After years of floundering with the St. Louis Rams, Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long is now poised to make his second consecutive Super Bowl appearance. Long will be squaring off against none other than his former team in the New England Patriots.

The veteran enjoyed quite a successful championship run with the Patriots last year before joining the Eagles before the 2017 NFL season. Needless to say, there are no hard feelings between Long and former head coach Bill Belichick, according to ESPN's Mike Reiss

“Chris has a lot of good skills, but his overall skill set and experience is definitely more in the system that he’s in than it was in our system,” Belichick said, noting that the Eagles’ 4-3 defense is similar to what Long had played in the first eight seasons of his career with the Rams.

“He did a great job for us. There was no better teammate or guy that tried to embrace the program than Chris, but in the end he probably has a better fit there for his skills and for this point in his career than maybe we had for him. I understand that. He probably made a good decision.”

It is refreshing to see the two former colleagues still share high praise for each other. Furthermore, it is evident that their decision to part ways has ultimately worked out best for both teams.

Although Long saw a slight downtick in playing time in Philadelphia, he managed to record 5.0 sacks during the regular season — one more than his total in New England. He has made his presence felt in the playoffs as well with two pass deflections and a fumble recovery. That said, his matchup with left tackle Nate Solder will be one of the more intriguing aspects of Super Bowl LII.