While most of you (including myself) were watching the Super Bowl and guzzling down unhealthy snacks last night, an interesting rumor began circulating amongst the denizens of Twitter. Former Eagles fullback Kyle Eckel released posts on his Facebook and Twitter accounts stating that that former Buccaneers head coach John Gruden was in town and prepared to take over the reins as head coach of the Eagles. Then, citing unnamed sources, Ashley Zavala of NBC's KOMU-8 and Cody Benjamin of Bleed-Green.com added fuel to the fire, saying that Andy Reid was stepping down due to personal reasons and that Gruden would take over as soon as Tuesday. The story was then picked up by Bleacher Report and a number of other sites.
As one might expect, none of the Eagles beat reporters initially weighed in on the rumor, except for Les Bowen, who responded with his usual sarcasm-laden tweet. Then, as the hysteria began to build among the Eagles fanbase, the front office finally released a statement early this afternoon, saying "This was simply a rumor and there is no basis to it at all. It is simply not true."
Eckel has now come out on WIP essentially claiming responsibility for the whole fiasco, saying that he was just having some fun and that he had no idea that the rumor would become such a "wildfire."
In other words, you can relax, Eagles fans. Andy Reid will remain in Philadelphia.