Scott Van Pelt Scott Van Pelt predicted the Eagles would win late in “Monday Night Football,” just before they blew their lead to the Falcons. Photo Credit: ESPN
ESPNNFLBy Arthur Weinstein on

Scott Van Pelt should know better.

You never count out a football team down by only one score with two minutes left.

But SVP did just that on Monday Night Football. The Philadelphia Eagles led the visiting Atlanta Falcons 18-15, with 1:51 left, and had the ball on the Falcons’ 10-yard line. A first down could seal the win.

Van Pelt stood on the field during the two-minute timeout and did a promo for ESPN’s post-game coverage.

“We’re going to visit with Joe (Buck) and Troy (Aikman), show you the key moments in this game, and take you inside the winning locker room, which appears it will be the home team,” Van Pelt said. “We’ll see you when this one is done.”

Van Pelt’s prediction aged poorly in a hurry. The Eagles failed to pick up a first down and kicked a field goal to go up 21-15.

The Falcons promptly marched 70 yards in just over a minute to score a touchdown and take a 22-21 lead.

The Eagles got the ball back, but QB Jalen Hurts got picked off to seal Atlanta’s win … and Van Pelt ended up with the sports broadcasting equivalent of the Chicago Tribune’s infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline.


To his credit, Van Pelt quickly owned his mistake. As he introduced Buck and Aikman for post-game analysis, he rehashed what he’d said.

“Gentlemen, as I just was mentioning at that under-two timeout, I threw it right back up to you and I said, ‘It appears that the winning locker room will be the Eagles.’ And now it’s not,” Van Pelt said.


Aikman bailed out SVP a bit by pointing out that the Eagles suffered a “collapse by a lot of people there at the end for them not to be walking off this field victorious.”

The bad prediction was somehow a fitting bookend to the game for Van Pelt and ESPN, considering no one on Monday Night Countdown gave the Falcons a shot, either.


Some fans credited Van Pelt with pulling off a spectacular announcer jinx.

[ESPN]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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