👋 Good morning! Ben Simmons now owns a fishing team, believe it or not.

Hard to disagree with KOC’s take, which has aged quite nicely over the years.

Today's newsletter is brought to you by Righteous Felon Craft Jerky! Love when I get readers who send me photos of Righteous Felon out in the wild.

Use code PHLY25 for 25 percent off orders of 35 bucks or more. They have so many great flavors like OG Hickory, Street Taco Pork, Lemon Pepper Turkey, Spicy Habanero and so many more. Take it from me, they are all delicious. Check them out today!

Programming note: This will be the last newsletter for a little while. I might chime in maybe once next week, but it’s the holiday break for your friendly neighborhood newsletter writer as well. I want to thank everyone for reading “The Newsy” in 2025, and look forward to bringing it back to you once the calendar flips to 2026. Let’s win another Super Bowl while we are at it.

Whatever you celebrate, enjoy the holidays, everyone! 🎄🎅 🕎 🥂 🎄🎅 🕎 🥂

As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Five Eagles make the Pro Bowl: And here they are…

My reactions to those five players, in the order that are listed…

Jordan Davis (great response) deserved the nod over his friend Carter, who I can at least somewhat understand due to his reputation. But Cam Jurgens? Very deserving of a nod a year ago and a guy who has likely played hurt in 2025, but a Pro Bowler? I am not exactly Brandon Thorn in terms of crunching offensive line tape, but there has to be someone better than Jurgens in the NFC at the center position.

Eagles-Bills preview: After the eggnog, there is a pretty fun game this weekend. Not sure how much it means for the Eagles outside of a nice little measuring stick, but over the next few days, we have two hours of holiday fun for you to listen to right here.

Flyers 3, Chicago 1: The Blackhawks kinda stink without Connor Bedard, but the Flyers were on the second half of a back-to-back. Easy opponent, but a tough situation. The Orange and Black handled their business.

Nice to see Sam Ersson have a good night for the first time in a while. Sammy Saves in the Windy City!

And man, Trevor Zegras already has a bunch of slam-dunk set-ups on the season. Not too many cheapie Ben Simmons “flip it to a covered 3-point shooter” assists for Zegras. This was an absolute dime to Travis Konecny.

And Charlie promised his take on MichkovGate, so here it is.

Captain America: Bryce Harper, who has certainly had an interesting offseason if you keep tabs on his Instagram page, announced that he will play for Team USA in the upcoming World Baseball Classic on said Instagram page.

I love the World Baseball Classic, thrilled that it’s back next year. Bryce will join Kyle Schwarber on Team USA.

Brooklyn 114, Sixers 106: The rare Sixers game so far this season that made you go 🤮🤮🤮🤮

And speaking of 🤮🤮🤮🤮…

Just like most workplaces, some sort of bug seems to rip through the entire Sixers team every winter. I remember when JJ Redick got Joel Embiid extremely sick back in 2019 and Embiid texted Redick “—— you” at 3 a.m. when he was throwing up.

I have no idea if the Sixers’ recent string of illnesses are related, but if they are, they went something like: Tyrese Maxey ➡️ Joel Embiid ➡️ VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes and Dominick Barlow.

The Sixers were without all three of those last guys on Tuesday, which is a real blow. Three of the Sixers’ better players, and they all make two-way impacts. The Sixers still should have enough to beat the Brooklyn Nets, mind you, but they were a real loss.

What is most interesting to me about Tuesday’s stinker is that Joel Embiid was pretty good and Tyrese Maxey was terrible. I was definitely encouraged by Embiid looking so good physically and dropping 27 efficient points. I thought he was the Sixers’ best player. But the Sixers also cannot afford games where Maxey shoots 3-14, and part of the reason for Maxey’s struggles is that he took just one shot in the first quarter. It’s a delicate balance and Maxey also just had a rare stinker, but the Sixers have to make sure that Maxey is always the head of the snake on offense. It’s clunky at times now — The Sixers are 0-3 when Embiid, Maxey and Paul George all play — but I think they will find that balance if Joel continues to progress physically. Just give it a little time.

Otherwise, I agree with Derek: 🔥 the 📼 and do not let one stinker get you too down. This has been a fun Sixers season so far.

In major #TwoWayNews, the Sixers waived Hunter Sallis and signed MarJon Beauchamp. I guess heads really had to roll after the loss to Brooklyn.

Picture this: a fan cave that actually feels like your dream setup, with some incredible Philly sports art to boot!

Thanks to Ashley, that dream could become reality. They are giving away a $2,500 Ashley Furniture Gift Card! Go big on a sectional, add some stylish pieces or trick out your space for gameday. It’s all up to you!

But it’s not just Ashley’s amazing furniture that is part of the contest! They are also giving away a $1,000 voucher for Jordan Spector’s art to add to your fan cave!

Think about that: $2,500 for furniture, and then $1,000 for art to decorate your walls. Imagine the setup that you could have for watching football next year!

Enter now at ashleyfancave.com and you might be watching the next big game in a fan cave built by you, courtesy of Ashley. The winner for The Ultimate Fan Cave will be selected the week of the Super Bowl.

We are off the next two days at PHLY, seeing as it’s Christmas Eve and Christmas.

But we will be back on Friday with our shows. And then over the weekend, we will have pre and post-games for any games that pop up. As we always say, check your local listings. Looks like a tripleheader on Sundee.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS