On Sunday night, the Eagles lost to the Washington Football Team 20-14 to end their season at 4-11-1. The team had nine starters out for the game, and the roster was made up of some starters, backups, and practice squad guys.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was 7 for 20 for 72-yards, and one interception, along with eight carries for 34-yards and two rushing touchdowns. As the game went into the fourth quarter, only trailing by three points, the Eagles pulled Hurts, and Nate Sudfeld played the rest of the game.
This set the fans and sportswriters into a frenzy, and they were not afraid to show their displeasure towards the Eagles. The Giants, who had won earlier in the day, also commented on the game, including former quarterback Eli Manning.
After the game ended, the Eagles were the talk of all sports shows. On Monday morning, ESPN reporter Sal Palantonio was on The Dan Patrick Show and had this to say about the Eagles and that the NFL should do an investigation.
It is unprecedented for a reporter to call for a league to investigate the Eagles. In my last Opinion Trax piece, which you can read here, I mentioned that the NFL should also be blamed due to their choosing this game instead of other games to be broadcast on Sunday night.
The fans would have appreciated that. They knew the Eagles had nothing to play for. Still, they decided to put them on primetime anyway. The Eagles treated this game like it was preseason. Last week, Doug Pederson told reporters that Sudfeld would get some playing time against the Washington Football Team. Sudfeld should not get any of the blame for appearing in the game.
The fact that some people are complaining about the Eagles tanking is the same people who were cheering on the Jets and Jaguars to lose every game for the right to get the number one overall pick.
Then when the Jets beat the Los Angeles Rams 23-20 to get their first win of the season, many of their fans and reporters went ballistic that the Jets won and took themselves out of contention for the number one pick. Here is Rich Eisen of The Rich Eisen show going off on the Jets on December 21st and talking about the Eagles on Monday.
Tanking is ok for these people when it benefits their team, but when the Eagles do it, it’s not ok. As a result of the loss, the Eagles have the sixth overall pick in the draft, and if they would’ve won, they would have the ninth pick. Could the Eagles have won the game? Sure, they could’ve, but they didn’t because they knew what was at stake.
They knew it would do them more harm to win the game than to lose. That doesn’t mean the Eagles will get a good player from the draft, not as long as Howie Roseman is in charge. He could probably trade the pick for more picks for all we know, which would be worse, or would it?
Tanking is nothing new in sports. We see it every year when teams will lose every game on purpose to put themselves in a position to get the best draft pick. Some of the fans and media encourage them to lose to get the next big star out of college but will bash others for doing the same thing.
Forget the integrity of the game; sports is a business, and teams have to do what’s best for business even if it means losing on purpose. That still does not make it right, but when the NFL Draft comes in April, a lot of people will forget all about those last games if it means they get the player they want.
