The venom that Eagles fans didn’t direct at horses, Tom Brady and their own cityfollowing the team’s Super Bowl LII victory was saved for Cris Collinsworth.
The NBC color man introduced himself as Public Enemy No. 1 in Philadelphia on Sunday night, when he reacted with incredulity to a pair of Eagles touchdowns remaining touchdowns in the season of the overturned catch.
All year, fans and players have raged at the controversial non-catches, in which receptions that are plain to the eye are deemed incomplete for not “surviving the ground” or what officials rule is a bobble. That changed in Minneapolis, where two Eagles scores were confirmed by replay.
This wasn’t the game Collinsworth had watched all season.
“I give up,” the former Bengals receiver said after Corey Clement reeled in a third-quarter catch at the back of the end zone, in which the ball did appear to move but apparently not enough to change the NFL’s mind. “If that ball’s not loose in his arms when that last foot came down, I give up.”
Collinsworth also questioned the game-deciding touchdown, a pass to Zach Ertz that saw the tight end take three steps and dive into the end zone, where the ball came loose.
He wondered aloud about the call before throwing up his hands: “I’m not even taking a guess.”
As Collinsworth tried to dissect the controversial catch rule, Eagles fans — and some not-as-biased spectators — wanted to dissect him.
“Cris Collinsworth can never be allowed to call a game again,” Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania) wrote. “It’s a catch and a TD.”
“Collinsworth making it clear who he wants to win. Lol,” Redskins running back Chris Thompson wrote.
“NBC’s Cris Collinsworth couldn’t accept the Eagles scored a touchdown during the Super Bowl,” was the Philly.com headline.
“Great win for the city,” one fan crowed on a Fox interview. “And Cris Collinsworth, take that, baby!”
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