Lane Johnson is a world champion, the star right tackle of the unquestioned victors of Super Bowl LII. But Johnson remains peeved by how the New England Patriots treated his Philadelphia Eagles in the lead-up to February's big game.
"Here's what pissed me off," Johnson prefaced to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin of all people on the wrestler's podcast. "The Patriots, obviously, I respect their coach, I respect Bill Belichick], I respect [Tom Brady, but just because the way that they won the Super Bowls, the Patriot Way, is that how everybody else is supposed to do the same thing? No, it's not. And that's what I got mad at, the arrogance by them.
"There was obviously some stuff behind closed doors. Their owner talking s--- to our owner. Bill talking s--- to our head coach [Doug Pederson] before the game. I'm not going to say it, but a lot of s--- kind built up to that, and I just got tired of hearing about it, man, to be honest."
This isn't the first time in the aftermath of the Eagles' 41-33 victory over the Pats that Johnson has taken shots at New England's way of doing things. In mid-February, the right tackle called the Pats "a fear-based organization" and taunted Belichick's players for acting like "f----- robots" in interviews.
"Obviously, do they win? Hell yes, they win. They've won for a long time," Johnson said on the Pardon My Take podcast at the time. "Do I think people enjoy and can say, 'I had a lot of fun playing there?' No, I don't. That's just the God's honest truth.
"You only get to do this job one time, so let's have fun while we're doing it. Not to be reckless, but I'd much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable and win five Super Bowls."
Johnson's mid-May jabs will likely go unanswered. The Patriots, by Johnson's own admission, are a reserved outfit. Both clubs have moved on to minicamps and OTAs. Plus, no one cares for a sore winner, especially one whose confidence is bolstered by an appearance on a retired wrestler's podcast.
But petty insults aside, Johnson still reserves the right to brag about being a part of the offense that outgunned the great Tom Brady.
"I saw a Patriots] defense that wasn't overly talented. It was all really about containing [Tom Brady," Johnson added. "We had a hard time doing that -- he had 505 yards. But that was really it, man. Going into the game, I'm not going to be shell-shocked by it. That was kind of our thing going in. I think we had the upper hand on that."
The scoreboard doesn't lie, and as long as Johnson is in proximity of a podcast booth, he won't let us forget it.