👋 Good morning! And RIP to our good friend, The Positivity Rabbit.
Credit to Jeff McLane for the Watergate-level scoop that The Positivity Rabbit is no longer in the Eagles locker room. December 6th, 2025 to December 10th, 2025. RIP, helluva run.
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Spector Sports Art! Doing some not-quite last-minute Christmas shopping? Head on over and see what Jordan has to offer for the Philly sports fan in your life (or, like, yourself).
As always you can reach me at [email protected]
One crazy stat from EJ: Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are not getting it done out of structure this year.
I will have a long Eagles-Raiders preview tomorrow. But oh baby, IS THAT SUPER BOWL CHAMPION AND NFC EAST CLINCHING QUARTERBACK KENNY PICKETT’S MUSIC?!?!?!
Fire up those chicken vodka wraps at Gianni's in Ocean Township, New Jersey. Our boy is coming home!
(With all due respect to a Super Bowl champ, please don’t lose to Kenny Pickett.)
Some juicy Flyers-Vancouver trade rumors: Sorry, that is trade rumours north of the border.
At one point during yesterday’s Flyers show, Bill started yelling, “Trade! Trade! Trade!” in an effort to pump up the algorithm. Love where his head was at. Taking Bill’s cue, I am gonna type “trade rumors” as much as I can in the next few paragraphs in an effort to juice the SEO.
Specifically, there have been a bunch of Quinn Hughes trade rumors over the last week. Now, who is Quinn Hughes and why are there Quinn Hughes trade rumors?
Well, if you have not heard of Quinn Hughes (as some in this market have not, which is totally fine, that is what the PHLY Flyers Show is for!), he is an awesome hockey player. Hughes finished 7th in ESPN’s NHL Rank before the season and he is considered the second-best defenseman in the league behind Colorado’s Cale Makar. A superstar. And Hughes is in trade rumors for two reasons:
The Canucks truly stink, 32nd out of 32 NHL teams in points percentage.
Hughes only has 1.5 years left on his contract, and is widely viewed as a flight risk.
Lots of bad news for Josh Harris lately, so I am gonna turn that frown upside down and report that many people view New Jersey as Hughes’ preferred destination. And that is not because he’s a big Sopranos fan or wants to bring back the neutral-zone trap. It is because his two brothers, Jack (also very good) and Luke, also play for the Devils. A one big happy family type of thing. So, expect plenty of Quinn Hughes New Jersey Devils trade rumors.
But what about some Quinn Hughes Philadelphia Flyers trade rumors? Guess who was Hughes’ coach and is someone Hughes loved playing for? Rick Tocchet! And as Charlie and Bill talked about yesterday, there are two players who have been mentioned by prominent media members in Vancouver Canucks Philadelphia Flyers trade rumors.
Paul Bissonnette: In which Biz says that he would offer Matvei Michkov for Quinn Hughes straight up “in a second.”
Elliotte Friedman: Friedge said that the Canucks inquired about Owen Tippett, but that the Flyers are trying to calm that noise.
I am sure the Flyers would love to have Quinn Hughes, although they would need some sort of indication that he would sign an extension. I am sure they do not want to trade Matvei Michkov to do so, though. I bet the Canucks want Owen Tippett for something besides Quinn Hughes, too. Anyway, nice job by Bill and Charlie reading the tea leaves and giving some important context.
More crazy college coaching stuff: I was gonna make a note that my fellow St. Joe’s Prep guy Jim Knowles is getting hired by Tennessee. I thought that was an excellent fit, but my guy had a rough year in Happy Valley.
But that was a footnote by 6 p.m. Regular readers know, I do not really write about college football all that much during the season. But man, December hits and I am completely locked in.
Sherrone Moore is no longer the coach at Michigan. And the details are pretty crazy:
Moore was fired for cause, which means that they do not have to pay any sort of buyout.
Now, you need a reason outside of the on-field product to fire someone for cause and it appears they have one: Michigan said they found "credible evidence" Moore was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
And now the craziest part: Moore is now being detained by local police in Michigan as part of an assault investigation.
Seems like it turned into a pretty sad and serious situation on Wednesday, one in which there are plenty of details that need to be filled in. But yeah, Michigan needs a new coach.
John Middleton makes a house call: Watching the Kyle Schwarber press availability, let’s give it up for “Mr. Middleton!” 👏👏👏
It seems like the Phillies were very respectful of Schwarber’s free agency. And while they got the last word financially in matching Baltimore’s offer, they also got the first word in when it came to making a pitch. Schwarber had a conversation with Dave Dombrowski in October, but John Middleton also knocked on his door in South Jersey and talked to him in Schwarber’s home.
Schwarber said that both conversations stuck with him, even as he talked with other teams. It was a much different setting than John Middleton wining and dining Bryce Harper on the Las Vegas strip seven years ago, but still plenty effective.
Nice work, Mr. Middleton. And speaking of Baltimore…
The Orioles signed Pete Alonso: Credit to Baltimore. They were not trying to sign Schwarber just to sell tickets (*looks at you, Cincinnati*). Know how I know that?
So, David Stearns just let Edwin Diaz and Pete Alonso walk in consecutive days. This is not the type of financial muscle I was expecting from Uncle Stevie’s Mets! It sounds like Stearns just thought Alonso was too much of a defensive liability to justify that contract. Is Stearns trying to play Milwaukee-style Moneyball in Queens? The people are asking.
Let’s check out the New York Post.
Glorious. The one thing I will say is that Mets fans took victory laps all last offseason after the Juan Soto signing, proclaiming they had passed the Phillies. They had not, which made their collapse this season so satisfying. With that in mind, I will not do the same thing here... after today, that is. Stearns has a good track record and Cohen still has a bunch of money.
But for one day, at least? LOLMETS
Rule 5 Draft: When I think of the Phillies and the Rule 5 Draft, I immediately think of Shane Victorino and (unfortunately) Odubel Herrera.
The way the Rule 5 Draft works is that after four (or five) seasons in your system, you have to put a player on your 40-man roster or expose them to the Rule 5 Draft. In the Rule 5, any team can claim an eligible player not on a 40-man roster for $100,000. But the catch is that the drafting team can only keep the player’s rights if they keep their Rule 5 pick on their own 26-man (big league) roster for the entire next season. If the player gets left off the 26-man roster at any point, the drafting team has to offer that player back to the original team.
Remember the Navy fireballer Noah Song? The Phillies drafted him in the Rule 5 a few years ago, but once he was off the 26-man roster, they had to offer him back to Boston.
Well, the Phils lost one player and gained one player in yesterday’s draft. The guy they lost is Griff McGarry, once a top pitching prospect in their minor-league system but also a guy who struggled with control problems. Washington drafted McGarry.
And the guy the Phillies took? Miami reliever Zach McCambley.
The Phillies taking a flyer makes a lot of sense. Unlike McGarry, McCambley had success at the Triple-A level. There is also no question what he his role is, a reliever, whereas the Phillies didn’t seem to know what they wanted to do with McGarry. McCambley could be a diamond-in-the-rough, cheap bullpen option as just about every team in Major League Baseball will be looking for relief help. It will be interesting to see what a spring training with Caleb Cotham could do for McCambley, and if working with Cotham for six weeks could elevate his game enough to actually make the club.
We will see how McCambley does in Clearwooder.
Ashley Fan Cave Contest
Picture this: a fan cave that actually feels like your dream setup. Thanks to Ashley, that could be real; we’re giving away a $2,500 Ashley Furniture Gift Card!Go big on a sectional, add some stylish pieces, or trick out your space for game day; it’s all up to you. Just visit ashleyfancave.com, see if you're eligible, fill out the form, and you’re entered.
It’s that simple. Enter now and you might be watching the next big game in a fan cave built by you, courtesy of Ashley.
The Flyers better enjoy their next few days at home. After Saturday, a whopping nine of their next ten games are away from the friendly confines of Xfinity Mobile Arena. That is basically a ten-game trip, because you are only home for one game! You cannot even unpack the suitcase when you get home. The Orange and Black will get the 24th to 26th at home, good days to have off to be sure, but that is very much it for the next few weeks. The Ice Capades Trip looms.
The Vegas Golden Knights are in town tonight (7:00 p.m., ESPN). Carter Hart played the other night, so you would imagine he will be on the bench for this one with Akira Schmid in between the pipes.
Unfortunately, the Thursday night game is some NFC South slop.
Your tentative Thursday schedule at PHLY:
🦅 Brandon Graham Unblocked: 8:00 a.m.
🎙️ The Anthony Gargano Show: 9:00 a.m.
🦅 Eagles: 2:00 p.m.
🏀 Sixers: 3:00 p.m.
🎙️ Cuz’s Corner: 6:00 p.m.
🏒 Flyers: Pre and post-game
Let’s make it a good one.
Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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