Beers are on Johnson if Birds win
The beers are still on Lane Johnson if the Eagles beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.
The offensive tackle has a plan in place to quench the thirst of fans along with a sponsor he declined to name, should, of course, the Eagles take care of business on the national stage Sunday night — dilly, dilly.
“I meant what I said,” Johnson said. “I’ve got money to do that. So, it is what it is. You get a sponsor, pay them a little money for setting it up and make everybody happy.”
Johnson made it clear the plan was in place, not that he was predicting a win for the Eagles this weekend.
Teammate Alshon Jeffery, on the other hand, went off the grid recently when he said the Birds were “bringing that trophy back to Philly.” Hopefully it’s not the Marv Levy, nice guys finish second trophy.
At any rate, Johnson promises to distribute suds for a title is another illustration of adding a little levity to the locker room.
Johnson wore a full length blonde wig in almost 100-degree heat during training camp. He stopped talking to the media for the rest of the year in late December. A couple days into January he resumed. And of course, Johnson was in on the plan behind the dog masks identifying the Eagles as underdogs. They were, after all, the first top seed ever to be getting points in a playoff game.
“It just created energy,” Johnson said. “When you look at it we haven’t been picked to win any of these games, so it’s not an outlandish statement, it’s true. Football is fun. I think a lot of teams are controlled by fear. They walk on eggshells and they don’t enjoy what they’re doing and it’s very stressful. I’m not saying this game isn’t stressful. But any time you have a chance to have fun with it and enjoy it like you did when you were a kid, I think that’s what it’s really all about.”
It’s hard to tell which Super Bowl team is looser, the Eagles or the Patriots. It’s fairly obvious the Eagles are having fun. *** The Eagles had their typical Friday practice, per the pool report, followed by a talk from Doug Pederson.
The usual is red-zone, first, second and thirddown, short-yardage and goal-line work, all areas the Eagles have excelled in this season.
Everyone practiced fully for the Eagles today, including defensive tackle Tim Jernigan, who sat out the previous two days with illness.
The speech was vintage Pederson, as well.
“Take advantage of the opportunity,” Pederson said, “but have fun.”
On Saturday morning
Brett Favre will address the Eagles, who will have their walkthrough at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Kicker Jake Long and punter Donnie Jones already have practiced at the billion-dollar stadium. *** All of the Patriots participated fully in their final practice of the week, according to the pool report.
Friday was the lightest session of the week, but the most critical. It featured end zone situational drills.
“Just kind of reviewing moving the field and we did all of our special-teams situations, so we just got everything one last time,” Belichick told the pool reporter. I think they’ve been focused, no question. There are things that are different about this game but we’ve managed those and we’ve tried to focus on what we need to do and I think the attention level has been good.”
The Patriots’ team photo is Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium. Family and friends also get their shot at selfies. *** The Eagles’ victory parade would be Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Unofficially it would begin Sunday. *** This is the eighth Super Bowl in 16 seasons as the starting quarterback for Tom Brady, who any moment now will be named league MVP by the Pro Football Writers Association of America.
Dan Marino went to one Super Bowl, Dan Fouts and Warren Moon none, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees one each. All either are in the Hall of Fame or favored to be enshrined in Canton. Add Peyton Manning (four SBs) to the list and you’re still one game short of Brady.
Additionally, Brady has 27 playoff victories – nine more than Joe Montana, the next-closest competitor, has nine fewer. Terry Bradshaw is next on the list with 13 postseason victories, John Elway and Manning have 14 wins each.