Super Bowl 2018 Diary: Six Eagles observations from Thursday in Minnesota

Hey there, BGN. Here’s the third entry of my 2018 Super Bowl Diary. Previous entries: Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday.

1 - Baby it’s freaking cold outside

I woke up on Thursday morning and checked the weather. It was -9 degrees outside. We’re talking Fahrenheit here, not Celsius. Thankfully it warmed up to -3 by the time I left the hotel to shuttle over to the Mall of America. The “real free” temperature was -21.

Dear NFL, no more Super Bowls in Minnesota.

2 - Doug Pederson loves ice cream

I swung by the Mall of America media lounge prior to heading to the Eagles’ final media availability before the Super Bowl. Former BGN manager Jimmy Kempski walked in while I was stocking up on some supplies.

On our walk over to the press conference area, Jimmy and I were talking about Doug Pederson and the ice cream video. He (somewhat jokingly) brought up how the ice cream thing could be a nice bonus for luring free agents. Hey, if the contract offers are comparable, why not sign with the coach who gives you ice cream?

Doug was asked about the ice cream video during his press conference. His response:

“Can’t you tell?” he joked, pointing to his stomach.

One of the other ... noteworthy ... moments of his press conference is when someone brought up how teams wearing white jerseys have gone 12-1 in the last 13 Super Bowls. In case you were wondering, no question is too ridiculous to ask during Super Bowl week.

Doug joked that they need to change the jersey colors immediately.

Watch his entire Thursday press conference below or CLICK HERE if you can’t see the video.

3 - Eagles players speak for the last time

After Pederson got done, Nick Foles came up to the stage for his final press conference. Foles touched on his faith and talked about how he wants to become a pastor after his football career is over. He said he really enjoys sharing his faith with middle school and high school kids. He also talked about how Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich is ordained, which is something I’m not sure anyone really knew.

Watch his entire Thursday press conference below or CLICK HERE if you can’t see the video.

As was the case on Tuesday and Wednesday, a number of Eagles players were available at podiums for the final time. By this point in the week, nothing too interesting was revealed. Chris Long did share some nice perspective on his charity work and what he has to say to the cynics out there.

One small thing that stood out is how Jay Ajayi refers to Doug Pederson as “Coach Pete.” It’s a little funny to hear him say that with his British accent.

Watch Eagles players speak below or CLICK HERE if you can’t see the video.

I headed back to the media lounge for lunch, which was catered by Buffalo Wild Wings. The lounge also had chocolate chip cookies from Chick-fil-A. Those were really good.

After getting some work done, I walked back to the hotel. In the freezing weather.

4 - The silly video I was part of came out

In Wednesday’s diary, I mentioned how I spent part of the day shooting a video for SB Nation. Here it is.

5 - Minnesota nice

I didn’t feel like going very far for dinner because it was cold and I still had work to do. So I ended up at the Outback Steakhouse attached to the hotel next to mine.

I had a really nice waitress there who asked if I was an Eagles fan. I told her about BGN and everything. Despite being a Vikings fan, she told me that she’s rooting for the Eagles and so are her young daughters. She said she wasn’t bitter about the NFC Championship Game loss because it wasn’t like the Eagles did anything wrong. She was just more disappointed in the Vikings for not showing up. Minnesota fans: let it be known that this is the correct reaction to that game.

After posting that tweet, I got a lot of “she was just trying to get a good tip!” responses. Maybe, but she didn’t seem like a total butt kisser. She threw a little shade with a “I promise we won’t throw anything at you here” joke.

Genuine or not, the hospitality was appreciated. I much prefer that than to some bitter Vikings fan who is trying to ruin my dinner.

As I’ve pointed out several times this week, the people in Minnesota have been really nice. A number of Vikings fans are definitely still salty, without a doubt. But the people as a whole ... I can’t complain about them.

6 - Odds and ends

I returned to the hotel to take care of some work stuff.

A few things I wanted to mention here.

BGN Radio is around 15,000 listens away from FIVE MILLION lifetime listens. Help us get there by listening to the Super Bowl recap show, aka Episode 300! Subscribe to BGN Radio now if you haven’t already. Also leave us a five star rating and a review!

I spent part of the night reflecting on how great it is that the Eagles are in the Super Bowl. Imagine being fans of the other NFC East teams right now.

I mean, the Eagles are playing in the Super Bowl while the Cowboys are tweeting out pictures of their punter.

Lol Cowboys.

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That does it for Thursday’s diary. Now that the Eagles are done with media availability, the diaries are going to slow down a little bit. I might combine Friday and Saturday together since I’m mainly spending those days trying to get work done here on the site. We’ll see.

As always, stay tuned to BGN for more updates!