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Memes fly like Eagles as Philly pecks apart the Vikings

Social media was buzzing about everything from Nick Foles' phone call to Crisco-covered street lights. And now, Tom Brady awaits.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper

Does it really matter that the Philadelphia Eagles won the NFC conference championship? Because as fans learned Sunday, the triumphant Eagles will just have to go up against the seemingly invincible Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, who beat the Jacksonville Jaguars earlier in the day.

But for Eagles fans, that's still two weeks away, and Sunday was a day for celebrating, and especially for praising QB Nick Foles' surprising rise.

Vikings fans (of which I am sadly one) were still coming off last week's Minneapolis/Minnesota Miracle.

Which soon felt as old as the biblical miracles, as the Eagles just took over and flew.

And when Foles was photographed talking on the phone on the sidelines, fans started ringing up ideas about what he was saying.

There was plenty of weirdness before the game even started. Vikings fans traveled to the famous Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to perform their "Skol!" chant, and even give Rocky a fashion makeover.

Philly fans took it personally.

Also, Philadelphia police took cans of Crisco shortening to grease up light poles in the city, hoping to stop fans from climbing them after the game. The effort even earned its own hashtag: #CriscoCops.

Super Bowl LII will be played Feb. 4 in Minneapolis. But the two weeks of hype will make it seem like an eternity till then.