Cubs Use Trey Burton’s 1st Pitch in Attempt to Smear ‘Philly Special’

In case you missed it, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl a few months ago.

During the Eagles' championship, elite-by-Joe-Flacco standards quarterback Nick Foles caught a touchdown pass on 4th-and-goal at the end of the first half. It later became known as the Philly Special and it's arguably the greatest play in sports history.

Fast forward to Saturday. Trey Burton, the former third-string Eagles tight end who threw the TD pass to Foles and is now with the Bears, threw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field.

The pitch itself wasn't too shabby and Burton did no wrong. That's when the Cubs' official Twitter account decided to stir the pot.

The Chicago Special. pic.twitter.com/oWsLEqg1iZ— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 26, 2018

What?

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Never mind the Philly Special was inspired by a play the Bears ran against the Vikings and borrowed from Clemson (see story). In Chicago's version, Matt Barkley (remember him?) caught the TD pass in a game far less meaningful.

The Bears, well, they did not win the Super Bowl. They were a hot mess in 2017 as they tried to mimic the Eagles' blueprint by starting their No. 2 overall draft pick quarterback. Except Mitch Trubisky is no Carson Wentz. The only similarities are that both were No. 2 picks and both the Eagles and Bears traded up to draft both of them.

It's a pretty good blueprint and while Foles won the Eagles the Super Bowl, they would not have been in the playoffs without Wentz. Professional sports are all about copycats. Howie Roseman's master plan was genius and other teams took notice.

The Bears realized they desperately needed a franchise QB and traded up to draft Trubisky in 2017. Will it pay out? We'll see, but the seed was planted by Roseman.

This offseason, the Bears decided they needed to take another page out of the Eagles' playbook and signed Burton. Best of luck to Trey in Chicago; he'll forever be linked to the Eagles' Super Bowl team.

But on Saturday, the Cubs decided to turn Burton's first pitch into a publicity stunt and, predictably so, Philly Twitter did not take kindly. Just a few reactions: