MINNEAPOLIS — While the New England Patriots tried to explain their Super Bowl LII loss Sunday night, two of their former teammates celebrated one room over.
Defensive end Chris Long and running back LeGarrette Blount both signed with the Philadelphia Eagles after winning Super Bowl LI with New England last season, then helped Philly win its first championship in the Super Bowl era.
Blount ran for a game-high 90 yards and a touchdown, and Long tallied one tackle and two quarterback hits as the Eagles outgunned the Patriots 41-33 at U.S. Bank Stadium.
After the game, Long reflected on his and Blount’s decisions to leave the Patriots, who have played in eight of the last 16 Super Bowls and won five, to join an Eagles franchise that hadn’t won a championship since 1960.
“Listen, I’m just lucky, I’m blessed, and LeGarrette and I just make good decisions,” said Long, who now has won back-to-back Super Bowl titles after failing to even reach the postseason in his first eight NFL seasons. “That’s all it is. We took a big leap of faith to leave somewhere like (New England) where you know you’re going to be in big games like that. We had to live with the fact that maybe we’d have to watch them do that. We just became a part of a great team, and the better team won today.”
Blount, who has two Super Bowl rings from his time with the Patriots, averaged 6.4 yards per carry in the win.
“This is a resilient group of guys,” Blount said. “It’s not about the other team on the other side. It’s about this team and this resilient group of guys. We’ve done everything the coaches have told us to do all season. Everything. We dug deep. We knew this was going to be a grind. We knew that this wasn’t going to be easy. We knew this was a team we had to do everything perfect (to beat). We did everything we had to do to get the W.
“I love these guys more than they know. I appreciate every single thing they’ve done for me.”
