Billy Gordon was surrounded by the tapes. They were the first thing he saw in the morning, and the last thing he saw at night. His bedroom, in the basement of his grandmother’s Cobbs Creek home, was not big; maybe 190 square feet, if that.
But he found enough space for the thousands of basketball games he’d recorded from 1986 to 2024, all on VHS. Each tape came with a neatly written label, noting the name of the event, the teams who played, each team’s record, and the final score.
They were carefully placed into black crates, organized by year, and stacked on top of one another, creating a technicolor tapestry around his bed. It was an unconventional hobby, but Gordon loved it.
His family wasn’t surprised. Gordon, who worked as a baggage handler at Philadelphia International Airport, was a diehard sports fan with an encyclopedic mind. He could remember statistics about any athlete, no matter how obscure.
Billy Gordon made meticulous notations on the tapes he stored neatly for five decades inside his Cobbs Creek home.
So, it only made sense that he’d spend his free time collecting archival footage of everything from Super Bowl XXXIII to his alma mater, Cheyney, to Pepperdine vs. Loyola Marymount in 1987.
“He didn’t miss very much,” said Gordon’s uncle, Ron Hall.
Hall and Gordon lived together in Cobbs Creek for about 15 years. Neither had a traditional work schedule. Hall was a union carpenter who traveled for jobs; Gordon picked up night shifts at the airport.
But in the moments they did overlap, they’d watch games, often with pizza and chicken wings. This tradition continued through the winter of 2024, when Gordon was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The illness quickly worsened, and he was moved to a nursing home in King of Prussia.
As he lay in his hospital bed, hooked to a respirator, Hall sat beside him. They cheered on whatever local team was playing that day: the Eagles, Phillies, or 76ers.
“Just to let him know that people love him,” his uncle said.
Gordon died earlier this year, in May, at age 66. He was buried in his blue-and-white Cheyney track suit.To Hall, it was like a losing a brother. It took him months to even step into that basement bedroom.
Once he did, he was stunned. He always knew that his nephew had a VHS collection, but didn’t realize the full extent of it until then.
“The magnitude of what was here really hit me,” he said. “I was in disbelief that he had accumulated so much. That he had taken the time to collect so many things.”
‘A love for the game’
Gordon was born and raised in a sports-loving household. His grandmother, Vernese,was an avid Phillies fan. Hall was too, and would bring his nephew to different ballparks.
After graduating from John Bartram High School in the 1970s, Gordon went on to Cheyney, where he studied industrial arts. It was there that his love for sports information really blossomed.
The young college student had the fortune of overlapping with John Chaney, who was coaching Cheyney’s men’s basketball team.
Billy Gordon followed John Chaney’s career closely after their personal interactions during Chaney’s time at Gordon’s alma mater.
The Wolves were nothing short of dominant. Chaney led them to a 225-59 record from 1972 to 1982, with eight tournament appearances and one NCAA Division II championship.
Gordon was not athletically inclined, certainly not enough to play on Chaney’s team. But he liked to hang out around the gym and developed a rapport with the players and coaches.
He also showed an attention to detail to which Chaney gravitated.
“He had such a love for the game, and knew the game so well, that he could point something out to this player, that player,” Hall said. “[He] really was just being an asset to the coaching staff.”
Chaney invited Gordon to work at his summer camp, which he ran with Sonny Hill throughout the Philadelphia area.The zealous sports fan couldn’t believe his luck. He’d help with drills, but he also took pride in the little things: packing lunches, inflating basketballs, and setting up exercise equipment.
The coaches of the Chaney-Hill summer camp. Gordon is pictured second from the right, with the basketball between his ankles
On rainy days, when the kids couldn’t play outside, Gordon would pop one of his tapes into the VCR.
“Old Temple games,” said his friend, Mia Harris. “Just so the kids could learn.”
She said that Gordon worked with Chaney and Hill from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s. The camp was the highlight of his summer; an opportunity to get to know the legends of the Philadelphia basketball scene.
“They made him feel like a part of the team, even though he wasn’t a player,” Harris said. “He even wore a whistle. That tickled me.”
It was around this time that Gordon started building his VHS collection. He began taping bigger events — the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals, Super Bowl XXII — but basketball was always the bedrock.
He captured the dominance of Michael Jordan, the fearlessness of Kobe Bryant, and every March Madness Cinderella story since the mid-1980s. He chronicled the NBA Finals, the WNBA Finals, and a slew of conference college basketball games.
The sheer number of tapes and labels was dizzying (Hall estimated that his nephew had 40 crates). But upon closer inspection, a trend emerged.
Chaney was hired as head coach of Temple in 1982, a job he kept until 2006. Among the stacks were pockets of his time there: Mark Macon’s first game for the Owls in 1987; the team’s first loss of that historic season, to UNLV, on Jan. 24, 1988.
Gordon recorded years of Temple vs. Illinois, Temple vs. Duquesne, Temple vs. Penn State. There even was a sit-down interview with Chaney, from the late 1980s.
These tapes stuck out. Gordon didn’t personally know any of the NBA greats he filmed. He didn’t know the WNBA stars, either. But he did know John Chaney, long before he became a national figure. And he never forgot him.
Finding a new home
A few months after Gordon died, Hall began to sort through his nephew’s things. It was an emotionally taxing process.
The retired carpenter donated Gordon’s winter coats and appliances to a local men’s shelter in Southwest Philadelphia. He gave his summer gear to a nonprofit that sends gently used clothing to Liberia.
Billy Gordon’s crates, filled with various tapes of NCAA, NBA, and WNBA games from 1986 to 2024, are awaiting what his family believes is the right price and the right home.
Gordon’s sneaker collection went to Hall’s son, Gamal Jones, and his food was delivered to charity.
The only thing left was the thousand-tape-elephant-in-the-room. Jones looked at his father.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” Hall responded.
Jones listed Gordon’s tape collection on Facebook Marketplace, for the modest sum of $123. The response exceeded the family’s expectations.
They received almost a dozen messages, from NBA superfans, collectors, and archivists. Some offered to travel to Cobbs Creek to assess the collection in person.
Hall recognizes that his nephew’s trove is worth more than $123. But he says this isn’t about the money.
He wants to find a buyer who will share the same passion that Billy Gordon had for 38 years. Someone who will honor his hobby and preserve it.
“He probably would want it to go to somebody that was as enthusiastic about it as he was,” Hall said. “That could really appreciate the time, the energy, that he put in to collect all these.”
There are few facades more iconic in Bryn Mawr than the marquee of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute (BMFI), an enduring Main Line institution and watering hole for cinephiles from across the region.
BMFI has turned 20, marking two decades of the nonprofit community theater founded by Juliet Goodfriend in 2005. In the early 2000s, Goodfriend found herself dismayed when a historic movie theater in neighboring Ardmore was converted into a short-lived gym. To protect Bryn Mawr’s historic Seville Theatre from the same fate, Goodfriend rallied a team of local stakeholders around the theater. In December 2004, BMFI purchased the Seville, and in March 2005, the film institute opened its doors. Today, BMFI screens new and historic films, hosts lectures, teaches courses for children and adults, and celebrates the art of the film.
“It means a lot … to see what this place has become through the generous support and engagement of the community,” said Andrew J. Douglas, deputy director of the film institute who has worked at BMFI since it first opened.
To celebrate BMFI’s 20th anniversary, its staff compiled a list of 20 of the most iconic films the theater has screened, from Philly-based flicks to beloved musicals:
‘Blue Velvet’
If there’s an iconic filmmaker with a Philadelphia connection, it’s the late David Lynch, said Jacob Mazer, BMFI’s director of programs and education.
Blue Velvet is Lynch’s 1986 mystery thriller. It follows college student Jeffrey Beaumont after he discovers a severed ear in a vacant lot in his suburban hometown and is drawn into a dark world of crime.
“When we look at this arc of [Lynch’s] career, it’s really the film where he finds his way,” Mazer said.
Lynch began his filmmaking career in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and regularly discussed basing his landmark debut Eraserhead on the city in the 1970s. When Lynch returned to Philly for a retrospective of his work at PAFA in 2014, he visited BMFI for a screening of his films and a Q&A session with the audience. Blue Velvet was the first film BMFI played to commemorate Lynch after his death in January.
‘The Philadelphia Story’
There’s a lot of local love for The Philadelphia Story, George Cukor’s 1940 romantic comedy set on the Main Line and based on the life of socialite Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, said Gina Izzo, BMFI’s communications director.
Plus, Izzo added, “It’s funny. It holds up.”
‘Lawrence of Arabia’
The annual summer screening of David Lean’s 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia is the oldest-running BMFI tradition. It’s a movie that is just “not done justice on a small screen,” said Mazer.
‘The Sound of Music’
Each December, lovers of The Sound of Music descend on BMFI for what Izzo describes as an “interactive screening” of the 1965 musical directed by Robert Wise. Over the course of three hours and many songs, The Sound of Music tells the World War II-era story of Maria (Julie Andrews), a young woman who becomes a governess for the von Trapps, an aristocratic Austrian family.
At the annual Christmastime screening at BMFI, moviegoers sing along from their seats and, each year, wear increasingly elaborate costumes. Last year, there were nuns, goats, and “brown paper packages tied up with strings” (a la the song “My Favorite Things”). The showings sell out months in advance.
As Izzo put it, “It’s sort of our Rocky Horror Picture Show equivalent.”
‘Harold and Maude’
Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude has been a mainstay at the Seville Theatre since it was released in 1971. It was the last movie shown on the Seville’s single screen before the theater was twinned (split into two screening rooms) in the 1980s.
“Harold and Maude just comes back again and again and again” in the theater’s history, said Mazer. “It’s one of the quintessential cult movies.”
A view from one of the projection booths inside the Bryn Mawr Film Institute in Bryn Mawr on March 8, 2018.
‘Casablanca’
Michael Curtiz’s 1942 romantic-drama Casablanca is “one of the great examples of the difference [between] seeing a movie in a theater with other people versus by yourself at home,” said Douglas.
BMFI screens Casablanca every summer, and Douglas teaches an annual lecture on the film. When he watches Casablanca at BMFI, Douglas says he regularly hears people sniffling at sad moments or guffawing at funny ones, a stark comparison to the muted reactions one often has from the comfort of their own couch.
“You’re reminded how funny it is, you’re reminded how moving it is, and you’re reminded, in a sense, how human it is,” he said.
‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’
Why include Wes Anderson’s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel? Put simply, people just love Wes Anderson, Izzo said.
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was the first film shown at the theater after it developed the capacity to screen 70 mm film. Mazer called the 1968 movie an “iconic film” in cinematic history.
‘Silver Linings Playbook’
In a way, Silver Linings Playbook is a “modern-day Philadelphia Story,” said Douglas. The 2012 film, directed by David O. Russell, follows Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper), recently released from a psychiatric hospital who works to win back his estranged wife, and Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow also struggling with mental illness, as she prepares for an upcoming dance competition.
Philadelphia’s favorite rom-com is an homage to Delco, Eagles fans, and the Montgomery County-born-and-raised Cooper. It’s a “local guy makes good” story, Douglas said, referring to Cooper. It’s also the highest grossing main attraction in BMFI history.
“For our community, it was an enormously meaningful movie‚” Douglas said.
‘La La Land’
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known as Pasek and Paul, are a composing and songwriting duo responsible for the lyrics in La La Land, the acclaimed 2016 musical directed by Damien Chazelle.
Pasek is “Bryn Mawr’s son,” Izzo said. The composer graduated from Friends Central, the Wynnewood Quaker school, and is a longtime supporter of BMFI. When Pasek and Paul won an Oscar for the movie, everybody at home “had a little piece,” said Izzo.
‘Barbie’
Greta Gerwig’s 2023 Barbie felt like the “big wave back after the pandemic,” Izzo said. People dressed in pink and flocked to the movies after months of isolation and uncertainty.
Parasite, Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 South Korean Oscar winner, was the third-longest running main attraction in BMFI history with a 16-week run.
“We were proud to show that one,” Izzo said. “It was very popular here.”
‘Rocky’
Rocky, the 1976 film directed by John G. Avildsen about boxer Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), may seem like an obvious addition to any Philly-area iconic movies list. But the local history behind the movie is deeper than meets the eye, Mazer said.
Rocky was one of the first to be filmed with the Steadicam, a revolutionary invention of Garrett Brown, a Haverford High School graduate and prolific Philadelphia inventor. The Steadicam, created by Brown in 1975, is a camera stabilizing device that revolutionized the movie industry, allowing filmmakers to shoot scenes without having to mount cameras onto cranes or dollies.
In testing out his new invention, Brown shot various scenes around Philadelphia, including one of his future wife running up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. That scene would later become an iconic motif of Rocky, shot by Brown.
“It’s this place where film history and Philadelphia history really connect,” Mazer said.
Brown is a friend of BMFI and has given numerous lectures at the theater, including for the 40th anniversary of Rocky.
‘Superman’
James Gunn’s 2025 Superman is another story of a local hero. David Cornswet, who played Superman, was raised in Lower Merion and graduated from the Shipley School, a Bryn Mawr private school. Cornswet hosted a friends and family debut of Superman at BMFI.
‘Brooklyn’
Brooklyn, John Crowley’s 2015 period drama, stars Saoirse Ronan as Ellis Lace, a young Irish immigrant to New York City. The movie was immensely popular at BMFI, said Izzo.
‘On the Waterfront’
Elia Kazan’s 1954 crime drama On the Waterfront helped revolutionize BMFI’s educational programming. The film was the first of the theater’s one-night seminars, during which moviegoers listen to a short lecture, sit for a screening, and then stay for a discussion. Now, they’re a popular part of the theater’s educational menu.
‘RBG’
RBG, Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s 2018 documentary about late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was the highest-grossing documentary screening in BMFI history. It’s also in the top 20 of the highest-grossing screenings in the theater’s history (including movies and documentaries).
National Theatre Live: ‘The Audience’
Though movies are at the core of BMFI’s work, the theater has expanded its repertoire to include cinematic presentations of ballet, theater, opera, and behind-the-scenes tours of art museums, all filmed and fit for the movie screen. BMFI’s most popular alternative program to date was a screening of The Audience, a 2013 play starring Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II. BMFI sold out 13 showings of the show.
Izzo and Douglas said the screenings help transport locals to places that can be difficult to get to — New York City’s Broadway, London’s West End, or European museums.
“Even at current prices, it’s still a tremendous bargain for access to the arts,” said Douglas.
‘Metropolitan’
To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Whit Stillman’s 1990 movie Metropolitan, the director visited BMFI in 2022 for a screening of the film and Q&A with the audience. Metropolitan follows the Sally Fowler Rat Pack, a group of young Manhattan socialites in the throes of debutante season.
Stillman’s visit to BMFI “was the beginning of a really nice friendship,” Mazer said.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
Christmas Day is Thursday this year, and with it comes a wave of closures across the Philadelphia region. If you’re planning last-minute errands or outings, knowing what’s open, and what’s not, will save you time and frustration.
Trash and recycling collection will be impacted, with pickups running one day behind schedule all week.
From city services and grocery stores to pharmacies and big-box retailers, here’s your guide to navigating holiday hours in Philadelphia.
City government offices
❌ City of Philadelphia government offices will be closed Dec. 25.
Free Library of Philadelphia
❌ The Free Library will be closed Dec. 25.
Food sites
✅ / ❌ Holidays may impact hours of operation. Visit phila.gov/food to view specific site schedules and call ahead before visiting.
Trash collection
❌ No trash and recycling collections on Christmas Day. Collections will be picked up one day behind the regular schedule all week. To find your trash and recycling collection day, go to phila.gov.
❌ UPS, FedEx, and DHL will be closed Christmas Day. There will be no delivery or pickup services either, except for critical services.
Banks
❌ Most, if not all, banks including TD Bank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, and PNC Bank will be closed on Christmas Day.
Pharmacies
CVS
✅ CVS locations will operate on modified business hours for Christmas Day with most open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Call ahead to your local store before visiting or view hours at cvs.com/store-locator/landing.
Walgreens
✅ Walgreens locations will be open but hours have not been announced — check your local store at walgreens.com/storelocator.
The Shore this time of year is truly a lovely, if sometimes desolate, place. But the desolation is the point: Emptied of its chaotic summer bustle, the simple natural beauties take center stage.
But yet. There are still plenty of humans here, and they are doing things, some good, some dubious, and so we will take note. Here is our first-ever winter solstice Shore Town Report Card.
As to the grading system, let’s just say, it was tough to give any town less than a B- when that winter light turns the sunset sky over the ocean a thousand shades of pink, and snow turns a magical place even more magical. Even Atlantic City, in spite of its burgeoning mayoral and other problems, is worth an off-season visit.
Atlantic City
The paradoxical Shore town has had a doozy of a year, with its newly reelected Mayor Marty Small Sr. on trial for allegedly physically abusing his daughter, charges he denied during the trial, and for which a jury on Thursday acquitted him. Meanwhile, three casinos were green-lit in New York City, New Jersey is contemplating how to tighten its control over Atlantic City, Peanut World caught fire, and ICE was making car stops in city neighborhoods.
The city’s holiday parade featured the red-clad Mayor Marty Small on a special Mayor’s Office float, with his wife, schools Superintendent La’Quetta Small, festively clad in a fluffy red coat, beside him. She is also charged with child abuse.
When will Atlantic City, arguably the last affordable Shore destination along the entire Northeast coast, finally break out of its slump? I explain in this story.A+ for holiday traditions like the elaborately decorated and festive iconic spots, from the Irish Pub to the Knife & Fork Inn; for its new skate and dog parks; and its casino giveaways. But, behind the salt air tinsel, A.C. isjuggling some C+ drama.
Ventnor
You’re never more aware that your town tilts toward summer than when it rebuilds its boardwalk during the winter. A big chunk of the boardwalk (from Surrey to Cambridge) has been closed since November for a complete reconstruction and will remain closed until at least May. A similar chunk up to the A.C. border will be rebuilt after next summer. Hence the odd sight of lots of people on Atlantic Avenue detoured from the beloved wooden pathway. In better news, some of Ventnor’s favorite places have stayed open into the dead of winter. On a recent weekend, I trudged in the snow over to my friends at Remedee Coffee for a specialty hot cocoa (delish) and was surprised to find the place … full of people. Everyone in town had had the same idea, apparently, and with no boardwalk, it’s not even out of the way. B
Margate’s business administrator launched a personal investigation of the city’s CFO and was making public accusations against one of its commissioners. A former mayor wants him fired. What even is going on over there? C+
Ocean City
The identity crisis continues. The town did a complete turnaround earlier this month with respect to the former Wonderland Pier site, voting to ask the planning board whether the site is in need of rehabilitation as requested by developer Eustace Mita, who wants to build a luxury hotel. Meanwhile, its mayor declared bankruptcy and got sued by his stepmother. The iconic McDonald’s in town abruptly closed. Still, Playland’s Castaway Cove is offering its half-price ticket sale now through New Year’s Day. B-
Sea Isle City
The city canceled its holiday parade, which made people a wee bit annoyed. But dollars are being spent, most recently on a new community center and with the adoption of a five-year, $50-million capital budget targeting flood control, road work, beach projects, emergency vehicles, and sewer upgrades. . B+
A winter Sea Isle City with just a dusting of snow. Dec. 16, 2025.
Avalon
The sleepy offseason town, which came in for some summer criticism for its off-the-charts exclusivity,gets an A+ from me for its sensible and family-friendly 5:30 p.m. New Year’s Eve fireworks plan.
Stone Harbor
The city adopted a 3% occupancy tax on hotels, motels, and short-term rentals. Mayor Tim Carney said in an e-mailed statement: “This local tourism tax will generate revenue for the Borough while helping us avoid any increase to homeowner property taxes in 2026.”
However, on behalf of short-term visitors from Philly, though, and amid criticism over the quality of the Garden Club’s urn-based Christmas decorations, I’ll have to score the town a B-.
The Wildwoods
Wildwood and Wildwood Crest cut loose North Wildwood on their beach replenishment sharing agreement. Meanwhile, North Wildwood signed a 10-year agreement to police West Wildwood. Wildwood proper recently approved 24 new homes for its gateway area.
It’s one island divided into the have-sands and the have-not sands. This winter could exacerbate both ends of the spectrum. B-
Long Beach Island
The city was battling mail delivery issues, but otherwise, the peace and quiet and lack of crowds seemed to be settling well over locals, who boasted of martini towers at the Hotel LBI and $10 lunch specials at Joy & Salt Cafe (also available, $45 short ribs). Whoever it is that lives there this time of year must know something. A-
Before the 2024 football season began, defensive back Tyreek Chappell was expecting it to be his final year with Texas A&M. But just two games into that season, he suffered a noncontact ACL injury during practice that ended his season prematurely.
Chappell, a Northeast High graduate who has played football since he was 4 years old, said the “process was long” to get back on the field for the 2025 season.
“The players that were here, coaches that were here, kind of helped me to come back [to] football, because I was kind of losing it,” Chappell told The Inquirer. “Obviously, just me being hurt and I was supposed to leave that year.”
The fifth-year senior has made up for lost time and has done so at a new position. After playing outside cornerback in his first three seasons in College Station, he transitioned to nickel corner in 2024, when Penn alum Mike Elko returned to Texas A&M to be the head coach after coaching at Duke for two years. Chappell remained at the spot in 2025, and has yielded just one touchdown across 333 coverage snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
There has been a lot of change since Chappell arrived on campus. He was recruited under Jimbo Fisher’s staff, which included Elko at defensive coordinator and Camden’s Elijah Robinson as defensive line coach, both of whom recruited the Philly native. When Fisher was fired before the end of the 2023 season, Robinson took over as interim coach, then left for Syracuse at the end of that season.
Through all of the changes, though, Chappell says he never wavered in his commitment to Texas A&M.
“After I had got relationships with other coaches, it really wasn’t just about like, ‘Who [is leaving], who [is staying],’ for real, I was just all about A&M at that point,” Chappell said. “The coaches treated me well here ever since I came [here]. … It was pretty much me loving A&M.”
Crash course together
When Chappell arrived at Texas A&M in the spring of 2021, former NFL defensive back Antonio Cromartie joined the program as a graduate assistant. Cromartie, who collected 31 career interceptions in 11 seasons with the Chargers, Colts, Cardinals, and Jets, quickly built a relationship with Chappell, since the former NFL player was working with defensive backs.
Cromartie says he was drawn to coaching because he wanted to “give back what I’ve learned from all the coaches that I’ve learned from.” His coach at Florida State, Bobby Bowden, was big on relationships, and Cromartie says that was “something that I wanted to build on.”
Antonio Cromartie of the Cardinals intercepts a pass against the Eagles on Oct. 26, 2014.
“Those two years of me being around them and just being able to coach them and pour into them, you get to see a different side of kids,” Cromartie said. “Get to have a kid come and talk to you, tell you what’s going on. A lot of that time, Tyreek lost friends and family members back at home in Philly, so just being able for somebody he can lean on, to talk to and express himself when he needed to was big, too. … It’s just like having a big brother that can help you along the way and guide you and make sure that you’re doing the things that you need to do, not only just the football, but off the field, too.”
When Chappell was a freshman, Cromartie immediately recognized his work ethic. At the time, being thrown into the fire as a rookie was a necessity because of injuries in the Aggies’ secondary, and he responded with 41 tackles, one interception, and nine passes defended in 12 starts.
Though Cromartie spent only two years on the coaching staff at Texas A&M, he believes if Chappell had stayed healthy last year, he would have been “one of the better corners in the SEC just from a technique standpoint.” The former coach also supports Chappell’s position switch to nickel.
“It shows that you can play inside, you can play outside,” Cromartie said. “It just shows how versatile you are, and that’s something that’s very valuable in the NFL. And I think you just see growth and maturity from him, and understanding his role. And I think that’s what makes him who he is.”
Texas A&M defensive back Tyreek Chappell reacts after the Aggies stopped LSU on a third down in 2022.
‘Once-in-a-lifetime moment’
On Saturday, Chappell will get to play on his biggest stage yet when Texas A&M hosts Miami in the first round of the College Football Playoff (noon, 6abc, ESPN).
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime moment,” Chappell said. “A lot of people don’t get a chance to make playoffs. So this really is big for everybody.”
Cromartie will be watching his former player try to slow down Miami’s aerial attack.
It could be Chappell’s final game in college, but Cromartie believes the Texas A&M defensive back has shown the skill set and dependability to be an impact player at the NFL level.
“Somebody that’s consistent, that understands what’s been asked of them, that understands what he needs to try to do. I think that is what’s going to make him an even better defensive back once he gets in the NFL,” Cromartie said. “You can look at him and say, ‘OK, I know what I’m getting out of him every single week, every single down, because of the way he practices and the way he plays.’ … He makes plays that he should make, and he does everything that’s asked of him.”
Executives at Happy Bear, which has sold coffee online for the past two years, said they recently signed a lease for a 3,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of 1201 Normandy Place, a mixed-use lab building optimized for life-science tenants, including those who do gene and cell therapy research and development.
The Happy Bear cafe is set to serve coffee, wine, and grab-and-go food, including sandwiches, breakfast items, soups, salads, flatbreads, and tomato pie made in partnership with Carlino’s, the Ardmore-based specialty-food purveyor.
A Saquon hoagie special at Carlino’s Market in Ardmore. The specialty-food purveyor’s food will be available at the the Happy Bear Coffee Company’s first physical store at the Navy Yard.
The cafe will have indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the five-acre Central Green Park, and provide “a versatile setting for morning coffee, a quick lunch, or an evening glass of wine,” according to the news release.
“We wanted to create a place that feels like a daily ritual and a small retreat all in one,” Happy Bear cofounder Dan Kredensor said in a statement.
“With Carlino’s expertise as one of our culinary partners, we’re building a cafe that brings together wonderful specialty coffee, great flavors, and a welcoming atmosphere, right in the heart of the Navy Yard’s most exciting new district.”
An artist’s rendering shows an aerial view of the proposed development plan for the Navy Yard.
Ensemble Real Estate Investments, of California, and Philly’s Mosaic Development Partners were selected in 2020 to lead an estimated $2.5 billion redevelopment of 109 acres of the former base.
Construction of 1201 Normandy was part of Ensemble/Mosaic’s first phase of redevelopment, which was estimated to cost $400 million.
“Happy Bear represents the type of dynamic, community-focused retail that will define the Navy Yard as it enters its next phase of growth,” said Nelson Way, vice president of leasing and development for Ensemble.
Happy Bear was founded by longtime friends Kredensor and Frank Orman, who bonded by exploring Philly’s coffee shops during their college years.
The pair’s first cafe will be near a 12-acre section of the Navy Yard that’s being called the Historic Core District, combining historic buildings with new construction.
An artist’s rendering of PIDC’s vision for the Navy Yard Historic District Core district, which would combine historic buildings and new construction.
In the same area, developers have built more than 600 apartments in a mixed-use community called AVE Navy Yard, which is expected to open next year.
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), an independent nonprofit, manages the Navy Yard on the city’s behalf. It has owned the 1,200-acre site since the U.S. Defense Department decommissioned it as a military base in 2000.
The Navy Yard is home to 150 companies that employ 16,000 people, according to its online directory. Its tenants include Urban Outfitters, which is headquartered at the site, and Jefferson Health.
The property also has a Courtyard Marriott, several daytime food options, and a full-service restaurant called the Gatehouse.
Navy Yard stakeholders want the campus to eventually have nearly 4,000 new apartments; 235,000 square feet of retail; and more than 4.2 million square-feet of office, research and development, and manufacturing space, according to its 2022 redevelopment plan. Developers also want to bring another hotel to the site.
The Eagles travel down I-95 for a Saturday evening road game in Landover, Md., against the Washington Commanders on Saturday.
One team has four wins and shut down its starting quarterback for the rest of the season. The other got back on track with a blowout win Sunday and is gearing up for another playoff run.
The schedule makers probably didn’t have this type of disparity on their bingo cards when they matched up the Eagles and Commanders for two games in the final three weeks of the NFL season, but here we are.
Yes, the Raiders stink, but the Eagles should be feeling pretty good about themselves after their 31-0 drubbing of Las Vegas on Sunday. The offense got back on track. The defense couldn’t have played much better. Jake Elliott finished a game without missing a kick for the first time since Week 11.
All is right at the NovaCare Complex, right?
Yes, at least for now.
But the Eagles should be ready to pounce Saturday. They’re facing another team starting a backup quarterback. They’re facing an even worse defense than the one they beat up on Sunday. And they can clinch the NFC East with a victory.
It’s hard to envision that not happening Saturday night. The Commanders can score, especially with Terry McLaurin back in the lineup. And Marcus Mariota will test what the Eagles have learned about trying to stop the quarterback running game. But the Eagles have way too big a talent advantage for this game to be much of a worry.
Three of Washington’s four wins this season are against the Giants (twice) and Raiders. The other came against the Chargers. But Jayden Daniels started that game, and the Commanders defense played its best game of the season. That was all the way back in October, though, and that defense is banged up.
Hang the banner. The Eagles will win their second consecutive division title, and their third in four seasons.
Even when Daniels was healthy enough to play, this Commanders team hadn’t been the NFC contender it was last season. While McLaurin is still one of the top receivers in the division, the Commanders have a shortage of playmakers overall. The season-ending ACL injury to Zach Ertz certainly doesn’t help matters. Jacory Croskey-Merritt has been a solid threat on the ground, but he’s prone to making rookie mistakes (including three fumbles this season).
The biggest concern for the Eagles defense is Mariota’s ability to use his legs to extend plays. The Eagles have conceded 329 rushing yards to opposing quarterbacks this season, the second-highest total in the NFL. If Vic Fangio’s unit can keep him contained, it will be in position to shut the Commanders down.
The big question facing the Eagles offense going forward: Can it sustain the success it established in the win over the Raiders? The Eagles ought to have a good chance of doing so against the Commanders in two of their final three games. Even with Dan Quinn taking over the defensive coordinator duties, Washington still has struggled against the pass and the run.
With a win, the Eagles will clinch the NFC East, making them the first back-to-back winners in the last 20 seasons. So much for the league back-loading these Eagles-Commanders games with the aspiration that they would have playoff implications for both teams.
Philly’s biggest development projects could bring more than 2,500 new homes and apartments; 1,800 parking spaces; and 118,000 square feet of storage space.
A rendering of the 380-foot tower proposed near Pennsport by a New York capital management firm.Perkins Eastman
Some developers still have big plans though, and if they want to build more than 50 new homes, or any project of over 50,000 square feet, they need to submit their plans to the Planning Commission for public input via the Civic Design Review committee.
story continues after advertisement
This year, 18 projects across Philadelphia went before the committee. These projects are large enough to remake neighborhood commercial corridors and create new hyperlocal landmarks, for better or worse. Most will be breaking ground in the new year.
Here’s your guide to what the committee considered this year.
What is Civic Design Review?
The Civic Design Review committee isan advisory-only board of architects, planners, and other experts who provide feedback on developments that will have an outsized impact on the cityscape.
“CDR gives communities a meaningful opportunity to make their voices heard, educates the public on principles of good design and use of shared spaces, requires developers to respond to questions in a public forum,” says Jessie Lawrence, the city’s director of Planning and Development.
But just because a project goes through Civic Design Review doesn’t always mean it will get built. The 76ers proposed Center City arenawent through the process, and famouslycame to naught earlier this year.
Nonetheless, Civic Design Review is still a rough proxy for what Philadelphians can expect to see in the near future. Here’s your guide to what the committee considered this year.
275 apartment units for Southwest Center City
1601 Washington Ave. | Ori Feibush of OCF Realty
Atrium Design Group
The former site ofHoa Binh Plaza has seen multiple redevelopment efforts since the popular Vietnamese shopping mall’s pre-pandemic closure. This latest isthe third from Feibush, who is offering a scaled-down version of an earlier 400-unit plan, with 10% of the units slated for affordable housing and 200 underground parking spaces.
Status: Ground breaking is slated for the second half of 2026.
84 apartments in Southwest Center City
914 S. Broad St. | Carl Dranoff of Dranoff Properties
JKRP Architects
Dranoff has been developing residential buildings on this stretch of South Broad Street for two decades. He has planned a new apartment building on this propertyfor years. He saw the drive-through McDonald’s that formerly occupied the site and closed in 2021, as a poor fit for one of Center City’s major thoroughfares.
Status: Ground breaking is projected for autumn 2026.
372-car garage for Fishtown and Northern Liberties
53-67 E. Laurel St. | Bridge One Management
Designblendz
As apartments have sprouted along this stretch of the Delaware River in recent years, new parking spaces have not kept apace. Investors hired Bridge One Management tobrainstorm new uses for this property, and the company thinks demand for parking is high enough for a new garage. The project also has 14,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and another 16,000 on the roof.
Status: Permits have not yet been filed.
59-room hotel for Fishtown
1224 Frankford Ave. | Roland Kassis of Kassis & Co.
Gnome Architects
The developer who most helped remake Fishtown into the ultrahip neighborhood it is today haslong wanted to build a hotel on this vacant lot on the commercial corridor. An earlier, taller version of the project was approved before the COVID-19 pandemic, but those permits lapsed.
Status: Ground breaking is slated for the second half of 2026.
75 apartments in Kensington
3408 B St. | Dwight City Group
Raymond F. Rola
Far from the parts of Kensington where development is booming,this apartment project is meant to be priced to attract people who already live in the neighborhood. The developer, known for adaptive reuse, plans to revive the two-story remnants of a derelict warehouse as a base for the six-story apartment building.
Status: The project awaits a zoning board hearing in January.
162 units for rent and purchase in Port Richmond
2620 and 2650 Castor Ave. | Tim Ajvazi
Ambit Architecture
These two neighboring projects are thework of the same developer and were considered by the Civic Design Review in tandem. At 2650 Castor Ave., 68 homes are planned across eight triplexes and 22 duplexes. At 2620 Castor Ave., there is a proposal for a four-story apartment building of mostly one-bedroom units, which the zoning board approved earlier.
Status:: The zoning board approved the project on 1650 Castor Ave. on Wednesday.
232 new homes in North Philadelphia
2200 N. Eighth St. | Andre Herszaft
Harman Deutsch Ohler Architecture
This project has beenin the works for two years, and to gain community support before the zoning board the New Jersey-based developer has more than halved the number of planned units. Instead of apartments, the old trolley barn at this location will be replaced by dozens of duplexes and triplexes, assuming it wins permission from the ZBA.
Status: Neither zoning nor demolition permits have been filed yet.
384 apartments in Roxborough
4889 Umbria St. | Genesis Properties and GMH Communities
Oombra Architects
Thisapartment building is the largest in recent memory for the Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Roxborough, and while community groups were unhappy, they had few means to push back against it. The developer plans almost one-for-one parking at the site, but no commercial development, although a few existing businesses on site will remain, including furniture retailer Love City Vintage and Javies beer distributor.
Status: Ground breaking is slated for next year.
167 apartments in Manayunk
4045-61 Main St. | Urban Conversions
CBP Architects
This seven-story project from architect CBP Architects required thedemolition of a historic textile mill to move forward. Its proximity to the Schuylkill presented another challenge, which developers solved by proposing 160 parking spaces on its first two floors to lift the project out of the flood zone.
The project also required permission from the zoning board, where a height reduction was mandated. But the developer successfully argued the project was impossible with fewer stories and the ZBA reconsidered and will now allow its original size.
Status: Permitted, but ground has not been broken yet.
45 units for East Germantown
6225 Germantown Ave. | MGMT Residential
Ingram/Sageser
This deserted warehouse, tucked off Germantown Avenue, is slated for a small,four-story apartment building with a floor of parking. The developer still needs to demolish the old building.
Status: A demolition permit was issued in July, but the building still stands.
81-unit apartment building for Mt. Airy
6903-15 Germantown Ave. | Tierview Development
Barton Partners
Thisfive-story building includes space for retail, 11 parking spots in the rear, and plenty of greenery and brick detailing to fit in with its surroundings. Seven of the units are priced to be accessible to lower-income families, but all of the units are targeted to below-market-rate prices.
Status: Ground breaking slated for the first half of 2026.
495-car garage in University City
17 N. 41st St.. | University City Associates
ISA
This garage is called University Place 5.0 and is meant to accompany the developer’s earlier life-sciences-oriented University Place 3.0 next door. It is meant to provide vehicle storage for the developer’s existing holdings, and especiallyfor the city’s criminal forensics laboratory, which will have reserved use for a fifth of the space. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier fought for the crime lab in her district, and she had to change the property’s zoning to enable the garage.
Status: Ground breaking is slated for early next year.
This West Philadelphia developer isexpanding to a new part of the city with a project that redevelops the former St. Divine Mercy School into a 35-unit apartment building along with two new buildings to house the rest of the units. Sixteen will be slated for lower-income residents.
Status: Leasing for the former school begins in January; the two new buildings have yet to break ground.
204 apartments in North Philly
1322 West Clearfield St.| J Paul Inc.
Canno Design
This building, from architects CANNODesign,stirred controversy in its corner of North Philadelphia over what neighbors saw as a lack of adequate parking (although there were 82 underground spaces in the plans). The project needed a variance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), and was granted permission to move forward in December.
Status: Approved by the zoning board, but hasn’t broken ground yet.
65 affordable apartments in Sharswood
2006 Cecil B. Moore Ave. | PHA and the Frankel Enterprises
Blackney Hayes
This senior housing development is one of the last pieces of the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s 10-year redevelopment of North Philadelphia’s Sharswood neighborhood. (Itmoved its headquarters there from Center City.) This piece of the project is being orchestrated in partnership with the Frankel brothers, who are known for affordable housing projects across the city.
Status: Ground breaking is slated for autumn 2026.
620 apartments for Pennsport
1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. | Brevet Capital Management
Perkins Eastman
This property to the east of Pennsport has seen many mega-project proposals come and go. The latest from a New York capital management firm promiseshundreds of new units, and more towers if the first round goes well.
Status: Permits have been filed but a ground-breaking date remains unknown.
1,005-car garage in Grays Ferry
3000 Greys Ferry Ave. | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
THA Consulting Inc.
CHOP is in the midst of a big expansion, and wants more employee parking. The site is about a mile from the hospital complex, and CHOP plans shuttles for the last leg of commutes. The projectstirred controversy for its location in a low-income neighborhood with already elevated asthma levels, which advocates say will be exacerbated by more cars.
Status: Under construction.
118,000 square feet of storage space in Fox Chase
7801 Oxford Ave. | BG Capital
Vissi Architecture
The developer reduced the planned size of its self-storage space to stave off community opposition to the project, which won approvals from the ZBA this summer. But BG Capitalnever intended to build the project itself, and instead is seeking to sell the permitted property to a developer with more experience in the self-storage industry.
Status: Permitted, unbuilt, and for sale.
Staff Contributors
Reporting: Jake Blumgart
Graphics: John Duchneskie
Editing and Digital Production: Erica Palan
Copy Editing: Lidija Dorjkhand
Subscribe to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our reporting is directly supported by reader subscriptions. If you want more journalism like this story, please subscribe today
For a little while, Philadelphia’s Fishtown Analytics looked as if it might put the city where the modern computer was born back on the tech map as a software headquarters.
Cofounders Tristan Handy, Connor McArthur, and Drew Banin started their company in 2016. They created the Data Build Tool, which helps a range of employers — Philly firms like Gopuff, business software makers like GitLab, HubSpot, and New Relic, publisher Condé Nast, manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific, airline JetBlue — manage their proliferating databases out in the cloud of rent-a-servers.
As the tool caught on, they talked of taking the company public, drawing investors and hundreds of software recruits to one of the city’s popular neighborhoods, proof that Philadelphia is a place tech leaders flourish.
But that’s not quite how things worked out. In 2021 the start-up raised $150 million from Roblox backer Altimeter Capital and Silicon Valley giants Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Thefounders dropped the Fishtown name in favor of dbt Labs, for their software tool’s initials.
Then in October, they agreed to a merger with a larger data-integration software company and sometime-partner, Fivetran, with headquarters in California. The 20-person Spring Garden Street office will remain.
Handy agreed to talk with The Inquirer about what was, what might have been, and what’s next. He came to the interview wearing an Eagles No. 27 jersey. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I talked to Bob about lessons learned. Bob is focused on his relationship with the Reveal founder. He says everything else is solvable, as long as the relationship between the founders is strong.
Bob Moore has founded a string of Philadelphia software companies. Crossbeam, “LinkedIn for businesses,” raised $76 million in October 2021, from firms led by Silicon Valley venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz.
Are customers glad you’re consolidating or worried at losing a choice?
We have a lot of customers we share with Fivetran. In general we are finding excitement, with a little initial trepidation.
George [Fraser, Fivetran’s CEO] and I have spent a lot of time thinking about what our customers need to hear and to de-stress them. Generally the reactions are positive. It’s not uncommon we will hear from a customer: ‘I was thinking about what I was going to do with this set of data pipelines, and now we should talk about that.’ Which is part of the point of all this.
We are still pre-closing. We need to seek [U.S.] Department of Justice input. We are waiting to see if we meet that test — if DOJ will care about us at all. The answer should be no.
Does Philadelphia make enough software to be a ‘tech center?’
All three of us cofounders came out of Bob Moore’s RJMetrics, and then our first employee, Erin Vaughan [head of customer services], came out of RJ. Bob sent me a note after that: ‘Maybe you should hire some other people.’
A big part of the reason I started Fishtown Analytics was that in 2016, RJ was coming close to the end of its main chapter. I didn’t see other start-up opportunities locally that I was excited about. My wife had just gotten a job at CHOP. We weren’t moving. I had to figure something out.
So you built it. Was Philly a good place to start and then grow?
I just turned 45. A bunch of people I know have moved back to the area from San Francisco. A lot of times that is because you want to be close to family when you have kids or it’s a higher quality of life around here.
We are at 915 Spring Garden St. The elevator is always broken. We are still about 20 people there — the same as when we raised money [in 2021].
But my network is now nationwide. We are a distributed business with 730 people. And Fivetran has a big headquarters in Oakland, Calif.
dbt Labs employs more than 700, but most work remotely. Its headquarters, with 20 people including some of its founders and earliest employees, is upstairs at 915 Spring Garden St., a former Reading Railroad building whose first floor is home to Triple Bottom Brewing.
Will the merger mean expansion and hiring, or consolidation and firing?
Growth is good, and in general, we are not imaging cost-cutting targets. There is figuring out who occupies the leadership ranks. That is the main area where there might be some departures.
It’s a consolidation move from a products perspective. Historically in our space, the products Fivetran sells and the products we sell have been sold together. Our customers have budget lines for that combination.
Both companies are on track. Both companies were going to IPO at some point. This brings that date in closer. Combined, we have the growth and scale to go public. We just need to get through the integration and prove to everybody we have effectively combined these companies, and need a few quarters of numbers.
Why did you drop ‘Fishtown’ from the name?
Every sales call started out with ‘What’s Fishtown?’ Locally people have a lot of pride in Fishtown. But nobody else knew what it meant.
Both companies are keeping their brands. We’ll figure out what to call the combination.
Do you hire a lot of Philly engineers?
We did originally. Our first class of data people we trained, there were two Penn people and a Princeton person. For a long time that was the plan: continue hiring incredibly talented people from these schools. But then we went in a different direction.
Why, when Fivetran expanded in Oakland, did you not do the same in Philly?
It’s real hard to do any kind of office-space culture for tech workers in Philly because SEPTA is so bad.
As the people in the company start to age into having kids and move out to the suburbs, it is getting very challenging to come into the office. Even from the Main Line, the train is once an hour. That’s very hard.
Bob Moore calls you a pillar of the Philly start-up ‘connectivity’ who helps other founders and causes. Are you planning to stay around?
Nobody wants to hear this, but every football season is different, and the preceding season should never flavor its successor, and expectations of continued excellence from a team that is markedly different are utterly ridiculous. Super Bowl LIX is gone, just like six significant players from that championship roster.
Which brings us to the 9-5 Eagles, who, contrary to much of the commentary and punditry, are nearing the end of a very good season. Saquon Barkley isn’t going to break rushing records this season, and the passing game hasn’t equaled its pedigree, and the defense won’t finish ranked No. 1, but none of that matters. What matters is who they beat, who they lost to, and where they stand.
What? How? Why even consider such heresy as this? Isn’t there enough gaslighting going on during White House press briefings?
This isn’t fake news, and this isn’t pandering to the franchise (as if).
This is common sense.
The Eagles’ results through 15 weeks present a team that can become just the eighth franchise to win consecutive Lombardi Trophies.
They’ve beaten the Rams, Packers, and Buccaneers, all playoff teams. They also beat the 8-6 Lions, and they won in Kansas City against a Chiefs team that began the season 5-3.
More relevantly, if you view the season objectively, the negative isn’t very negative.
The Birds have one bad loss in 14 games. That bad loss came Oct. 9, to the Giants. That was one of the NFL’s idiotic, three-days-of-rest, Thursday Night Football games, and the Eagles were the road team. The Giants were riding a wave of hope in the form of a pair of dynamic rookies with names straight out of youth fiction sports novels, Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo. Still, it was a loss, and a bad loss.
The other losses are eminently explicable.
The week before they lost to the visiting Broncos, who, now 12-2, turned out to be the best team in the league.
They lost to the Cowboys at Dallas on Nov. 23 because Dallas came back hard, which was to be expected, since Dallas has the league’s No. 1 offense.
They lost to the Bears, a 10-win team that holds the No. 2 seed in the NFC, mainly because of an inability to stop the run game, an inability predicated on the infirmity of defensive tackle Jalen Carter’s shoulders, which were subsequently repaired. That also was a short-week game, played on Black Friday.
They lost on the road to the Chargers, another 10-win team, because Jalen Hurts had a catastrophically bad game. That’s allowed. It was his first catastrophically bad game since Dec. 18, 2023, when he and A.J. Brown went rogue. That means it was Hurts’ first disaster in a span of 36 starts. That’s not bad, considering Brett Favre averaged about two catastrophes per season in his first years as a starter.
Hurts hasn’t been great, but this season he has produced his two best games in terms of passer rating, which this season is 99.4, about 5 points higher than his previous four complete seasons as a starter. With 22 TD passes, he’s just two away from a career high.
Jalen Hurts and the offense have been frustrating to watch at times, especially during the three-game losing streak. But on balance, Hurts has had a good year.
And, while every team suffers in-season roster attrition, it’s only fair to factor in the Eagles’ most relevant absences, since they help explain some of the losses.
They recently lost three games in a row when Carter and right tackle Lane Johnson, the two best players on the team, were either playing hurt or not playing at all.
Guess which other game Carter missed because of injury? The bad loss in New York.
Further, the Eagles have had four short-week games: Games 6, 10, 12, and 14. They have a fifth, on Saturday, at Washington. They could have a sixth if the NFL decides Game 17 against the Commanders should be played on a Saturday.
Short-week games are an onerous burden. The long week that follows a short week never compensates for the shortened time for rest, healing, and preparation.
These are not complaints. These are explanations. This is how champions are forged. This is the price of greatness.
Have the Eagles looked great in the first 14 games? No. But when they’ve looked bad, or when they’ve lost, it either occurred against very good teams, or with extenuating circumstances, or both.
What, then, does Saturday portend? Nothing certain. The Eagles have lost once apiece to their other NFC East opponents, the Cowboys and Giants, each time on the road. The Commanders might be without some of their better players, but they are not without talent, however aged that talent might be.
They play hard for coach Dan Quinn, who worked as the Cowboys defensive coordinator for three seasons before taking over in Washington.
This game isn’t a walkover, and the rematch in Game 17 won’t be a walkover, either. But, assuming Johnson and Carter return soon, the Eagles should be regarded as a fearsome playoff foe.
This is a much more palatable argument coming off an impressive win, but it would be just as true had they not won by 31 points or shut out the Raiders.
Because they are a very, very good team. Does Jalen Hurts need to run the ball more? Yes. Does the offense need to commit fewer penalties? Yes. Did they endure a midseason lull? Yes.
But the Eagles are nearly a touchdown favorite Saturday, and likely will be favored by even more in the season finale against the Commanders. They’ll probably get points in Buffalo next weekend, but likely no more than a field goal.
Why? Because, again, they’re a very good team that has had a very good season.
