Philadelphia Eagles Tight end Zach Ertz FOLES FOOLS THE PATRIOTS Less than a minute remained in the first half of Super Bowl LII The Philadelphia Eagles clung to a 15 12 lead over the New England Patriots They had the ball on New England’s one-yard line It was fourth down But the Eagles decided not to kick a field goal Quarterback Nick Foles lined up in the shotgun formation Rookie running back Corey Clement was behind him Foles stepped aside Clement took the snap He rolled out to his left Then he pitched the ball to tight end Trey Burton Burton circled back to his right Meanwhile Foles drifted into the end zone The Patriots defense ignored him Burton threw the ball to Foles It was an easy touchdown The trick play was called the Philly Special 11
Philadelphia Eagles It was one of the keys to the Eagles 41 33 Super Bowl victory It was their first National Football League NFL championship in 57 years That’s just something we’ve been working on Foles said after the game I was like Let’s just run it It was a good time and the end was a little wider than I thought so I was like I really need to sell like I’m not doing anything And it worked The Patriots had tried a similar play earlier in the game But quarterback Tom Brady did not make the catch Foles was an unlikely hero He had come off the bench for starting quarterback Carson Wentz Wentz had suffered a season-ending knee injury Many experts thought that doomed Philadelphia’s Super Bowl chances The team struggled to win two of its three remaining regular season games The Dallas Cowboys shut it out 6 0 in the final game It nearly lost to the Atlanta Falcons in left Nick Foles 12
Philadelphia Eagles GRIDIRON GREATS FOOTBALL ON THE SMALL SCREEN The Philadelphia Eagles played in the first televised NFL game It was held on October 22 1939 They faced the Brooklyn Dodgers NBC broadcast the game to approximately 500 televisions in the New York City area The broadcast didn’t have any commercials But there were other interruptions It was a cloudy day The cameras needed lots of light Sometimes the clouds blocked the sun The picture would go blank When that happened the broadcast team would simply switch to a radio Then the clouds would pass There was enough light again The Eagles lost the game 23 14 But they earned a special place in NFL broadcasting history 13
