We're going to give you the short version of a bizarre tale that unfolded inside the rough-and-tumble NFC East this week.
When undrafted free agent Phillip Thomas inked a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday, they wanted to see some ID.
"Here," he said, holding up his smartphone. "Look, this is my Facebook page right here."
There's a reason for the beefed-up security measures. The former Syracuse safety has an imposter.
Yahoo! Sports reported that a phony Phillip Thomas has spent a considerable amount of time convincing the world he's a member of the Washington Redskins. The phony Phillip Thomas (aka PPT) cooked up a Facebook page with photos of the real one, along with images taken inside Redskins Park. He later posted a photo of the Redskins' playbook, taken from inside a hotel room (our bet: The Watergate).
PPT was just getting started: He sent Les Carpenter of Yahoo! Sports a note saying he wanted nothing to do with the Eagles and planned to be with the Redskins by training camp. Thomas became a hot topic on Redskins message boards after PPT conducted a series of interviews with Adam Bradley, a host of Ball Hogs Radio. PPT poetically described the beauty of listening to a Mike Shanahan pep talk and awed Redskins faithful listeners with his adoration for deceased safety Sean Taylor, whose career he hoped to emulate.
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"What baffles me is how this guy got the information about the practices and the (team) workouts Phillip Thomas was doing," Bradley told Carpenter. "Phillip Thomas has to know something about this person."
The real Phillip Thomas remains perplexed in Philly: "I have no idea who this is. He's got to be watching my every move."
The imposter is still out there, lurking in the deep shadows of one the more perplexing free-agent narratives in some time.
There's more to this story, so don't forget to read Carpenter's original piece. It's a mind-bender.
