Nick Sirianni shares story behind C.J. Gardner-Johnson's meeting-canceling shot

There is a battle brewing at the WR3 position. Jalen Hurts has been on fire. The Philadelphia Eagles hosted an open practice, and somehow, one of the team's most-talked-about stories of the week involved a basketball and an all-or-nothing bucket made by a safety.

It was the shot heard 'round the world. You have no idea how long we've been waiting to use that phrase in a sentence and make it make sense.

The stakes were well-known about an hour after it happened. C.J. Gardner-Johnson had a chance to cancel a team meeting. All he had to do was sink one. Guess how that ended.

Journalism is a funny thing. We spend hours trying to communicate some X's and O's theory, and there are times when the story that hits is the one about the safety dropping one to cancel a team meeting.

Go figure.

Here's the story behind C.J. Gardner-Johnson's shot and the stakes that surrounded it.

They call Sundays 'fun days'. We can confirm that to be so, but on August's first Sunday, our Birds went to work. They entered the day knowing four consecutive practices are scheduled. They travel on Thursday. They play the Baltimore Ravens in the first preseason game on Friday.

As is customary, there was a media sit-down before the workout session. Nick Sirianni took some time to speak.

Guess what one of the topics were. If you guessed C.J.'s jumper, give yourself a high-five. The shot heard 'round the world couldn't be forgotten without earning a little behind-the-scenes access.

Check out the clip and some of the transcript.

"I'll tell you why Chauncey in particular. We had an important meeting that day. They were all shooting beforehand. The guys are really connecting in that... Guys are in there shooting. We have a PlayStation. When they have downtime, they're hanging out.

...So, they're in there and Chauncey hadn't made a shot. He wasn't even close. So, we really needed our meeting, and they were having a good time. (So we were) like you know what? Let's put something on this."

Oh, don't worry. It gets better.

‘Hey, team meeting is canceled if Chauncey makes this,’ and he drilled it. So, I don't know if he hustled me. He may have been hustling me, but he hit the shot. Guys went crazy...

...We made up the meeting the next day. They got a little bit of a break there, but we made up everything we needed to make up the next day... But you can't simulate those things. Those things are like, those are the building of the team.

C.J.'s job moving forward won't involve jumpers and crossovers. Instead, he'll be roaming in Philly's secondary.

If he's anything like the guy we remember from 2022 (and he can stay healthy), we could be in for a big year from the guy in the Kobe Bryant jersey.

Watch Nick Sirianni's full discussion with the media below

Read more Eagles training camp news