Four Eagles Veterans Reflect on What it Means to Return to Another Super Bowl

PHILADELPHIA – It could very well be the final Super Bowl ride for the Four Horsemen of the Eagles.

Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Lane Johnson may never pass this way again together.

They came together in their early 20s and now here they are more than 10 years later, having grown together as teammates, and more importantly, people, into their early 30s.

“What an incredible ride it’s been with those guys – Kelce, Fletch, and BG,” said Lane Johnson earlier in the week. “I was very fortunate to be in this position. Not a lot of players get to experience it with a core group of guys. But going forward, just like the last interview after the game, I’m thankful to be with these guys.

“And them showing their emotion after the game, I know how much it means to him. They don’t have to say anything. I know how much this means to them. I know they operate. I know how much it means to them. It goes unsaid that I just want to give it everything I have for the next whatever days it is, till the game’s over.”

The four are back in the big game.

They won Super Bowl LII together against the New England Patriots five years ago and now here they are again, trying to add another ring to their fingers together in Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“This feeling never gets old, and I don’t think it’ll ever get old,” said Cox. “You work so hard to get to this point and, in reality, it’s 32 teams and only two teams get to go. So, this feeling never gets old, and you have to enjoy it.”

That is certainly Johnson’s plan.

“I feel like the first time, I didn’t really document as well what I liked, as far as pictures and memories,” he said. “It was a quick week, and it was the first time going there. But the second time around, my goal is to put as much work in, as much focus in as I can.

“And at the same time, enjoy it. I feel like Friday will probably be our real time to enjoy it with our families, or have a dinner. As long as they’re having fun and everyone else is good, that’s what the Super Bowl is all about.”

The odds are long that all four will return in 2023, though maybe not as long as one might think because all four can still play at a high level.

The odds are most definitely long in going to back-to-back Super Bowls, though with a 24-year-old quarterback, a pair of receivers under 25, and some youth in key spots along the offensive and defensive lines, it wouldn’t be totally out of the question.

"I think we're a great organization,” said Kelce. “...if you're looking through all the change, I really do think the Eagles are doing a phenomenal job of keeping pieces and parts that they think will hold everything together so there's a good buy-in and still a solid culture and foundation to build on.

“There are so many people in this building that have gone through these coaching changes including, we just mentioned the four guys, myself included, that have been here for a decade plus now. I think the blow-it-up method is hard to reload everything with.”

The reality is back-to-back trips don’t happen often, not in this era of football where teams, such as the Eagles can go from four wins in 2020 to 16 in just two years.

Sure, the Chiefs have done it this year.

The Patriots used to do it all the time not long ago.

There are, of course, no guarantees.

“It took me eight (years) to get to the first (Super Bowl),” said Graham. “…I always believed I’d get to one, but two now, shoot, man.

“…Who would’ve thought in year 13, I’d still be here after we won the Super Bowl the first time then how things went last year with me tearing my Achilles?”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.