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Eagles SVP of Communications Finally Got to Shake Jim Schwartz’s Hand After Infamous Postgame Debacle
By Kyle Pagan
Published:

You probably remember the infamous handshake between Jim Schwartz and Jim Harbaugh after the Lions and 49ers played back in 2011:
What you might not know is that one of the main characters during that scrum now works for the Philadelphia Eagles. The guy who tried to broker peace and push Harbaugh to the locker room is SVP of Communications Bob Lange:

Schwartz is the Brown’s defensive coordinator, so Lange got to see him this week, and made sure he went up to give him a handshake of his own, the story told by former Inquirer writer Bob Brookover, who is now with NJ.com:
(Landon) Dickerson’s appearance with cool, refreshing gifts for his fellow offensive linemen wasn’t, however, the most interesting scene following practice Thursday.
That distinction belonged to Bob Lange, the pride of St. Joseph’s Prep and Eagles’ senior vice president of media relations.Five minutes or so after practice ended, Lange could be seen chasing down Jim Schwartz, the former Eagles defensive coordinator who now is in the same role with the Browns.
…
Lange ran up to Schwartz following practice Thursday and the two exchanged a cordial and comical handshake.
“Hey, I remember you,” Schwartz said.
That’s an awesome story! The NFL is funny because a viral video from almost 15 years ago can still bond people together. Since that handshake heard ’round the world, Schwartz has gone on to win a Super Bowl with the Eagles, Harbaugh has won a National Championship with Michigan, and Lange has a ring himself now. I’d say it all worked out for everyone. The video of Lange will be on his retirement reel one day. He might have it engraved on his headstone. He was a warrior that night. He put his body in between two jacked-up bulls and a bunch of pissed-off players without any protection and lived to tell the story. Who knows what happens if Lange isn’t there? That moment is why Nick Sirianni walks out to mid-field flanked by Big Dom and why college coaches have a deputy next to them. Just to defuse the situation in case one guy “good games” another guy to hard.
Fwiw, Harbaugh did admit later down the line that the handshake was all his fault, but it’s funny how it turned the football world upside down forever. I gotta imagine it was something like this:

Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com