Lane Johnson, Philly mock NY Daily News for calling Yankees 'Underdogs'

Now who's got the inferiority complex?

Thursday's back cover of the New York Daily News features three Yankees players — one of whom is wearing a German shepherd mask — with a headline that reads, "The Underdogs."

No. Just no.

This kind of irresponsible journalism gives every reporter a bad name — and we in Philly are here to send our brethren at the New York Daily News to the doghouse for this offensive monstrosity.

First, we'd like to give our fellow journalists a dictionary, so they can look up the word "underdog." The New York Yankees are the second-most-valuable sports team in the entire world, with a total valuation of $3.7 BILLION, according to Forbes. They have also won 27 World Series titles.

When it comes to dogs, the Yankees are the Lassie of the of the sports world — well-groomed, well-fed, and popular. They wouldn't know an underdog if one fell into a well in front of them and clawed its way to the top all on its own, because that's what underdogs do.

Also, did they really put together this cover with a straight face and without one mention of the Eagles? They even used the exact same German shepherd dog mask Eagles players Lane Johnson and Chris Long made popular after they walked onto the field wearing them following the Eagles' win over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC divisional game.

They couldn't even switch up the breed — or put a question mark after "Underdogs"?

It's not like the Daily News didn't know the Eagles popularized the mask — they wrote a story about it a month ago.

As the progenitor of the dog-mask craze, Johnson took to Twitter Thursday to call out the paper.

"Real original #fakenews" he captioned a picture of the cover, which he then probably ate for breakfast — because that's what hungry underdogs do.

The internet responded with calls for Johnson to send the Daily News a bill and with questions about whether New York will also now try to steal Philly's unofficial anthem "No One Likes Us."

We can't say if Johnson will send the paper a bill, but we can say it's unlikely New York City will steal our song given that it sells shirts to tourists that literally say, "I Love New York."

You know what the shirts in Philadelphia say? "Philly vs. Everybody."

Finally, Philly had a (perceived) inferiority complex before it was cool. Outsiders tend to think that means the city thinks less of itself than its neighbors to the north and south, New York City and Washington, D.C. But anybody who has chosen to live in Philly knows this place is like Xanadu meets Shangri-La and Philadelphians have no desire to live anywhere else.

Residents just want to give the appearance that they don't like it here because that is the appearance Philadelphians want to give about everything – especially to New Yorkers.