Eagles fans are riding the vibes of a delightful Week 1 win over the Falcons right into the 2021 home opener this Sunday against the 1-0 49ers.
It's a perfect storm of Jalen Hurts hype, San Fran injury problems, and sunny mid-September weather: Birds fans are extremely optimistic right now.
But one former Pro Bowl linebacker and current ESPN personality thinks we need to calm down, and he expects the humbling to come this weekend against the Niners.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
In fact, ESPN's Bart Scott is so confident the Eagles will lose on Sunday that he went on national television on Thursday and made a truly preposterous bet:
"SCOTT: Everybody's in love with Jalen Hurts this week. Everybody went out and bought jerseys, jersey sales up 500% - but I tell you, I bet what the Philadelphia fans didn't do? They didn't pop that tag off. They tucked it in. Because this week they're gonna be returning all those jerseys, because they've got the San Francisco 49ers that look elite.
"[...]
"SCOTT: I bet you that if the 49ers lose to the Philadelphia Eagles, I'll shave my eyebrow off."
NFL
First of all: who thinks of that bet?! I want to be mad at Scott, but I'm almost more impressed by the true randomness of that wager. An eyebrow? Fair play. That's super random and honestly pretty funny.
That said... get outta here, Bart.
Sure, I get why you'd pick the 49ers on Sunday. They're a good team! They're almost certainly a better team than the Eagles, and very few people outside of the Delaware Valley expect the Birds to even stay close this weekend.
But being that dismissive of Hurts and the Eagles after they looked like a fairly legit team in Week 1? That's disrespectful.
Hurts showed everything against the Falcons - both on-the-field production and off-the-field leadership - to make Eagles fans feel comfortable backing the guy. And, as Damien Woody tried to point out in the Get Up! segment, they have a fairly complete team that's built along the trenches, which is where NFL games are won.
The Eagles might not be Super Bowl contenders, but right now they're absolutely a team that shouldn't be taken lightly by anyone outside of the Chiefs and the Bucs.
I sure hope someone in the Eagles locker room sees this and shares it with the players. And I hope that, when the Eagles beat the 49ers by six points on Sunday, the entire city of Philadelphia tunes in to watch Get Up! on Monday morning in search of an eyebrow-less Scott. Can't wait.
Subscribe to the Eagle Eye podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | Watch on YouTube