PHILADELPHIA – He walked to the shower following the Eagles Super Bowl-clinching win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday like you’d imagine an octogenarian might – slow and gimpy. Painful baby steps. He gave off an odor that smelled like pain ointment, so much of it slathered on his back that it cleared the sinuses of anybody nearby, making the eyes water.
Celebratory music thumped through the locker room. Cam Jurgens couldn’t dance. Heck, he could barely walk. He showed up at Lincoln Financial Field, and went through a pregame warmup to test his ailing back, but it was deemed he would be best served by sitting out the NFC Championship Game, that the best option would be sliding Landon Dickerson over from left guard to center and allow Tyler Steen to step in at left guard.
That lasted for a half when Dickerson banged up his knee and couldn’t continue. Enter Jurgens.
“I had a feeling at half (he’d have to play),” he said. “I had to get warm and do everything I had to do to be ready to go,”
Jurgens spent the week getting treatment – lots of heat, he said. He didn’t practice. The tide could have swung in Washington’s favor. It didn’t. Jurgens played like the 25-year-old he is and not the octogenarian he looked like afterward.
How?
“For this team,” said Jurgens “Landon’s fighting through shit. Everybody’s fighting through shit. I think we kind of went in there figuring what percent I could get up to and how much I could do. We felt those five that started were gonna give us the best shot and I was ready to come in. That was our game plan today.”
He wouldn’t put a percentage on what he was able to get to, saying only: “Good enough percent and I’ll be great for the Super Bowl.”
He has two weeks to make it so before playing in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
“I told him once he stepped in there, I was proud of him,” said right guard Mekhi Becton. “For him to fight through that and not knowing if he would play (Sunday) or not, it’s great. We all fight for each other. We all play for each other, so it’s no surprise he stepped up like he did.”
Added head coach Nick Sirianni: “These guys are playing through pain. I just can’t say enough about how much I respect these guys of what they have to do with their bodies. I don’t think anyone knows the half of it, what they have to do to play the long season.
“…All these guys are fighting through pain. I know coaches are fighting through sleep deprivation. We don’t care. We just want to keep going.”
Jurgens, of course, had to fight through a season where he had to replace Jason Kelce. He did it well enough to earn a spot in the Pro Bowl, which he won’t play in now because he was able to help the Eagles get back to the Super Bowl. He was a rookie when they went two years ago, and a reserve at the time.
“I’m just so thankful to be here in this city, get drafted to this team,” he said. “I couldn’t be in a better spot. I couldn’t have been brought into a better situation, learning from Kelce, learning from this O-line, Stout (offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland). This city is (bleeping) awesome. That stadium was incredible (Sunday). It’s been awesome all year. This team just has so much fight, so much grit. Nobody blinks. They just go out there and fight.”
Added Steen: "Cam’s a warrior for that because I know Cam was definitely battling through that injury for a while. Having to step in when an injury goes down, he’s already nowhere near 100 percent, that’s huge in having that toughness to finish the game for us. That was big."
