Eagles Bonding Through Current Events

Head coach Doug Pederson's decision to hold virtual team sessions is paying off, and it could serve Philly well as it seeks a return to Super Bowl

Virtual workouts and meetings didn’t seem like much of a big deal when the coronavirus pandemic made in-person workouts and on-field training impossible.

The Eagles had them anyway, though some teams chose not to have them, including the New Orleans Saints, and head coach Sean Payton probably rues that decision in light of an interview his quarterback, Drew Brees, did with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday, which has seemed to alienate his two key receivers, Michael Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, and the rest of the NFL's African American community.

SI's Ben Pickman has more on the Brees situation here:

/nfl/2020/06/03/saints-drew-brees-comments-kneeling-flag?xid=socialflow_twitter_si&utm_campaign=sinow&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

Eagles head coach Doug Pederson could have gone down the path Payton took and not done virtual workouts and meetings. After all, the Eagles are a team laden with veterans at key positions and Pederson is in his fifth season with a Super Bowl championship already on his resume.

To his credit, though, Pederson decided to take advantage of the virtual time together, even if it wasn’t about learning X’s and O’s all the time.

“I just didn't want guys to be idle,” said Pederson last month. “I think when you become idle, you get a little bit … it becomes a challenge. And so, this way, it gets the guys up. It gets the guys moving. It gets the guys thinking about football. And is it right? I don't know.”

It sure looks like right, especially now in the harsh light of what is happening in this country.

The nation’s narrative changed dramatically last week when African American George Floyd died under the knee of a since-fired police officer, Derek Chauvin, on a Minneapolis street.

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and the three police officers who stood idly by and watched have also been fired and, on Wednesday, charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

The aftermath has opened a racial divide in this country larger than anyone has seen since perhaps 1968.

In the Eagles’ virtual meeting on Monday, receiver DeSean Jackson gave a speech so inspiring that center Jason Kelce and kicker Jake Elliott came out with powerful statements against systemic racism in the United States.

Even before Jackson spoke, quarterback Carson Wentz became the first QB to speak out against the rampant racism and police violence, with teammate, tight end Zach Ertz, coming out with his own statement shortly after Wentz last Friday afternoon.

“They stepped up,” Jackson told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark in a Tuesday night interview. “They made their voices hears. They used their platform, they used their resources, they used everything they could do to reach out and say I might not know what it feels like to be racially profiled, I might not know what it’s like to grow up in the inner communities and these areas that you guys face on a daily basis, where we’re scrutinized for the color of our skin.

“They might not understand that, but they are stepping up to the plate and saying fair is fair and right is right and wrong is wrong. The stuff that we’ve been seeing is wrong. They don’t support that.”

Here is Clark's interview with Jackson:

“Get the hurt out. But don’t tear down the communities. I’m feeling the pain. It might take time, but we’re going to get through it. Let’s do it together. One love, one community, one race”

-Powerful interview with @DeSeanJackson10 ⬇️https://t.co/zKQvm3D1A3

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) June 3, 2020

On Tuesday, owner Jeffrey Lurie also released a powerful message, taking days to find the right voice, and he nailed it.
Jackson spoke to Clark about that as well.

“You gotta think, the owners are billionaires,” said Jackson. “They have so much influence in the world. They have so much equity. They have so much power to where if they make a stance, then it’s gonna trickle down to the lower totem pole.

“I feel like a lot of times they go silent because of its politics or they might lose this sponsor or they might look crazy in the light. But it’s like, none of that stuff can even come into your mind because we are dealing with people losing their lives.

“I feel like Jeffrey Lurie did a great job of speaking out and speaking up. Because I feel like if he does it, then you’re gonna have the rest of the other 31 owners and that’s going to trickle out to basketball owners, baseball owners. It has to be a trigger effect.”

Building bonds for a run at the Super Bowl doesn’t start in training camp. It doesn’t begin with the first preseason game.

It starts in mid-April with conditioning and weight training, rolls into May with voluntary OTAs, and wraps up in June with a mandatory minicamp.

When the Eagles won it all in 2017, they talked about how it started right after the draft, building camaraderie and friendships every step of the offseason. Chemistry was honed in those April and May days.

Those building blocks were nonexistent this offseason when the pandemic shuttered the world.

However, the unprecedented events that have unfolded since March, with the coronavirus shutting down the Eagles’ facility on March 13 until when it is expected to open in a limited fashion on Friday, to the racial tensions that have gone far beyond their boiling point, could serve the Eagles well once training camps open and the season begins.