Philadelphia

The Story Behind Eagles' Dog Masks

"I don't know if you heard, there was a little narrative this week that the media was pushing that evidently we were like not favored?"

It's not every day a defensive end wears a dog mask while he does interviews in the locker room after a playoff game.

But Saturday wasn't just any other day.

Chris Long and Lane Johnson both brought pretty authentically looking Halloween dog masks to the Eagles-Falcons playoff game Saturday night to riff on the underdog theme they heard for the last two weeks.

Johnson wore his walking off the field after the Eagles' tense 15-10 win at the Linc (see Roob's observations). Long wore his doing interviews after the game in the home locker room.

Asked what prompted the mask, Long said: "I don't know if you heard, there was a little narrative this week that the media was pushing that evidently we were like not favored?

"So I (got) this mask. Somebody was like, 'What's up with the wolf mask?' First of all, it's a German shepherd. And it's the underdog mask and I wasn't going to field any questions but I decided I would field them in the dog mask."

And that's how the 32-year-old Long found himself standing in the locker room doing interviews wearing a German shepherd mask.

Asked what the reaction to the mask has been, Long looked at a writer while the mask covering his face and said: "People are terrified. You guys are scared right now. You're shaking all over.

"It's big time to win the game, but we really wanted to put the masks on, so that was an added bonus."

The idea was for Long and Johnson to walk off the field together, both wearing the masks.

"We were looking for each other," Long said. "But I couldn't find his scent."

Johnson said it's all part of being loose and having fun playing the game they love.

"Just having some fun," he said. "We were called underdogs all week so I figured we needed a good dog mask. I had it hidden in (Jason Peters') coat. If we hadn't won the game that mask would have never been seen."

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