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Last year during training camp, the Philadelphia Eagles were visited by the New England Patriots for two joint-training camp practice sessions. According to Mike Reiss of ESPN, it sounds like the two teams could meet up again. Nothing is official yet, but here's what Reiss had to say:
Patriots have been proactive with joint practices in preseason in recent years. Expecting more this year, with Eagles the top candidate.
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) April 9, 2014
The common link here is the special connection between Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Kelly, a New England native, would often have his brain picked by Belichick while Kelly was still coaching at Oregon. Now that they're both in the NFL, I can assure you Kelly that is not so open to sharing his secrets anymore. But they two remain friends and probably enjoy working together. They're both football nuts who love nothing more than to win.
If the Eagles and Patriots are considering practicing together in training camp, I imagine this means they will face each other in the preseason. We'll find out for sure when the 2014 NFL preseason schedule is released later today at 3:15 PM EST (Wednesday). Considering that the Patriots played in Philadelphia last year, it seems like the Eagles would travel to New England this time around.
I was in attendance for every single Eagles training camp practice last year so I had the chance to watch these Eagles-Patriots practices. You can check out my training camp notes from them here (Day One) and (Day Two). One of my favorite training camp moments happened in these practices:
Alex Henery field goal... no! It's a fake! Donnie Jones! He's running down the sideline! At the 10! The 5! Touchdown, Donnie Jones! A successful fake FG run for the Eagles.