Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman Lane Johnson speaks to the media last month in the week leading up to Super Bowl LII. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson stood by his comments of calling the New England Patriots a "fear-based organization" during a return appearance on Barstool Sports' "Pardon My Take" podcast.
"Here's the whole deal," Johnson said. "I think a lot of guys just want to be happy playing football. ... The Patriots obviously won five Super Bowls, so it's the Patriot Way to win the Super Bowl. Does that mean that everybody has to act the same way? Do the same thing? Is that necessarily the guidelines to win the Super Bowl?"
In his initial interview, Johnson ruffled a lot of feathers by saying that he'd "much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable and win five Super Bowls."
Several former Patriots -- including ESPN analyst Tedy Bruschi -- took issue with Johnson's comments, which were made a few days after the Eagles posted a 41-33 win over New England in Super Bowl LII.
"Lane Johnson, I don't know what he's talking about," Bruschi said on ESPN's First Take at the time. "I had a lot of fun. There were so many times that we would speak out in meetings, the entire team would erupt out in laughter, we're playing music on the team plane. We had so much fun, in the ones that I was there. I cannot understand what he's saying there."
Johnson responded on Twitter by saying "Once a company man always a company man Tedy."
The 27-year-old Johnson continued to address the topic on the more recent version of the podcast.
"They kept interviewing ex-Patriots players," Johnson said. "What do you think they're going to say? 'I (expletive) hated it there'? No. 'I won Super Bowls. We had a great time.' They're not going to bad-mouth their coach. They're not going to say what they really want to say. Do you think that's going to happen? Hell no, it's not going to happen."
Johnson's initial comments also prompted many Patriots fans to take him to task over social media.
"I just (expletive) in everybody's Cheerios," Johnson said. "And everybody in Boston -- hey, I've got hate mail I still haven't read. I'm looking forward to reading it."
