The 49ers break the Eagles — and Justin Jefferson loses it at the Linc — in Netflix’s ‘Receiver’

Eagles fans thinking about watching Receiver might want to skip the first 15 minutes of Episode 5.

The newly released Netflix series, which is similar to last year’s Quarterback, follows five of the NFL’s best pass-catchers during the 2023 season. Two of the five are San Francisco 49ers duo George Kittle and Deebo Samuel, who take a Week 13 trip to Philadelphia to play the Eagles in a 2023 NFC championship rematch.

The two teams had been jawing at each other for 10 months, highlighted by Samuel calling Eagles cornerback James Bradberry “trash” during an interview in the 2023 offseason. When asked about that in the show, Samuel said he didn’t regret making the comment because it was all in good fun.

“If you know me, I didn’t mean no harm about what I said and how I said it,” Samuel said. “… That’s just how I talk. That’s how I joke around. Leading up to that game, just the football world, the football industry, our fans, [Eagles] fans, I knew everybody was ready for this game.”

The Eagles faithful insisted its team’s 31-7 NFC championship game victory had little to do with the injury suffered by 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, while Niners fans believed they were on the way to the Super Bowl before Purdy went down. Entering the rematch, the Eagles held the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the Niners were two games behind them in second, giving the game more stakes than simple revenge.

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“[The] time is now, man!” Samuel yelled to his teammates during warmups. “Y’all know what we’re fighting for. We’re fighting for that No. 1 bye. We’re here to play our ball and do what the [expletive] we do, man.”

Meanwhile, George Kittle’s father, Bruce, is shown leading the Kittle family in a meditative exercise on the morning of the game. He foreshadowed a disappointing reality for Eagles fans.

“Swift of foot, clarity of mind, and just a complete [butt]-kicking in Lincoln Financial Field,” Kittle said hopefully.

Though the Niners gained negative-6 yards and endured a pair of three-and-outs in the first quarter, they scored touchdowns on their next six possessions en route to a 42-19 stomping of the Eagles. Samuel credited the environment at the Linc for stifling San Francisco early on.

“That place is crazy to play in,” Samuel said. “But I just knew it was coming, whether it was then, whether it was second quarter, second half.”

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Samuel scored three touchdowns in the game and wasn’t hesitant to let Eagles fans know about it throughout. The show captures him yelling, “Shut the [expletive] up!” to the crowd on his first score, which put the Niners up 21-6, and waving goodbye after his third touchdown that gave San Francisco a 23-point lead.

The NFC championship game was evidently on the Niners’ minds, as a moment from Samuel on the sideline revealed exactly what they were trying to prove.

“This is what it was supposed to be like,” Samuel said.

That loss was the first of four straight for the Eagles, who went on to lose six of their final seven games, including the wild-card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Niners, on the other hand, won six of their next eight games before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

Not all of the Eagles’ appearances in Receiver went that poorly, though. Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson was another featured player in the show, and the Vikings’ Week 2 battle with the Eagles on Thursday Night Football got significant airtime during Episode 2.

Jefferson is seen saying a prayer pregame, and Netflix will be happy it mic’d him up for it — Eagles fans at the Linc were belting out “Fly, Eagles, Fly” simultaneously.

The game, a 34-28 Eagles win, didn’t go too well for Jefferson. His chain necklace broke in the fourth quarter after he was tackled by safety Justin Evans, and before that, he was on the wrong side of the biggest play of the night.

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With under a minute remaining in the first half and the Eagles in front 10-7, Jefferson caught a pass from Kirk Cousins and looked to be heading for the pylon to give Minnesota the lead. But safety Terrell Edmunds got a hold of him inside the 5, forcing Jefferson to fumble into the end zone for a touchback. The Birds kicked a field goal on their ensuing drive and went into halftime with a 13-7 lead.

Jefferson was incensed with himself on the sideline, apologizing to his teammates profusely and taking full accountability for the lapse.

“It definitely didn’t feel good,” Jefferson said of the fumble. “Especially losing by less than seven points.”

The win didn’t mean much for the Eagles’ season in the grand scheme of things — they would still have finished fifth in the conference with a loss — but it at least granted the team some positive publicity to balance out the drubbing they took a few episodes later.