I understand me telling you this, when the Eagles season derailed like it did, is like saying the vacation down the shore would’ve been fun if dad hadn’t totaled the car on the Garden State Parkway tailgating someone. But it’s true. The Birds know the OT rules, maybe better than anyone, thanks to their assistant GM Jon Ferrari:

They even linked up with the Colts to provide some extra muscle.

Ferrari is in his 8th season with the Eagles and explained the reason the Eagles proposed the rule on a podcast with Dave Spadaro, via Dave Zangaro’s story at NBCSports Philly:

Ferrari said that the Eagles and Colts had proposed rule changes that were nearly identical in 2022 so the two clubs teamed up. They figured they’d have strength in numbers if they presented together. Ultimately, the proposal at that year’s league meetings came from both Indianapolis and Philadelphia.

The Eagles and Colts met at the Combine that year to merge their proposals and then began working with the league to shore up the language of the proposal for the upcoming league meetings.

“Even something as simple as giving a second possession in overtime can create a waterfall, a cascade of unintended consequences if you’re not making sure your language is totally buttoned up. So that’s what we did,” Ferrari said on the podcast. “We felt really good about it going into the league meeting. We felt like we had support. You’re never quite sure. A lot of people liked it for postseason only. Our proposal was for postseason and regular season. The thinking being that you don’t want the game to be different in the regular season and the postseason. You want to keep it as similar as possible.”

Jason Kelce even mentioned on his New Heights show that he was texting Nick Sirianni before the coin toss even happened because they go over the same scenarios in meetings:

Good to know the Eagles couldn’t have embarrassed us beyond losing six of their last seven after starting 10-1. Look at me. The optimist.