Eagles fans know and remember Cowboys wide receiver Drew Pearson. They probably don’t like him very much.
Pearson seriously trolled Eagles fans at the 2017 NFL draft at the Art Museum and received, in return, a long, loud and boisterous Philly reception.
- “All right. How about dem Cowboys!” Pearson said before announcing Dallas’ second-round pick. “I want to thank the Eagle fans for allowing me to have a career in the NFL. Thank you.
- “I am honored as an undrafted free agent to be selected to make the Cowboys’ second-round draft pick …
- “. . . and on behalf of the five-time world champion Dallas Cowboys, Hall of Fame owner Jerry Jones, Gene Jones and the Jones family, coach Jason Garrett, all the Cowboys players that played before me, that played with me and played after me.
- “With the 60th pick in the second round, the Dallas Cowboys select defensive back from Colorado, Chidobe Awuzie.”
Wonder why he didn’t mention that the Cowboys only have 3 playoff wins in the last 25 years. Weird.
LOOKING TO DOMINATE THE NFC EAST
Well, Pearson is back at it, poking the Eagles. On the recent Zach Gelb podcast, Pearson acknowledged the Eagles have improved, the Cowboys have not, but dismissed the Eagles’ chances in 2022 anyway.
He is acting entirely too overconfident, which makes us believe he does in fact fear how good the Eagles will be this year.
“We should have a lot of confidence that we can dominate the NFC East,” said Pearson, a native of South River, N.J., who played with the Cowboys from 1973-83.
“[The Cowboys had] success playing the teams that didn’t have better records. A team like San Francisco had great defense and we couldn’t do anything against them, but I think playing Philadelphia twice this past season, I think we scored 90 points combined [92, actually; 51 in the meaningless season finale].
“We’re not that afraid of Philadelphia. They did make some great moves in the offseason with the addition of [A.J.] Brown at wide receiver. Jalen Hurts will be a lot better and a little more confident in that position.”
HURTS NOT A ‘LOSING-TYPE GUY’
“We can’t take him [Hurts] lightly because you’ve got to remember when he came out of college he was a winning quarterback,” Pearson said.
“He’s not a losing-type guy so he’s probably doing all he can to get back on the winning track and get Philly on the winning track coming off a 9-8 season. We finished 12-5 in that division last year and I don’t see that division getting much better. I don’t think we’ve improved that much, I think we’ve lost some along the way, especially when you lose a Randy Gregory as a pass rusher …
“Losing [Amari] Cooper and stuff like that, and other guys we’ve lost — La’el Collins. We’re not the same football team either, so we’ll see how it plays. But I think our main competition in the NFC East will be Philadelphia.”
Generally, the haughty Cowboys take themselves pretty seriously. The Cowboys and Eagles are the favorites to win the NFC East by both casual and serious observers.
The Washington Commanders are considered more of an uncertainty — they could challenge us for the division or they could be mediocre. Nobody seems concerned about the Giants.
“The expectations around here are pretty high … We always think we have a chance, especially coming out of the NFC East,” Pearson said on the podcast.
“Our main goal should be to get into the playoffs and do that by winning the NFC East and re-establish our goals and see if we can reach an outstanding goal like getting to the Super Bowl and winning the Super Bowl.”
MCCARTHY ON HOT SEAT?
“But [coach Mike] McCarthy’s got to be the man in charge … because we’ve got Sean Payton waiting in the wings back there and he’s always wanted to be a head coach of the Dallas Cowboys,” Pearson said.
Hmmm, that’s interesting, coming from a Pro Football Hall of Famer and life-long Cowboy. Sean Payton, eh? “Waiting in the wings”?
McCarthy losing his job to Payton is part of the rumor ecosystem surrounding the Cowboys but former players don’t say it out loud. Or talk openly about the current coach’s possible replacement.
Pearson was a three-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro in his 11 seasons in Dallas. He was on Dallas’ 1977 Super Bowl championship team.
He was the recipient of the famous Roger Staubach “Hail Mary” pass in the 1975 divisional playoffs against Minnesota. Dallas trailed, 14-10, until Staubach connected with Pearson for the winning score.
The fans at the Art Museum still aren’t impressed.
