A He has competition Renovated.
Philadelphia will host the NFC Championship game between Eagles and visiting Washington leaders on Sunday.
Before the game, the famous Rocky statue in downtown Philadelphia was dressed in clothing representing the leaders' former identity, the Redskins.
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The culprit is unknown.
Dressing up the statue with opposing teams' jerseys has become a tradition in recent years before big Eagles playoff games. Every time that happened, the Eagles came away with wins.
In 2022, the statue was dressed in New York Giants gear before the game against the Eagles in the divisional round. The Eagles won that game 38-7. The following week, the statue was dressed in San Francisco 49ers gear before the Niners arrived in Philadelphia for the NFC Championship game. The Eagles won that game by a score of 31-7.
When the Eagles won their first Super Bowl in the 2017 season, the statue was also dressed in the jerseys of opposing teams.
Before that season's NFC Championship game between the Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings, the statue was draped in a Vikings jersey, which the Eagles won 38-7. Before the Super Bowl, someone placed a New England Patriots jersey on the statue, and the Eagles beat the Patriots 41-33 to claim their first Super Bowl title.
The vandalism became so frequent that Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs implored his fan base not to dress the statue with any Chiefs gear before the 2023 Super Bowl. The Chiefs won that game 38-35.
“Bosses, don't touch the Rocky Memorial!” Kelsey said during a February 2023 episode of his podcast New Heights.
“Don't do that and definitely don't put number 87 on it!”
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Former Eagles center Jason Kelce, who played against Travis and the Chiefs in that game, theorized the culprit was an Eagles fan.
“I'll be honest. I think someone from Philly is doing this right now,” Jason Kelce said.
“I don't think this is an opposing team thing at this point. There's no way opposing teams are going to keep doing this. I'm convinced there's a Philadelphia fan putting these jerseys on the Rocky statue just to get everyone excited.” And it works tremendously.
“So, keep doing it. I guarantee it. There's no way. Because it happens every game. The Giants did it. The 49ers did it. There's probably going to be a Chiefs jersey on it this week.”
Now, Washington has surged, and will look to break the trend.
It will be the first time the rivals have met in a conference championship game and represents a high point for a rivalry that has been dormant in recent decades due to Washington's inability to win the playoffs since the 1990s.
The 2024 season was the first since 2005 that Washington won a playoff berth, and the first since 1991 that the franchise reached the conference championship game.
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