👋 Good morning! “It was like the worst band you’ve ever heard in your entire life has one final show, one final blowout…”
Funny, laugh-so-you-do-not-cry stuff from Fran. So, Sunday’s Eagles-49ers game was like The Band’s The Last Waltz… but the exact opposite.
Also, Anthony and Mike Garafolo might be my favorite back-and-forth in a long time.
My favorite snack in a long time? Righteous Felon Craft Jerky!
Use code PHLY25 for 25 percent off orders of 35 bucks or more. They have 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!
Locker room cleanout day: Let’s leave the Eagles alone outside of recapping the locker room cleanout. Long offseason ahead of us. Very good Eagles show yesterday breaking it all down.
One quirk that maybe I only enjoy: After a full season of doing interviews at the podium, Jalen Hurts does his locker room cleanout availability in front of his locker. And for the second straight year, Jalen was asked about Kevin Patullo in front of his locker. Let’s just say he did not give Patullo a ringing endorsement this time around.
Oh yeah, that is gonna be 12 play-callers in 12 years for Jalen. He also spoke about the desire for a home base (consistent identity), which was interesting.
EJ wrote about Patullo in his piece off the game. Les wrote about the home base idea.
Bo asked Hurts if he wanted A.J. Brown back next season. Jalen gave a smirk and said, “We’re in a great place. Maybe y’all can talk to him and ask him.” I am gonna try to not read into that too much, but it was a funny moment simply due to the un-Jalenlike delivery. It’s also funny because A.J. has not talked to the media in two months.
Elsewhere, the Eagles have some key free agents entering the offseason. Outside of BG, four biggies: Jaelan Phillips, Reed Blankenship, Dallas Goedert and Nakobe Dean.
Outside of that, nothing else too important from cleanout day.
We need to get Sam Salvo on the Eagles Show. That 11-year-old young man is a confident takesman already!
Tampa Bay 5, Flyers 1: Well, the Orange and Black (admittedly without Bobby Brink and Jamie Drysdale) got humbled a bit by an elite Tampa Bay team. 12-3 over the two-game home series. Yikes.
Seems like Brink and Drysdale are getting closer to returning, at least. It would be nice for them to return soon, because a back-to-back in Buffalo and Pittsburgh looms mid-week.
Nikita Grebenkin got into quite a fight, that was cool I guess.
The Bo Bichette Latest: First, let’s back up to this weekend.
Congrats to our friends at CHGO, who in addition to the Cardiac Bears, now also have Alex Bregman. The soon-to-be 32-year-old third baseman signed with the Cubbies for five years and $175 million. Even with some deferred money mixed in there, yowza.
That news made waves in Boston, where the fan base does not trust its ownership. Boston is where Bregman played last year, after Bregman replaced Rafael Devers at third base and then Devers got traded to San Francisco.
Well, the obvious pivot for Boston is to go after Bichette now. By all reports, Bichette will have to move off shortstop and play at second or third base anyway.
So, the $64,000 question: Does the Cubs signing Bregman actually make it tougher for the Phillies to sign Bichette? We will not know until it happens, but Tyler does not think so.
There is a question of finances. Namely, will Boston shell out $200 million for Bichette? Maybe, although their recent history does leave some room for doubt. Tyler makes a compelling case that it’s not Chicago-Bregman that the Phillies should be worried about when it comes to Bichette, it’s Tucker-Toronto.
The Blue Jays want to sign Kyle Tucker, who is gonna cost a whole lot of money. The most money on the free-agent market, probably. Their backup plan is probably Bichette, who has played in Toronto his entire career.
The Phillies reportedly had their big 💻💻💻 Zoom meeting 💻💻💻 with Bichette yesterday. I hope Donnie Baseball fired up his computer. Ken Rosenthal called it a guess, but said he would label the Phillies the favorites to sign Bichette as of now. That would be cool. Meanwhile, Jim Bowden said that J.T. Realmuto has a pretty limited market outside of Philadelphia.
Max Kepler: This happened over the weekend, but how about Kepler getting suspended 80 games for testing positive for PEDs? That makes two members of the 2025 Phillies! Kepler is no longer on the team, but I really hope these things do not come in threes.
Sixers 115, Toronto 102: Lost in the Eagles sorrow/anger on Sunday night, the Sixers blew a winnable game in Toronto. Up two points late with 12 seconds left, the Sixers could not inbound the ball properly (like a lot of NBA teams, admittedly). As I always say, the perfect time for a Philly team to experience a tough loss is when another Philly team has a tougher loss. The Sixers’ timing was impeccable in that sense.
It was a missed opportunity, though. They really could have swept the Raptors in this weird little back-to-back in Toronto. Joel Embiid and Paul George suited up for the second game, and the Sixers dropped 80 points on the Raptors in the first half last night. The Raptors have a good defense, too. That was an offensive clinic from the local basketball team.
(And they scored just 35 points total in the second half, which provided quite the contrast. But hey, it was enough to win.)
Tyrese Maxey seems to love playing in Toronto. But because I am such a nerd, I know that he especially loves playing in Toronto on the second half of a back-to-back in which the Sixers lost the first game. Back in October 2022, Maxey dropped 44 points on 15-20 shooting in this same exact situation. You cannot get that type of insight anywhere else, folks! Anyway, Maxey had to “settle” for 33 points on 10-16 shooting this time around.
Much has been written about how spry Embiid has looked over the past month or so. Certainly looks like night and day compared to how he was moving back in October. Well, if you want your visual proof of how well Joel is moving, here it is.
“Seven-footer dunks ball” ranks up there with “area man eats breakfast” in the chart of most surprising things, but Joel Embiid is not a normal seven-footer. We’re talking about a player who has actively avoided jumping at times and was coached to fall more (and fall thoughtfully) to protect his lower extremities from further damage.
A year after we saw the slowest, most timid version of Embiid there has ever been, he is turning heads with his explosiveness and fluidity over the last few weeks. A one-handed dunk in traffic is a major change, no matter who was waiting there at the rim, and Embiid has not looked this confident in his body in years.
The Sixers went 2-1 in Orlando and Toronto. Get a split in the two upcoming home games against Cleveland, and they will have done well managing this important stretch.
The other highlight of the night? Kyle Lowry’s Canadian curtain call.
Lowry will have his No. 7 retired by the Raptors one day. He is probably the most popular basketball player in all of Canada, and that includes Steve Nash and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. On the Toronto broadcast, Matt Devlin called him “the greatest Raptor of all-time.” This was the Sixers’ last game in Toronto this season, and thus, likely the last chance for Lowry to play in Toronto for his entire career.
The Basketball Gods cooperated with a blowout. Late in the fourth quarter, the Scotiabank Arena crowd chanted it in unison: 👏👏👏 WE WANT LOWRY 👏👏👏
The Sixers were messing around with their lead and Nick Nurse was more reluctant to put his 15th man in the game than Dan Devine was with Rudy. But eventually, someone at MLSE must have phoned down to Darko Rajaković to stop trying to claw back in the game. Darko emptied his bench, and Lowry checked in for the Sixers. Super cool moment.
It did not even matter that Lowry missed all three shots he took, those people love him. For one night, it was cool to be on the other side of Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins returning to Philly as Dodgers.
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.
I am sorting through everyone’s Eagles emails from yesterday. Some great responses.
The only day of the week when we see a little break in the schedule! Villanova at Providence is tonight, for the college hoop heads out there.
Your tentative Tuesday schedule at PHLY:
🎙️ The Anthony Gargano Show: 9:00 a.m.
🦅 Eagles: 2:00 p.m.
🏀 Sixers: 3:00 p.m.
🏒 Flyers: 4:00 p.m.
Let's make it a good one.
Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS
