Is it too early to call it a Tank-gate?
It has been more than 12 hours since the Washington Football Team won the NFC Eastern Division title with a 20-14 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. The problem is that the Eagles had 10 inactive starting players for the game. To make matters worse, Eagles coach Doug Pederson withdrew quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second half, replacing him with Nate Sudfeld, who had never made a pass during a regular NFL game.
Superficially, it looked like the Eagles were defeating the game. And therein lies the problem, because if the Eagles had won the game, the New York Giants would have won the division title.
In media interviews on Monday, Pederson maintained his story that Sudfeld gave the Eagles their best chance of winning. ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio, who has covered the Eagles for years, was not believing Pederson’s excuse and wants the NFL to do something about this mess, based on what he said on Monday. The Dan Patrick Show.
Paolantonio: “If I’m in the NFL, if I’m Roger Goodell, I’m wearing my Kenesaw Mountain Landis pants right now and I’m doing a forensic investigation of what happened.
Patrick: “Are you serious?”
Paolantonio: “Totally. Two thousand percent. “
For those unfamiliar with Kenesaw Mountain Landis, he was the Major League Baseball commissioner for the Chicago Black Sox scandal and banned eight players forever after playing the 1919 World Series.
Despite Paolantonio’s plea (“I think it is worth the league time to find out what happened”), there is a very good chance that the NFL will do nothing. Per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network:
The NFL’s long standing position is that it is solely the club’s decision as to who to play for now, etc. Therefore, although the circumstances (Sunday) are unique, the #Eagles it is not the first team to play backups in Week 17, and the league has historically not been involved.
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