The Philadelphia Eagles became the Denver Broncos’ latest victims on Sunday afternoon by way of a 52-20 blowout. While trailing just 21-13 at the start of the third quarter, the Eagles seemed like they were still having some fun as Peyton Manning called out plays and audibles.
It’s common for NFL linebackers to yell back at quarterbacks when the signal-callers point to a linebacker or call out coverages. But yelling “Papa John’s” in response is a bit more rare. According to Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin, some of his teammates did just that.
“Well I know — I think I might have heard Papa John’s once, but I don’t know who said it, I mean that’s kind of funny,” Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin told 94WIP’s Michael Barkann and Ike Reese on Monday, via CBS Philly. “When any quarterback goes and talks at the line or any center, they start yelling ‘Mike’s 59′ or ’98′s the 4th down’ where they try to figure out the protection, we, on defense, we start, like I’ll say—if they start yelling ’98′s down, meaning I’m the fourth rusher, I’ll start yelling ’59′s down’ because it just confuses them.”
Deadspin has a video of one such play where you can clearly hear someone yelling “Papa Johns!” As most of you know, Manning bought more than 20 Papa John’s restaurants in the Denver area when he signed with the Broncos and has become a spokesman for the company. If that was the Eagles’ way of heckling him, it worked. They made him mad and he threw for three touchdown passes in the third quarter and put them away.
