Farewell to the life of the Philadelphia Eagles party

Earlier this month, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, Louisiana in Super Bowl LIX and have been riding high ever since. On February 14, they celebrated the victory in their home town of Philly with the traditional Super Bowl parade.

Eagles fan favorite gets cut

One of the players who stood out during the parade was center Nick Gates, who celebrated without a shirt despite the sub-freezing temperatures. He became a fan favorite that day as he ate pizza, drank beer, and celebrated the victory, shirtless, without a care in the world.

Anthony DiBona of Philly Sports Network wrote, “Nick Gates will be remembered forever in Philadelphia for two things: 1) Negating Will Shipley’s epic first rushing TD of his NFL career with a holding penalty 2) Going shirtless for the Super Bowl LIX victory parade."

Unfortunately, that’s the last Philly will be seeing of him for a while, as the Eagles released Gates just four days later.

“The Eagles released offensive lineman Nick Gates on Tuesday,” the team said in a statement. “Gates was signed by the Eagles during Training Camp as a veteran insurance option with 41 career regular-season and playoff starts across four of the five starting offensive line positions before arriving in Philadelphia.”

Gates joined the NFL in 2018 as an undrafted free agent and has been making his way around the NFC East since then - just missing the Dallas Cowboys, but perhaps they’re next. Gates signed with the New York Giants in 2018 and played there until 2021, when he signed with the Washington Commanders. He joined the Eagles at the start of the 2024 season and joined them on their journey to the Super Bowl.

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