Eagles owner Jeff Lurie wasn’t going to wear any rubber dog masks.
But he’s definitely happy that his team is not favored in the Super Bowl.
Via Dave Zangaro of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Lurie exulted in the fact the Patriots are favored by anywhere from 5.5-6 points next week.
“Are we underdogs again?” Lurie asked. “Great! Great. Great. Somehow I’m not surprised. I think it’s great. I always try to root for underdogs, so I think if we can — it comes with an understanding that this is a very proud group of players and coaches and you tell them no one thinks you’re going to win, you’re not good enough.
“With all the hard work and success they’ve had, the best record in the NFL and all of that, and you tell them that. It doesn’t register.”
Like many owners, Lurie isn’t one for bold proclamations. So when he spoke last, in September, he said it was “foolhardy” to predict they’d be a playoff team. In between, they won 13 games, realized second-year quarterback Carson Wentz was an MVP-level player, and then lost him to a torn ACL, among a rash of other injuries. So it was easy to admit a degree of surprise.
“It surprised me because of all the injuries,” Lurie said. “I thought going into this season we were going to be a very good football team. How good, that’s hard to judge.
“If you told me before September, ‘No you’re not going to have Jason Peters, you’re not going to have Darren Sproles, you’re not going to have Jordan Hicks, you’re eventually not going to have Carson Wentz, you’re going to lose your best special teams player in [Chris] Maragos — oh, by the way, your field goal kicker, you’re not going to have him either’ — it’s a lot of body blows at that point. If you had said that, I would have told you, ‘No, I don’t think we’ll make the playoffs.’ Right? So the resiliency amongst this group is phenomenal.”
And because of that, he’s fine being the underdog, since the role has suited his team all year.