There is no evidence to suggest that the New England Patriots were spying on any of the Philadelphia Eagles practices before Super Bowl LII. Still, the Eagles weren’t taking any chances.
Speaking on 620 WDAE in Tampa, Philadelphia long snapper Rick Lovato noted that the Eagles walk-through at U.S. Bank Stadium featured some diversionary tactics.
“I believe our whole walk-through was just a complete fake walk-through,” Lovato said, H/T Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “We did it at the stadium. There were certain people walking around. … I believe I overheard someone say a lot of the plays we were running weren’t even in the playbook for the Super Bowl.”
One of the plays omitted from the walk-through was the famed “Philly Special,” which worked like a charm during the game.
Who knows if the paranoia was legitimate or not? The Eagles won the game, so it’s not likely that we’ll hear many of their players complaining years from now.
But we certainly can’t say that the strategy didn’t work.