Seth Vigdor
There have been many intriguing individual storylines throughout the season for the Eagles. One of them pertains to Lane Johnson. He had that moment when he took shots at the fans and quickly tried to clean his comments up. Taking jabs at Eagles fans is never the correct route to go in this city and Johnson learned that the hard way. Philadelphia fans are the most passionate and players will lose that battle every time.
Frustration had really set in for a lot of the players early on due to the losing and the drama surrounding the team. The Eagles offensive line has really been decimated with injuries all season long. Up until last week, the team as a whole hadn’t been injury-free all season. But, now that we’re in the stretch run, there is no better time to have a healthy team.
Johnson spoke about injuries and feeling obligated to stay on the field at all times via Philly.com and had the following to say.
“It’s part of the job description. It’s a [lousy] job. As far as payment, payment is among the best, as far as tackle. But it really is a [lousy] job. Nobody knows your name unless you mess up. It’s just part of the job description. I’ve heard stories of Jon Runyan when he went and cracked his tailbone in the cold tub and had to get a shot in his ass before he had to play every game. You just learn from guys like him. He kind of set the tempo for what it’s like here.”
As an Eagles fan, you have to love hearing Johnson talking about lessons he’s taken from Eagles’ greats.
Speaking on injuries, Johnson had this to say.
“There’s a difference between being hurt and being injured. Injured is when you obviously can’t go. Especially this time of year, this is crunch time. This is when your team needs you most. You have a couple of weeks of pain, but you have a long offseason to recover. I take care of myself recovery-wise. So after football’s over, in retirement, I’m not going to be too banged up. That’s probably the biggest thing, is taking care of myself now. My rookie year, I didn’t really do nothing. It got toward the end of the year – you play your senior year, go to the combine, and you’re just dog tired. I didn’t really know how to be a pro, to take your body seriously, because in college you’re just having fun playing. You don’t really take it seriously. Now, I’m just trying to prevent things, with stretching, with stuff that can help you to where injuries don’t happen. They expect things. You’re a first-rounder. You need to go out there and perform.”
That we do. We expect 100% effort from our guys regardless of the outcome. Do Eagles fans want to win? Hell yeah, we do! But we’ve learned from experience with Philly Sports that there will be plenty of down moments in our Sports history. As long as our players bust their asses for the people that go out there and spend their hard earned money on them, that’s all we can ask.