While many Americans spent time with family and friends, eating Chicken Wings and drinking Soda while the biggest Football game of the year occurred. However, during the game, I noticed something Fishy with the NFC’s best team, The Philadelphia Eagles. 

The Eagles wiped the floor with the 2020, 2022, and 2023 Lombardi Trophy-winning Kansas City Chiefs, beating them 40-22, the largest margin of victory in the big game since the last time KC lost in the Superbowl against the Buccaneers in 2021; where the final was 31-9. 

The “Fishy” thing about the game involved Eagles Kicker Jake Elliot and the Philadelphia Special Teams Unit. 

The Eagles kicked four Field Goals in Sunday’s game, and the Eagle’s Field Goal Unit committed 5-yard False Start Penalties on every single one of them; in fact, three of the four flags were thrown due to Long Snapper Nick Lovato committing False Starts.

You may be asking yourself, “Why does this matter?”. Well, on Penalties that happen right as the ball is snapped, some of the play will occur before the whistle is blown. In this case, Jake Elliot, Philadelphia Eagles Kicker had the opportunity to kick a “Practice Kick” that didn’t count due to the Penalty. This undoubtedly gave him an advantage because not only do kickers get more of a warmup when kicking one more time, but they also can adjust their mechanics if they miss the “Practice Kick”.

Whether Philly did this on purpose or not is up to the fans, it may have mattered in the grand scheme of things, without the 12 points off Jake Elliot’s four Field Goals, the Chiefs would only be down by one possession, making it much more likely that they could’ve made a 34 point comeback, the largest in Superbowl History. The NFL is a Copycat league, a team invents a new way to beat the best, and the fastest team to copy them is almost always as successful if not better than the inventor. 

Mark my words. Eventually, we will see this implemented in other big games in the future of this great game we fall Football.