Johnson: Eagles Don’t Have Home Field Advantage


Lane Johnson. (Jeff Fusco)

Lane Johnson. (Jeff Fusco)

During the Eagles’ 45-17 loss against the Buccaneers on Sunday, Lane Johnson heard the boos and criticisms from fans at The Linc. When asked about it today after practice, he said fans don’t give the Eagles much of a home field advantage.

“If we get down by any significant amount of points or we don’t make any first downs, we’re going to get booed,” Johnson told Birds 24/7. “That’s just kind of how it is. It’s not really home field advantage playing here anymore. Really, that’s the truth. Cats here, they really don’t care.”

Johnson said players can’t respond because it’s a losing battle, but added that it doesn’t bother him much anymore.

“I’ve heard it so much since I’ve been here that it don’t really phase me like it used to,” he told Birds 24/7. “When I first got here though, I was like ‘Holy sh-t.'”

The Eagles have lost their last two games — both at home — and are 2-3 in Philadelphia this season. He also talked about the fans on Sunday immediately after the game.

“Today, they weren’t very polite out there,” Johnson said. “That’s typical of ’em. But you know, when we’re losing everyone is mad. I know they’re mad, they care a lot about this team. I care a lot about this team. It just sucks when we can’t go out there and produce because I really want to win and bring a championship to this city one day.”

Separately, Johnson talked about fans on social media.

“Twitter is a dangerous place. People can just say whatever they want,” he told Birds 24/7. “Social media has changed the way people approach the game now. They fear they’re going to be turned into a meme or something like that because people have to deal with that. The best thing to do is probably stay off of it or try to avoid it. There’s a lot of guys that don’t even have it, like my marketing guy runs my Twitter. I don’t really deal with it anymore, just my Instagram page. It’s different than it used to be.”

Johnson’s verified Twitter account posted an apology soon after he made his comments.