supe champ eagles have stayed hungry, philadelphia, nfl
“It’s football. We’re back. The brothers are back and it’s great to see everyone come together,” Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson (above) said. “We still have that hunger and that purpose. We aim to keep winning.”
By Peter Gleason
So, the Super Bowl champ Eagles have begun voluntary OTA this week, and the vets are hungry for more.
Only eight teams have repeated as Super Bowl champions since the first game in 1967.
There’s a good reason for that.
A shorter offseason, a toll on the body, the inherent difficulty of winning the Super Bowl, these are all contributing factors to the low rate of repetition.
“The hardest part is the very thing that coach (Doug Pederson) has done a good job of talking about, which is, you show up, everybody is telling you how great you are, people are talking about a ring ceremony, people are talking about appearances that we got to do over the offseason, the first game they lower the (Super Bowl) banner (at Lincoln Financial Field). There are reminders all the time of what you did in the past that was so great,” defensive end Chris Long said. “That’s the thing. It was in the past and as football shows you every year, I mean, it doesn’t matter what you did last year and even if you won a championship, it has almost zero bearing on what happens the next year. In fact, it makes it harder.”
“That doesn’t change,” safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “I’m hungry every day. The desire to be great is something that you carry into the building every day. What we did last year is in the past and everyone knows it. We’ve had a taste of what it’s like to be the champions and I think that once you have that taste, you don’t want to lose it. And so you know the path. You know what it takes. We all had some time to handle our business and celebrate the Super Bowl, and then it’s time to prepare for the next season. We have a tall task at hand. We’re just one of 32 teams and all of us are competing for the same thing.”
The way the Eagles have challenged the roster has been noticed.
“I think they’ve done a great job with that,” Johnson said. “The better players we have, the better we’re all going to be. Competition brings out the best in everybody.”
And that’s the name of the game. The Eagles are hungry. The Eagles are pushing. There is no Super Bowl hangover. Having already celebrated the historic victory, the Eagles have moved on to the present. It’s a good place to be.
“It’s just different here. I’mMike Wallace, who played in Pittsburgh, Miami, Minnesota and Baltimore before signing with the Eagles as an unrestricted free agent in March. “There’s always an adjustment to make when you go to a new team, but this one has been smooth. Very welcoming. The energy level here is different. You walk into this building and you know the Eagles won it all last year, but now the focus is on 2018 and if you aren’t on board, you are going to be left behind.”
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