The Eagles are preparing for everything. Even Justin Timberlake.
Via Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News, the Eagles spent a portion of practice getting ready to wait for the long pregame and halftime they’ll have to deal with Sunday.
Normally there’s about 20 minutes between the time they go through pre-game warmups and kickoff. Sunday it’ll be 40. Coupled with a 30-minute halftime show (instead of 12), there’s going to be a lot of standing around.
“It is a long time, pregame and halftime,’’ Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “I’ve begun conversations with our players preparing them for it.’’
That included a mock halftime during their practice.
Said center Jason Kelce: “We’re going to get used to how we’re going to handle the [extended halftime] situation and how we’re going to try and stay loose and not tighten up by sitting in a chair for 30 minutes. That’s probably a bad idea,” center Jason Kelce said. “Those guys [the coaches and training staff] are all on top of that stuff and they’re going to try and simulate everything during the week, so we’re ready to deal with it on Sunday.’’
Of course, the Patriots have plenty of experience with the long wait having been here so often, so they should be fine.