No. That's always been done and to a certain extent accepted.
It's also been fine historically for teams to sit players with any type of injury small or otherwise, as the Eagles did on Sunday.
It's never been fine to field a team of any sort and then not try to win with that team. The Steelers, as an example while resting for the playoffs did sit starters but they give Cleveland all they could handle and didn't decide to pull Rudolph when the game got close.
What the Eagles did was egregious and should never be acceptable.
Did any of you screaming that this is no big thing etc.. stop for one second and wonder why NFL players and coaches are getting upset by this particular scenario?
I agree, but there's three things that let me see the Eagles POV,
- They didn't ask to be flexed to primetime, that was the NFL's decision. If this happened at 10am slot maybe no one cares
- Why should the Eagles have to risk their players safety for a game that doesn't mean anything to them? What if Hurts tears his achilles and isn't ready for opening day next season?
- It's not the Eagles job to get us or the Giants into the playoffs. If we wanted to get in, we should have won an extra game
The way it happened is unprofessional, but I find it hard to be as mad as I was when I was watching the game.