Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of mic’d-up footage from the opening coin toss. You’ll have the captains shaking hands, telling each other good luck and getting ready for the toss. It’s almost never interesting.
Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham is the exception to that. He knows that the coin toss is his first opportunity to throw his opponent off their game. He did just that on Saturday.
In the latest edition of Inside the NFL from NFL Films, we were treated to footage from the Eagles’ 38-7 win over the Giants in the divisional round. And man, Graham was already fired up on the walk to midfield. He had a message for each of the Giants’ captains, and they were almost taken aback by the intensity.
.@brandongraham55 wanted all the smoke during the coin toss 🗣️@Eagles | @insidetheNFL pic.twitter.com/a5N4hkrCIj
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) January 24, 2023
He said:
“Oh, yeah, boy, we running right at you, 9-7. We running right at you. And you know not to run this way! Hey 8, I’m on that throwing arm all day, 8! Yeah. We running right at you, 9-7! You look like you’re tired from this week.”
But hey, if you’re going to talk that early, you better back it up. And Graham did that with a sack in a lopsided win.
Fans also thought this footage was hilarious. You really don’t see that every game at all.