Eagles OL Lane Johnson and DE Chris Long following Saturday's NFC Divisional Playoff win over the Falcons "both walked off the field wearing dog masks as a nod to the team’s status as the first No.1 seed to be an underdog in its first postseason game," and many fans are "apparently picking up their own underdog masks," according to Rob Tornoe of the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. Images of Johnson donning the mask "quickly went viral, and after Long revealed the players had purchased the masks on Amazon for just $10.99, fans rushed the online retailer, which is now sold out." There is "no word from Amazon on whether more masks will be in stock in time" for Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the Vikings at Lincoln Financial Field (PHILLY.com, 1/15). Former NFLer Geoff Schwartz tweeted, "A great way to explain this NFL season is that German Shepherd dog masks are being ordered in such mass by @Eagles fans, they are sold out worldwide. It's been an odd season." ESPN Eagles reporter Tim McManus: "The Linc is going to get weird Sunday." Lehigh men's basketball announcer Tom Fallon: "The last thing I would do in a conference championship game is dress up like Browns fans! That's begging for a heartbreak!" The Philly Voice's Brian Hickey: "You don’t invite Cleveland into your aura just like Craig T. Nelson shouldn’t have allowed his family to live in a home atop a Native American burial ground." NBC Sports Philadelphia: "Dress up your dog in Eagles gear and send us a photo!"
NEVER FEAR, UNDERDOG IS HERE! FORBES' Dave Caldwell notes after the Eagles' victory, T-shirt company BreakingT was "ready to pounce" on the team's underdog status for the NFC Championship with a green “Philadelphia Underdogs” shirt, which sells for $25. The shirt launched online at 1:00am ET Sunday and is "already one of BreakingT’s best-selling shirts of the NFL season." BreakingT President Jamie Mottram said the company "operates kind of like a newsroom in that we watch all the big games and monitor social data with the intention of capturing the key moments.” Mottram: "The dog masks triggered our social alerts like crazy. That was obviously the thing people were responding to." Mottram added, "It was just a matter of refining the 'Philly Underdogs' idea and kicking it over to our head designer, Nick Torres, who knocked it out of the park. This all unfolded over the course of about four hours, start to finish” (FORBES.com, 1/16).
