Nick Foles Revealed The Full Name Of The Philly Special Play Call, And Thank Goodness It's Just Remembered As The Philly Special
Nick Foles has it made. He's going to be able to talk about this play for the rest of his life. He's going to be able to milk the Philly Special for all its worth, and then some. Because until there are another 10 or so iconic plays made, it'll forever be remembered as one of the best plays in Super Bowl history. The play itself was incredible, but the context makes it all the better. The Patriots being a dynasty. The Eagles looking to win their first ever Super Bowl. Tom Brady missing a catch in the same game. Nick Foles, a backup to start the year, going in and out dueling the greatest quarterback ever and winning Super Bowl MVP.
Everything about the Philly Special was iconic. But most importantly--the name.
Sure, there was some initial discrepancy about whether it was called "Philly Philly" or the "Philly Special", since Foles went up to Doug Pederson on the sideline and asked for "Philly Philly". But once it was established that it was the Philly Special, the name immortalized the play for eternity. It gave the play a life of its own. A life that we probably wouldn't be talking about quite as much if it was remembered by
"Float to pistol, target left bunch, Philly special on the dummy kill".
It just doesn't quite roll off the tongue, now does it? There wouldn't be as much merch. There wouldn't be as many teams running a copycat version of the play. I wouldn't be writing this blog right now.
But fortunately, someone out there had the foresight to just refer to this play as the "Philly Special". And now we'll get to remember the Eagles beating the Patriots' ass for the rest of time.