Eagles Mostly Take High Road While Opponents Take Shots at Them
The Philadelphia Eagles came up short against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII, but they certainly came out on top when it comes to handling a tough — maybe even controversial — loss the right way.
In that aspect, the Eagles clearly were better than both the Chiefs and the team they routed to get to the Super Bowl, the San Francisco 49ers.
While several 49ers players couldn't stop talking about the Eagles being lucky that quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson both were injured — never mind that injuries are part of the game — there was not one Eagles player who publicly complained after the controversial defensive holding penalty on James Bradberry that ended any chance they had to be able to come back once Harrison Butker made a chip-shot field goal for a 38-35 lead.
Bradberry went as far as to tell reporters after the game that he did hold wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and was hoping the officials wouldn't make the call.
That's called handling a tough situation with class.
And then there's what Smith-Schuster did Tuesday on Valentine's Day.
On his Twitter account, which counts 1.1 million followers, Smith-Schuster wished everyone a happy Valentine's Day and accompanied it with a picture of Bradberry made to look like a greeting card.
At the top was the message: "I'll hold you when it matters most."
Yes, it's cute, maybe even clever. It's also classless.
It's, most of all, an amazing lack of respect for a fellow competitor, and maybe it's even worse because the penalty was a borderline call at best.
BROWN, OTHERS BACK BRADBERRY
Props to Bradberry's teammates A.J. Brown, Darius Slay and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson for biting back at Smith-Schuster.
The "Tik-Tok boy" reference dealt with Smith-Schuster's practice during his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers of dancing on the opponent's midfield logo before away games for his Tik-Tok followers — a ritual that drew the ire of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
Smith-Schuster has been known for a while for "speaking his mind" and that's perfectly fine, but mocking an opponent like he did with Bradberry was out of line.
THE 49ERS FALLOUT
What we heard from 49ers players after the NFC Championship Game wasn't nearly as egregious, but it sure reeked of poor sportsmanship.
It also was a bad look considering the final score was 31-7.
Yes, players are entitled to their opinions — and it's actually a lot more fun hearing players being candid than too polite — but it's taking it a bit far to keep taking shots left and right at a team that just defeated you by 24 points.
One example was kicker Robbie Gould saying that if a team makes Jalen Hurts play quarterback, it's "probably going to have a pretty solid day on defense."
Read that again ... kicker Robbie Gould. Clearly, he might want to stick to special teams after Hurts put together an MVP-caliber performance in the Super Bowl.
That's called not handling a loss very well.
What Smith-Schuster did was not handle a victory very well.
The Eagles did very well after both their victory against the 49ers and their loss against the Chiefs.
READ MORE
Nick Sirianni's Coaching Tree Begins to Sprout
Final 10 Thoughts from Eagles Loss in Super Bowl LVII
Alain Poupart is a contributor for Eagles Today and is the publisher of All Dolphins for Fan Nation/SI. Follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL.
