File this under: Coin Flips Continue To Be Strangely Important In Professional Football.
According to the Eagles' official site, the coin flip will take place on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in the bench press area of the Indiana Convention Center, at the NFL Combine. Eagles general manager Howie Roseman explained that the coin is double-headed with the Vikings logo on one side and the Colts logo on the other. (The Eagles own the Vikings' first-round pick as part of the trade that sent Sam Bradford to Minnesota last year.)
Why standard U.S. currency wouldn't suffice -- we always found the quarter to be a solid flip -- is unclear. Teams like to nerd out sometimes, we have no big problem with it.
"We're all hoping for the best," Roseman said. "It's a big week for this organization, including the coin flip. We're excited."
The coin flip has serious football juice. Look no further than the last game played, when the captains for the Patriots and Falcons met at midfield for the overtime coin toss at Super Bowl LI. At that point, Atlanta's defense was completely gassed and stood virtually no chance of stopping Tom Brady if New England got the ball first. We know how that played out.
So if a coin toss can help decide the championship, why not a draft pick? One last note: This is the first draft pick coin toss in three years. We're seeing it because the Eagles and Vikings finished with the same 8-8 record last season (tiebreaker No. 1) as well as the same opponent winning percentage (tiebreaker No. 2). Weird, but not unprecedented.
