Philadelphia Eagles Players Names Were Included In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Fans of the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t have a lot to cheer about on Sundays this year, but that might change tonight, as one of their own may score a touchdown at the Oscars.

David Acord, a Skywalker Sound editor, is nominated (along with Matthew Wood) for his first Academy Award for Best Sound Editing for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And if he’s victorious, he can credit a small part of his victory to his favorite NFL team.

Part of Acord’s job required the creation of believable, alien gibberish for Teedo, the reptilian being that briefly-captured BB-8 on the planet of Jakku. As a huge Eagles fan, Acord sneaked in names of some of his favorite football players—Brent Celek and Fletch Cox—into the scavenger’s dialogue.

“The language he speaks is inspired by some Thai phrases that I was trying to learn for an upcoming trip to Thailand,” Acord told the website philly.com. “For fun, I peppered in a few Eagles’ player names and my wife’s name as well. You can hear ‘Celek’ and ‘Fletcher’ if you listen carefully.”

Accord had wanted to a few more Eagles players, like Vinny Curry and Connor Barwin, but their names came across as too earthly.”I was also trying to pick names that fit the alien language I was designing,” he said. “Unfortunately, ‘Donnie Jones’ doesn’t exactly scream otherworldly.”

Set thirty years after the events of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens picks up the story of a galaxy turned upside-down with the deposition of the evil Empire and the rise of the Rebel Alliance to take its place. With the cruel First Order rising to fill the void left by the Empire’s destruction and the Resistance dedicated to eradicating their influence, heroes Finn and Rey will need to stop the villainous Kylo Ren and the First Order from assuming total control of the galaxy, with the help of old heroes Han Solo and Leia Organa.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be available on Blu-ray/DVD this April.