Hue Jackson and the Cleveland Browns didn’t win the Super Bowl, but it sure felt like it after they ended their long winless drought on Thursday. And they did it with the help of a play reminiscent of the one Philadelphia Eagles ran in their Super Bowl triumph, the Philly Special, on a two-point conversion.
After the game, Jackson denied ripping off the play from the Eagles, claiming that he, offensive coordinator Todd Haley, and others around the league had also thought of that play well before Philly pulled it out in the Super Bowl.
“We did not steal that from them,” Jackson told reporters per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “Please. I know everybody wants to think that. We have had that in our back pocket for a while. Go check my tricks from before, and go check [offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s] tricks from before. We all have them. It is just when you pull them out and use them. That is what that is.”
It’s not hard to believe Jackson’s comments. The Eagles are hardly the first team to think of that type of trick play in league history. It just so happens that there’s some recency bias coupled with the fact that they decided to use that particular play in a high-profile situation during the Super Bowl, which is why many will associate it with them.
Like the Eagles, Jackson saw it as the perfect opportunity to pull out that play from his back pocket. And while that play didn’t help win the Super Bowl, it will still hold a special place in the hearts of Browns fans after it factored into them snapping their 635-day-long winless drought.
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