was up against it before coaching the first game of this, his second season. Mike Lombardi, no relation to a real football Lombardi, just the bogus name recognition, ripped Pederson for not having the skills a head coach should have.
“Everybody knows Pederson isn’t a head coach,” Lombardi said. “He might be less qualified to coach a team than anyone I’ve ever seen in my 30-plus years in the NFL.”
Don’t waste your time wondering who the others were.
“Somebody here, Mr. Lurie, Howie, the guys, thought I was qualified,” Pederson said. “In my opinion, that’s good enough for me.”
Beating the Evil Empire will solidify those qualifications.