MINNEAPOLIS — Eagles fans will be struggling to sleep Satuday night. Afterall, the biggest game in the history of the franchise is Sunday (we aren’t including the Eagles’ first two Super Bowl trips — both losses).
It’s been 52 years and this year’s squad can end the draught. So how are they handling the pressure? How will they get themselves to sleep the night before the game?
“The only thing that’s not in my normal schedule is this media stuff,” Mychal Kendricks said, talking to the media in a famously mandatory session Thursday, said. “And a steam room. I usually steam every day after practice and I haven’t been able to do that.”
Brandon Graham feels right at home and anticipates he’ll be able to get his usual six or seven hours of sleep. He also plans to continue watching some of his favorite TV shows to calm him, mixing in some ESPN Sunday morning after he wakes up at 6:30 a.m.
“I am on Game of Thrones now,” Graham said. “I just started it. I loved the wire.”
It seems when the players are not arguing over whether Michael Jordan or LeBron James is the greatest basketball player of all time (yes, the players argue about it constantly), they are watching peak TV.
“I watch a lot of HBO,” Jalen Mills said, “sit in my room listen to music, just to set a chill vibe.”
Mills, who like all but seven Eagles is set to appear in his first career Super Bowl, is trying to keep himself focused on the Patriots and not on the big picture. Even when he walks onto the Field at U.S. Bank Stadium, he isn’t planning to take time to reflect. He’s too busy for that.
“I had a guy ask me if it hit me yet,” Mills said. “Usually it hits me more Saturday when you have that last meeting. I stick to my schedule, whatever I do in Philly during the season I do the same. I don’t think I want to reallty embrace it until it’s over.”
As for head coach Doug Pederson — who turned 50 Wednesday — it’s likely he will indulge in a bowl of ice cream.
“I love ice cream” the coach said, jovially showing his slight pot-elly to the assembled media. The coach apparently arranges for ice cream for the players and coaches each week as a tradition in the Eagles training facility. “I don’t want to stay in meetings too long when there’s ice cream over there melting.”
