A 46-year-old Cambodian immigrant held at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia died in a hospital on Friday after being treated for drug withdrawal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
Parady La was arrested by ICE agents outside his Upper Darby home on Tuesday, then transferred to the detention center where he received treatment for severe withdrawal, ICE said.
The next day he was found unresponsive in his cell. Center staff immediately administered CPR and several doses of naloxone, ICE said.
Emergency medical services workers arrived and took over resuscitation efforts. La was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and admitted in critical condition.
On Wednesday evening, medical evaluations indicated he had limited brain function.
His condition worsened on Thursday and medical staff reported complete renal failure and no brain activity. Family members were notified and visited him at Jefferson, ICE said.
He was pronounced dead by hospital staff early Friday, ICE said.
La was admitted to the United States in 1981 as a refugee, when he would have been a child of about 2. He became a lawful permanent resident a year later, but lost his legal status after committing a series of crimes over two decades, ICE said.
In 1994, when he would have been about 15, he was adjudicated delinquent for simple assault in Delaware County. Later convictions and jail time followed for robbery, criminal conspiracy, and other crimes, ICE said.
Powered by its star newcomer, Villanova snapped a losing streak at Marquette that was approaching six years long.
It took the game’s final minutes, but, fueled by Acaden Lewis, the Wildcats won, 76-73, marking the first time since Dec. 23, 2020, that they beat Marquette on the road. Lewis, a freshman guard who has impressed since arriving on the Main Line, scored a team-high 20 points and had eight assists, tying a career-best.
Villanova (13-3, 4-1 Big East) picked up its third consecutive conference road win. Wildcats coach Kevin Willard noted that while he’s pleased, replicating that success inside the Finneran Pavilion has been a challenge.
“I think we’ve really developed a road identity,” Willard said. “I think we need to take that identity and bring it home and really have that same kind of dog mentality that we have on the road at home. I think if we can develop that same attitude, we’ll continue to get better.”
Lewis, the four-time Big East Freshman of the Week, is averaging 12.5 points and 5.0 assists.
Despite being outscored in the second half for the second consecutive game and third time this season, Villanova shot 48.2% in the second half to escape Milwaukee. Graduate guard Devin Askew led Villanova’s second-half effort with 13 points off the bench.
“[Devin] has been playing really well,” Willard said. “The last four or five games, [he] hasn’t been shooting well, but he’s been playing well. And I thought he got a couple of good mismatches, hit a couple of really big pull-up jumpers that kind of settled us down and kept the lead going.”
Overall, the Wildcats shot 31-for-56 (55.4%) from the field, including 7-for-25 from beyond the arc, and 7-for-7 from the free throw line.
Defensive ups and downs
Villanova struggled defensively to stop the worst three-point shooting team in the Big East from beyond the arc in the first half. However, the Wildcats shut Marquette down in the second half, though they lacked defensive stops throughout the game, much like in their four-point home loss to Creighton on Wednesday.
The Golden Eagles (6-11, 1-5) entered the game 340th in the country in three-point percentage, averaging 29.5% but shot 11-for-31 on three-pointers on Saturday. Nigel James Jr. led the way with a career-high 31 points, shooting 7-for-9 from deep.
James was perfect in the second half offensively with 12 points, shooting 4-for-4 from the field, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Royce Parham scored 15 of his 17 points. The duo accounted for 27 of Marquette’s 35 second-half points.
“[Marquette was] just scrappy,” Askew said. “They were playing hard, and I’m glad we could pull it through.”
In the second half, Villanova held Marquette to 3-for-13 (23.1%) from beyond the arc and 11-for-24 (45.8%) from the field.
Villanova got into foul trouble in the back half of the game. Duke Brennan (12 points, four rebounds), the nation’s third-leading rebounder, picked up four fouls in the second half and fouled out with 4 minutes, 29 seconds to go.
After Brennan’s fourth foul, at the 8:28 mark, Villanova shifted to a small-ball lineup, with Matt Hodge (14 points, five rebounds) at center.
“Luckily [Marquette] went small,” Willard said. “So we were able to play [Hodge] at the five and Malachi [Palmer] at the four. And so we didn’t have to really worry about battling something at the rim. We were able to kind of go small with them.”
Villanova committed 16 personal fouls, and Marquette was in the double bonus with 8:13 to go. Marquette shot 12-for-15 (80%) from the free-throw line.
Up next
Villanova will look to make it four straight away from home in a road game against Providence (8-7, 1-3) on Tuesday (6:30 p.m., FS1). Providence defeated Villanova, 75-62, in Rhode Island in the teams’ last matchup.
Demonstrators swept onto the streets of Philadelphia and cities across the country on Saturday to vent anger and sadness over the ICE killing of an unarmed woman motorist in Minneapolis.
Protests over the fatal Wednesday shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good were taking place or being planned in hundreds of places, from small towns to major cities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas, Florida, California, New York, and elsewhere.
Organizers intend to hold rallies on Sunday in Trenton, Abington, Cherry Hill, Ardmore, Ambler, and other communities, the breadth of the protests signaling the scope of resistance to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. Leading civil rights groups have called for people to step up and support the ICE Out for Good Weekend of Action.
“What happened in Minneapolis is unforgivable,” said Vicki Miller, a leader of Indivisible Philadelphia, who gathered with others at City Hall on Saturday morning.
In Philadelphia the day began in a cold, steady rain, with about a hundred people at City Hall chanting, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state.”
Trump administration officials insist the agent who shot Good three times had fired out of self-defense, saying he was about to be run over, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem described the incident as “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Many gather to show their support for Renee Good and to protest against ICE in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
Trump has undertaken an unprecedented campaign to arrest and deport millions of immigrants, an effort that’s included sending ICE and federal troops into blue American cities.
An estimated 2,000 federal agents have surged into Minnesota, following similar deployments in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Memphis, and elsewhere. Somehow Philadelphia has gone untouched, despite its history of feuding with Trump.
On Friday night, a 1,000-person protest outside of a Minneapolis hotel turned violent as demonstrators threw ice, snow, and rocks at officers, according to Minneapolis police.
At Philadelphia City Hall, Miller called on residents to protect one another from the Trump administration.
“An authoritarian wants us to feel alone. We are showing that we are not alone,” she said. “We are happy to be here for our neighbors; we are here to protect them.”
By 10:30 a.m., the crowd began moving down Market Street, meeting up with another demonstration near federal properties around Seventh and Arch Streets, and growing in size to about 500 people.
Tiffanie Knott, of Rittenhouse, holding a sign reading “Melt ICE” as she marches with many others to protest against ICE in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
School psychologist Michele Messer, 51, came from Camden with her students in mind.
“Our immigrant students are impacted and it will have a long-lasting effect in their education,” said the member of grassroots group Cooper River Indivisible. “We need to show up so they know we love them; we hear them, and we will be here for you until this is over.”
Jim Greway, 77, said he was protesting for those who couldn’t be present, whose immigration status or race made them fearful of speaking out.
“People who look different than me are being told they don’t belong here and will never succeed in this country,” said Greway, who is white. “I’m here to say that’s not true.”
A couple in their late 70s marched down Market Street holding hands, chanting with the crowd for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be shut down.
“We have good friends that are afraid to leave their house, so to us this is personal,” explained Lori Chewkanes.
Her husband, Michael Chewkanes, said that ICE actions in Minneapolis made the couple feel like their patriotism was being stolen.
“As a veteran, it makes me sick to my stomach,” he said. “[ICE] should be protecting the people, not hurting them. This should have never happened.”
Madeline Forrest, 20, of Camden, handed out copies of a poem she wrote that condemned ICE. As she did so, MAGA supporter Patrick Labrie, also 20, approached to talk about why he supported the agency, including the shooting by the officer in Minnesota.
“From the clips, it seemed like he was in a lot of danger, so it seems like he did everything he could to protect himself,” Labrie said.
Labrie continued to defend the officer’s actions, later attempting to interrupt the chants of the crowd.
Forrest thought Labrie was deliberating trying to attract attention to draw more watchers on social media. She tried to engage him again, but was unable do so as police moved in to safeguard him from the crowd.
Between now and the Olympic break, the Flyers have 14 games in 26 days. It’s a bit of a gauntlet as they come across red-hot teams like the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Colorado Avalanche.
The stretch begins Saturday (7 p.m., NBCSP) with the first of two straight home meetings against the Tampa Bay Lightning, winners of eight straight.
And the Flyers will have to do it without three of their top players. Defenseman Jamie Drysdale was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury on Friday, and forwards Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny are day-to-day with upper-body injuries.
“I talked to Drysie and Brink; they felt better today. So, that’s a real good sign,” coach Rick Tocchet said on Saturday after the team’s morning skate, which Brink and Drysdale participated in wearing green noncontact jerseys.
“TK said he felt a little bit [better] yesterday, but not good enough to play.”
Konecny, who did not participate in the morning skate, was injured in Thursday’s overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs after scoring the Flyers’ lone goal.
Since Nov. 29, when he had two assists in the win against the New Jersey Devils, Konecny is tied for 20th in the NHL in points (21) with names like Mitch Marner, Kirill Kaprizov, Nick Suzuki, Sam Reinhart, and Sam Bennett. His nine goals in that timeframe are tied for 19th with several players, including Sidney Crosby, the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov, and Trevor Zegras.
Konecny has been playing with Christian Dvorak and Zegras, who called his loss “terrible.”
“Yeah, it’s a big hole. He’s a big part of our team offensively, especially,” added Sean Couturier. “So it’s going to be next-man-up mentality. He’s not an easy guy to [replace], you don’t just fill in with one guy. But, I think collectively, we can all step up and take over.”
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet will shuffle his lines and power-play units without three key regulars on Saturday.
With Konecny and Brink out of the lineup, Matvei Michkov has been moved to Konecny’s spot. According to Natural Stat Trick, Michkov, Dvorak, and Zegras have played 39 minutes, 15 seconds together this season, with the Flyers having 40 shot attempts for and 40 against and potting two goals while allowing one.
“When you have four or five guys out, you get the bingo balls going, right?” said Tocchet about reuniting Zegras and Michkov. “You’re trying to put chemistry and thought process. So, yeah, we’ll see how it works.”
As Couturier said, it is a next-man-up mentality, but the Flyers will assuredly also be looking for Owen Tippett to continue his charge.
Since Dec. 20, his four goals are tied atop the team’s leaderboard with Konecny and Carl Grundström. His 32 shots during that span rank No. 1 on the Flyers and are tied for the 13th-most in the NHL, but the problem has been his finishing. His 12.5 shooting percentage across those nine games ranks eighth on the team. (Tippet is scoring on an almost identical 12.6% of his shots for the season, also eighth among Flyers.)
Tippett has been flying of late, using his speed to create chances for himself and his linemates, Denver Barkey and Couturier. Does he feel pressure to produce without Konency in the lineup?
“I don’t want to put that pressure on myself. But I think I said the same thing when [Tyson Foerster] went out, he’s one of those guys that we have to kind of pick up a little bit where we can and contribute where we can,” he said.
“Obviously, I know I’m capable of doing it, but I think the moment you start putting pressure on yourself to fill that void and fill that gap, it can tend to kind of take away from your game. [Konecny is] a big loss in the room, we all know that, so we’re all going to have to kind of step up and chip in where we can.”
Breakaways
Sam Ersson (6-5-4, .868 save percentage) will start against the Lightning. He was in net for the Flyers’ 3-0 loss on Nov. 24 in Tampa Bay, Fla., allowing two goals on 17 shots. … Defenseman Adam Ginning, who was recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Friday, is expected to be a healthy scratch. … Forward Nic Deslauriers will slot back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the past eight games. … With the power play having plummeted — it is tied for second worst with the Washington Capitals (15.0%) — and guys who normally play on the man advantage out, Tocchet has two new units: Tippett, Michkov, Zegras, Dvorak, and Rasmsus Ristolainen are on one, and Noah Cates, Cam York, Barkey, Travis Sanheim, and Nikita Grebenkin are on the other. Couturier, despite being a net-front presence on Thursday and consistently screening the goalie — something Tocchet has preached this season — is not on a unit. “He’s played a lot of power play this year, and I think he’s just getting overused,” Tocchet said. “It doesn’t matter who, you’ve got to get in front of the net.”
As the Trump administration increases the presence of federal agents in U.S. cities, a local group identifying as part of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense has become more active in Philadelphia.
The group says it is a resurgence of the militant Black power group dating back to the 1960s, and has been trained by some of the original party’s surviving members. Several attended an anti-ICE protest Thursday at Philadelphia City Hall, carrying military-style weapons.
They say they’re legally permitted to carry firearms and are showing up as a response to violence from the Trump administration.
The group has been holding regular weekly free food programs in North Philadelphia for several years, according to 39-year-old Paul Birdsong of West Philadelphia, who identifies himself as the Black Panther Party’s national chairman.
Birdsong and others attended the Philly protest one day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
“That wouldn’t have happened if we were there,” Birdsong said. “Not a single person would have gotten touched.”
Jane Wiedman of Mount Airy holds up a sign among the crowd of protesters at City Hall on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, as they gather for a vigil to rally against the killing of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
Millions of people have watched videos of the shooting online, sparking national protests. The Trump administration quickly defended the shooter, with JD Vance asserting Ross has “absolute immunity” and “was doing his job.” Some have rejected Vance’s suggestion that Ross couldn’t be tried by the state, and Minnesota leaders Friday renewed their calls for state involvement in an investigation of the shooting.
Birdsong said the group wants to see ICE abolished and the Trump administration held accountable.
“You got people that are part of a cabal, that are self serving … and they prey on the common folks of the United States,” Birdsong said.
Philadelphia Black Panther Party for Self-Defense member Skiippy (right) hands soup to Yolanda Gray (center) and Roxanne Hart outside the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. The Philadelphia Black Panther Party for Self-Defense helps supply food and clothes for residents.
A free food program
Birdsong said he was recruited by members of the Black Panther Party in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, and he listed several surviving elders of the group as mentors. The Philly chapter has “less than 100″ members, he said, though he declined to provide more detail.
On Friday evening, Birdsong and several other Black Panther Party members set upa pop-up food pantry outside Church of the Advocate at the corner of 18th and Diamond Streets in North Philadelphia.
The members laid out bananas, grapes, salad greens, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, apples, pears, celery, peppers, and mushrooms on folding tables.
They added bread, Tastykakes — immediately popular with passing children — canned food, and hygiene items like shampoo, COVID-19 test kits, and adult undergarments. On another table were children’s clothes and a large pot of chicken soup, all near a banner with the Black Panthers logo.
Philadelphia Black Panther Party for Self-Defense member Sharon Fischer (left) hands a bag of food to Daren Robison in North Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. The Philadelphia Black Panther Party for Self-Defense supplies food and clothes for residents.
Birdsong said the money to buy the food comes from members’ own paychecks, as well as donations from people in the community.
“It really helps out,” said Dawn Henkins, 60, who lives nearby. She said it’s especially helpful for older people who are living on a fixed income.
“The brothers can help people — they are here for the people,” Henkins said.
The Black Panthers previously held food programs at 33rd Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue in Strawberry Mansion, and at Jefferson Square Park in Pennsport, Birdsong said. More recently, the group was able to move into 2123 N. Gratz St. — a North Philadelphia location that Birdsong says once was a headquarters for the original Black Panther Party Philadelphia chapter.
The original Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, Calif., in 1966 and was active nationally until the early 1980s. The group formed to fight against police brutality and quickly evolved to promote other social changes including prison reform and access to education, food, and healthcare, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The group was soon targeted by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, which sought to “discredit, disrupt, and destroy” the Black rights movement, according to UC Berkeley Library. Two Black Panthers in Chicago, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, were killed in a Chicago police raid that was later revealed to have been coordinated by the FBI.
The Philadelphia chapter was active from 1968 until 1973, according to a University of Washington website that maps U.S. social movements. Prominent local figures from this era include Sultan Ahmad, who went on to hold roles in city government, and Paula Peebles, a social activist who stayed involved in the Black Panthers for much of her life.
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense headquarters in North Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.
One person who stopped by for soup on Friday, Jerome Hill, 63, said he can distantly remember the days when Episcopalian pastor and social activist the Rev. Paul Washington let the Black Panthers hold events at Church of the Advocate.
“They primarily were always community oriented,” Hill said. He said he’s glad to see the group handing out food, and added that they could serve as role models for younger people in the neighborhood.
While one member of the group served up chicken soup to several boys who stopped by the tables, another member stood at the corner holding an AK-47-style rifle.
“I feel like we’re welcome,” said one member, also carrying a firearm, who identified himself as Comrade Arch. He said he was a fan of the original group growing up, and he joined a few months ago. “I’ve always had a revolutionary spirit.”
Under a canopy behind the tables, Birdsong moved back his jacket to reveal a modern MP5, a weapon that has its origins in German submachine guns. He also carried two semiautomatic handguns.
It’s a controversial posture: Many pro-democracy advocates and experts on civil rights emphasize that nonviolence is essential to successful protest movements.
The law says you can carry a gun in Philadelphia — but only if you have a license to carry firearms, according to Dillon Harris, an attorney who focuses on gun rights.
“Open carry,” or carrying a firearm in a way that it can be plainly seen by others, is “generally lawful” in Pennsylvania, except for in prohibited locations such as federal buildings, said Harris.
But Philadelphia is an exception to this rule, Harris said. A state law prohibits carrying firearms in “a first class city” without a license to carry firearms. That statute applies to Philadelphia.
But while many civil rights advocates argue that firearms tend to escalate violent confrontations, rather than prevent them, it’s long been part of the Black Panthers’ tactics, and Birdsong pushed back against that idea.
“We feel safe,” Birdsong said. “No police, no drug dealers doing anything to us here.”
Armed members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense march down Market Street with a crowd of protesters on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, to rally against the killing of Renee Good, who was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minn.
Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has garnered national headlines and condemnation for calling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “fake, wannabe law enforcement” and sending a blunt warning to immigration officers who commit crimes in Philadelphia.
“If any [ICE agents] want to come in this city and commit a crime, you will not be able to hide, nobody will whisk you off,” Bilal said. “You don’t want this smoke, cause we will bring it to you. … The criminal in the White House would not be able to keep you from going to jail.”
The sheriff’s office and a spokesperson for Bilal did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday. In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Bilal said “enough is enough.”
“People are tired of these people coming into the city, masked up — basically all masked up — and pulling people out and causing havoc,” Bilal told the network. “This was supposed to be helping cities out, this was supposed to be eliminating crime, but yet, you are committing them here, you are putting people in fear, you are breaking up families.”
Bilal spoke for less than four minutes at the Thursday news conference. She upbraided ICE agents for wearing masks that obscure their faces and said their actions violate “not only legal law but the moral law.”
“Law enforcement professionals around the country do their job, and we have been fighting for years to build that bridge between us and our communities,” Bilal said. “You had one negative nutcase that causes this problem and now we all have to fight again to let people know law enforcement works with communities.”
Some praised Bilal on social media. Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, wrote on Facebook, “Sheriff Rochelle Bilal didn’t hold back. … Tragedies like this happen when agents operate in our communities with little to no oversight.”
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania GOP posted on X, “When local law enforcement stands with criminals rather than people keeping our communities safe, you know there’s a problem. … Rhetoric like this only makes this situation more dangerous for federal law enforcement and the city of Philadelphia.”
A video of Bilal’s statement was also posted by LibsofTikTok, a controversial far-right social media account. That post had more than 746,800 views and 8,500 likes as of Saturday afternoon.
U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican from Florida, responded to LibsofTikTok’s post, writing, “She should be arrested.”
The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office does not police the city; instead, the office’s core functions are deploying deputies to the county’s courtrooms and transporting in-custody defendants to court.
In his statement, Police Commissioner Bethel distinguished the roles of the sheriff’s office and the police department, noting that the sheriff’s office does not “conduct criminal investigations, nor does it in any way direct municipal policing.” The sheriff is an elected official, while police commissioners are appointed by the mayor.
“The Philadelphia Police Department will continue to work professionally with all of our enforcement partners,” Bethel said. “But clear lines of authority — and accurate public representation of those roles — are essential to maintaining public trust and effective public safety operations.”
Former Penn State quarterback Jaxon Smolik announced his commitment to Temple on Saturday morning. He joins the program with a chance to earn the Owls’ starting quarterback job in 2026.
Smolik committed to the Nittany Lions in 2023 out of Iowa’s Dowling Catholic. He had originally committed to Tulane but decommitted from the Green Wave after earning an invite to the Elite 11 showcase, which boosted his recruiting profile.
He went 25-8 during his time as Dowling Catholic’s quarterback, leading the Maroon to multiple state semifinal appearances. As a high school senior, the 6-foot-1 signal-caller was all-state in Iowa after tallying 1,967 passing yards and 19 touchdown passes and leading Dowling to a 10-2 record. Smolik was ranked the No. 24 quarterback recruit in the 2023 class by Rivals and the No. 29 quarterback by ESPN.
The former three-star recruit redshirted as a freshman behind starter Drew Allar and then missed the entirety of the 2024 season due to an injury. He entered the 2025 season competing for the backup job with Ethan Grunkemeyer, who ultimately won the job.
Smolik eventually became the backup after Allar suffered a season-ending ankle injury against Northwestern on Oct. 11. He appeared in two games this season, but did not throw a pass and only carried the ball four times for three yards. Smolik entered the transfer portal at the end of the year.
Head coach K.C. Keeler said that Temple was going to open up its starting quarterback competition following the departure of five of its quarterbacks. Starter Evan Simon and backup Gevani McCoy both graduated, as well as Anthony Chiccitt. Third-stringer Tyler Douglas and fellow reserve Patrick Keller both entered the portal following the year.
“We’re probably thinking two out of the portal,” said Keeler on signing day. “We told all the high school recruits the same thing. Two of these guys will be here mid-year, so they will come here in January. We definitely want to have a quarterback competition once we get the kids here in January.”
The Owls will now have four quarterbacks with the team when spring camp opens, barring another addition. Temple currently has Cam Boykin, the only quarterback that was on the roster last year, and high school commits Brady Palmer, Brody Norman, and Lamar Best. Palmer and Norman will join the team for the spring semester, while Best won’t enroll until the summer.
Smolik joins the team with three years of eligibility remaining. If he wins the starting job, he will have a chance to play his former team when Temple plays Penn State at Lincoln Financial Field on Sept. 12.
Eagles cornerbacks Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell entered the league together, and they’ve earned their first Associated Press first-team All-Pro nods together.
DeJean, the Eagles’ 2024 second-round pick out of Iowa, and Mitchell, the No. 22 overall pick in the same draft out of Toledo, were the only Eagles players to garner All-Pro designations on Saturday morning. Both players were named to their first Pro Bowl in December.
DeJean was named to this year’s team in the “slot cornerback” position introduced to All-Pro voting in 2023. Since the AP began to separate cornerbacks from the broader “defensive backs” category in 1962, this is the first time two corners from one team have been named first-team All-Pros. The Houston Texans’ Derek Stingley Jr. was the third cornerback named to the first team.
According to the Eagles’ communications department, this is the seventh time an NFL club has had its top two draft picks from the same class earn first-team All-Pro honors in their first two seasons. The Eagles had already been among those teams. In 1989, Eagles tight end Keith Jackson and cornerback Eric Allen, both members of the 1988 draft class, were voted first-team All-Pro.
The last Eagles cornerback to earn first-team All-Pro honors was Lito Sheppard in 2004.
DeJean, 22, has made an impact at multiple positions this season, playing 63.3% of his snaps at slot corner and 21.8% at outside cornerback. Last season, only eight of DeJean’s 881 defensive snaps came on the outside.
Still, his most impressive play has come in the slot. From that alignment this season, DeJean has allowed a 57.4% completion percentage and 5.9 yards per target, ranking below the league averages of 69.5% and 6.8, respectively, according to Next Gen Stats.
DeJean has allowed just one touchdown in coverage in his career, per Next Gen Stats, which occurred against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 12, when he was lined up on the outside in base defense.
The Odebolt, Iowa, native earned NFC defensive player of the week honors for his Week 16 performance in the Eagles’ win over the Washington Commanders. He notched a career-high four pass breakups and an interception.
DeJean is tied for 10th in the NFL with 16 pass breakups and is second on the Eagles behind Mitchell (17), who is tied for sixth.
Mitchell began the season moving around the formation and often shadowing opposing teams’ top receivers. But since the Week 9 bye, according to Next Gen Stats, Mitchell has aligned as the boundary cornerback on 74.1% of his snaps.
In that span, he has registered more passes defended (nine) than receptions allowed (six) on 26 targets and 233 coverage snaps from the boundary. He has a 20.7% completion rate allowed, which is three times lower than the season-long NFL average from the boundary (65.5%).
Mitchell, a Williston, Fla., native, earned NFC defensive player of the week honors in the Eagles’ Week 4 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In that performance, he had a career-best five pass breakups, making him one of two NFL players to record five pass breakups in a single game.
Since they were drafted in 2024, DeJean and Mitchell have helped drastically improve the Eagles defense. In the Eagles’ Super Bowl-winning season last year, Vic Fangio’s defense conceded the fewest passing yards in the NFL and the sixth-fewest touchdowns. This year, the Eagles’ secondary has allowed the fewest passing touchdowns and the eighth-fewest yards.
ORLANDO — Nick Nurse called a timeout about two minutes into Friday’s matchup at the Magic, frustrated that his 76ers were “standing up straight and not moving great” defensively.
The coach continued to cycle through personnel groupings, searching for a spark on that end of the floor. He found it at the top of the final period, with guards VJ Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes, wings Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr., and center Andre Drummond.
Their suffocating, versatile defense turned a four-point Sixers lead into a 13-point advantage in an eventual 103-91 victory at Kia Arena. It helped the Sixers (21-15) overcome a night when they shot 4-for-28 from three-point range to secure the tiebreaker against a potential Eastern Conference playoff opponent. And the almost-five-minute surge happened with stars Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid getting their customary rest.
After the game, George said he believes the “scrappy” effort from that fourth-quarter lineup was only a flash of the Sixers’ potential on the defensive end of the floor.
“I think we can be special defensively,” said George, a four-time, all-defense selection during his standout career. “And that’s where the praise needs to be.”
The Sixers exited Friday ranked 12th in the NBA in defensive rating, with 113.3 points allowed per 100 possessions. Yet in their last five games, which have coincided with a return to a fully healthy roster for the first time since December of 2023, they are sixth (109.1 points per 100 possessions).
Nurse’s teams have regularly been lauded for an aggressive defensive style, anchored by playmakers who can deflect passes and generate takeaways. Yet this season’s Sixers also exited Friday ranked 12th in opponent turnovers (15.2 per game) and steals (8.7 per game).
Though the Sixers did not force a turnover during Friday’s decisive fourth-quarter stretch, Oubre and Grimes disrupted ballhandlers with their perimeter pressure. That allowed George and Drummond to “[patrol] in the back” near the basket. And it was a block party at the rim, with Drummond, George, and Oubre all rejecting one shot during the Magic’s 1-for-12 stint from the floor.
“We were just really keeping the ball in front,” Nurse said. “And when it did get past us, we always were sending a crowd to it.”
It was the second consecutive game that Nurse turned to the lineup that began the fourth quarter, after it blew open Wednesday’s home victory against the Washington Wizards. In 14 minutes across those two victories, that lineup has a stunning defensive rating of 48.1 points allowed per 100 possessions and a net rating of plus-74.9.
Even with that minuscule sample size, that group’s success perhaps represents a more under-the-radar benefit to the Sixers regaining health.
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe was part of a game-altering defensive effort.
Outsiders may believe roster continuity is most helpful on the offensive end, where timing and chemistry between teammates are critical. But Nurse said last week that it also would allow the Sixers to add defensive schemes to complement the offensive firepower of Maxey, who dropped another 29 points Friday, the returning-to-form Embiid (22 points, nine rebounds) and George (18 points, nine rebounds), and the complementary scoring potential of Edgecombe, Oubre, and Grimes.
When George was sidelined to begin the season, for instance, Nurse said the wing would be especially valuable to this team as a defensive communicator. Oubre, who earlier this week returned from a month-plus-long absence with a knee injury, also welcomes guarding wings and switching onto multiple positions. Edgecombe is already an impact player on that end, a rarity for a rookie, while Maxey is a noticeably improved defender. And if Embiid continues to improve physically, he could become an impact rebounder and rim protector again.
Those options mean the Sixers can contest outside shots and “make it a tight paint” on drives, George said. At other points Friday, the Sixers shifted into a zone defense and used Drummond to “blitz” out on perimeter ballhandlers. The next step as a group, George said, is to become even more comfortable playing “on a string” and rotating sharply with teammates.
Nurse, though, may have discovered a lineup that can provide a defensive spark. And George believes Friday’s five-minute effort is only a glimpse at the Sixers’ capabilities on that end of the floor.
“I know it’s tough to do — especially more now than ever in this league,” he said. “But I think the versatility that we have, we should be able to do it.”
POTTSVILLE, Pa. — Because I love Pennsylvania and football (and not always in that order), I drove 90 miles recently to this coal-region city of 13,300 to take a peek at a bronzed football shoe, a trophy carved from coal, and a battered football, its laces askew.
On Dec. 12, 1925, 100 years ago last month, a 23-year-old kid named Charlie Berry — who also played baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics and later became an American League umpire — used that high-top shoe to kick that ball to lift the Pottsville Maroons to a huge victory.
The Maroons got that trophy, emblazoned with the words “TRUE WORLD CHAMPIONS,” after beating a squad of former Notre Dame players, 9-7, in an exhibition game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. But the Maroons were true world champions only in sentiment. They did not even win their own league.
That would be the National Football League — the same NFL that now includes the Eagles and opens its annual playoffs this weekend, ending with Super Bowl LX. The NFL would deny the Maroons the league championship despite clearly having the best team, having disposed of the Chicago Cardinals a week earlier in icy Chicago, 21-7.
The shoe that Pottsville Maroons kicker Charlie Berry used to kick the winning field goal in the 9-7 victory over the Notre Dame All-Stars on Dec. 12, 1925. The shoe was bronzed in 1961.
The exhibition game turned out to be a big problem. Long story short: Although the Maroons had requested (and, they said, been granted) permission to play the Notre Dame team, they were treading on the turf of the city’s NFL team, the Frankford Yellow Jackets. The Maroons were thrown out of the league.
You have probably heard of the Yellow Jackets, who folded in 1931 and whose remnants were purchased in 1933 by Bert Bell and Lud Wray for $2,500 and relaunched as the Eagles. The Maroons have faded, like a photograph in an album. That is a shame. The Maroons were a town team that climbed through a primitive organizational ladder to reign supreme over a sport.
Payne, who had not heard of the Maroons while growing up in Erie, acknowledged that the NFL is unlikely to declare the Maroons as 1925 champions, saying, “It would take a higher force for this to happen.” And it is old news: The last Maroons player died in 2003, at age 101.
The ball used in the Maroons’ win over the Notre Dame All-Stars.
Rendell wrote that he did not intend “to have any more communications with the cowardly barons that run the National Football League, including their extremely well paid leader, until they relent and grant the gallant Pottsville Maroons what is rightfully theirs.”
(He added that the vast majority of NFL owners lack “cojones.”)
But Rendell only had two NFL teams behind him: those from Pennsylvania, the Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers. So that Tush Push, of sorts, failed to reach the line to gain. The NFL still places the Cardinals atop its official 1925 standings, with the Maroons second.
Plus, the Cardinals padded their final winning percentage — used then to determine the champion — by beating teams with some high school kids. They refused to accept the trophy (the one not made of coal) until years later, after the team had been sold to Charley Bidwill.
The last name may ring a bell. The Cardinals, now in Arizona, are still owned by the Bidwill family. How interesting it is that the team has won only one NFL championship since — way back in 1946. They have played in just one Super Bowl, losing in 2009 to the Steelers.
Some “Skooks,” those from Pottsville and surrounding Schuylkill County, still enjoy claiming the Cardinals have been afflicted by the Curse of the Maroons. “And that 1925 championship was stolen. Never forget,” says a Skook friend of mine, still seeking retribution.
“It’s just so tragic and cruel. What should have been a watershed moment by winning such a big game ruined Pottsville and their football team,” David Fleming, who wrote an astonishing book in 2007 about the controversy, Breaker Boys: The NFL’s Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship, told me recently. “Pottsville put the NFL on the map.”
The NFL of 1925 was prehistoric compared with the NFL of 2025. Salaries were meager, from $100 to $300 a game, and players had to hold down second jobs to pay the bills. Moreover, college football was far more popular and considered to be a far better product.
Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (left) and team captain Clem Crowe watch the team practice in 1925 — the same year a group of former Fighting Irish players fell to the Maroons, 9-7.
Pottsville sort of ignored the Pennsylvania “Blue Laws,” so the Maroons often played at home on Sundays against opponents that played in Philadelphia the day before. The Maroons set trends that last to this day: For example, the coach insisted his players live in town.
Pottsville was among the smallest cities with an NFL team, but the city more than made up for it by adoring the Maroons — even during a contentious miners’ strike that nearly broke the town. For the exhibition at Shibe Park, as Fleming wrote, several Maroons fans playfully wore coal-miner garb to distinguish themselves from the overwhelming majority of Notre Dame fans.
Even after both teams had arrived at Shibe Park, the exhibition game was nearly canceled because only about 8,000 had paid to see the game, some 10,000 fewer than expected, leading Notre Dame star Harry Stuhldreher, one of the legendary “Four Horsemen,” to push for $25,000 upfront — which is worth about $450,000 today — for his team to play in the game.
(The gate was surely smaller than expected because the Yellow Jackets suddenly scheduled a game at the same time in Frankford, beating Cleveland, 3-0, before 7,000.)
In this 1924 file photo, Notre Dame’s infamous backfield known as “The Four Horsemen,” from left, Don Miller, Elmer Layden, Jim Crowley, and Harry Stuhldreher, pose on the practice field in South Bend, Ind. Stuhldreher asked for $25,000 up front for his team to play against the Maroons.
At the same time, the Maroons were holding out for $10,000 upfront, or about $181,000 today (the pay disparity underscores the difference in perception then between the college and pro games), so the kickoff was delayed. Then Notre Dame took a 7-0 lead on an Elmer Layden touchdown. But the Maroons rallied — gallantly.
“YES, THE POTTSVILLE MAROONS WERE HORSE(MEN) OF A DIFFERENT COLOR,” The Inquirer gasped the next morning. Gordon Mackay, the reporter, labeled it “perhaps the greatest football battle that this Quaker City has known in years and years.”
The Maroons had put in 28-year-old Tony Latone, the “Human Howitzer,” after halftime. Latone’s story was mythic: He began working in nearby coal mines to support his family when he was 11, after his father died.
At first, he was a “breaker boy,” working 70-hour weeks picking slate and debris from the valuable anthracite coal. (After a week or two, the skin on the tops of a breaker boy’s fingers would peel off.) Later, he strengthened his legs by pushing loaded coal carts from the mines.
The Pottsville Maroons of 1925, a squad that was comprised of miners from Schuylkill and Luzerne Counties.
Berry, already a catcher for the A’s, hit the crossbar on an extra-point attempt after Latone scored a touchdown late in the third quarter, so Notre Dame still led, 7-6. But Latone, playing on a sore right heel, gained five first downs on another brutal, physical drive.
“He just ripped the Notre Dame team to shreds,” Payne told me of Latone, who ran for more yardage in the NFL in the 1920s than the legendary Harold “Red” Grange.
The drive stalled at the Notre Dame 18-yard line, so Berry tried a 30-yard field goal, which was hardly automatic back in those days. He’d made only three of nine attempts in the season to that point, none past 29 yards.
But, as Mackay so colorfully wrote in The Inquirer the next morning: “He swung that agile hoof. There was a crash of ball and foot, and the crowd, awed into silence, held their breaths as the sphere soared and soared and skipped straight through the crossbar.”
As Fleming wrote in 2007: “Most of the fans at Shibe Park, even the ones from Pottsville, had come out for a fun day of football and a glimpse at the famous Four Horsemen. Instead, they were witness to a watershed moment in the history of American sports: the very moment that professional football surpassed college ball.”
A replica of the trophy — which, like the original, is carved from coal — that the Maroons received for winning the “true” championship resides at the Schuylkill County Historical Society in Pottsville, Pa. The original is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Books about the Maroons, including Fleming’s and the recent release by Payne and Hayes, are on sale at the museum’s gift shop (and online, as well), as are $18 maroon T-shirts with “The Real Champions.” A 100th anniversary celebration was held in August. Students at nearby Nativity BVM High School premiered a documentary, MaRooned.
Fleming, whose book, A Big Mess in Texas, about the antics of the ill-fated 1952 Dallas Texans, was published in October, had Breaker Boys reissued before the 100th anniversary, with a new cover: a photo of the trophy made of silver, not anthracite coal.
“I just wanted to give them the title that they were denied,” he said.
Well, more like, robbed of. Payne and Hayes make a six-premise thesis in their book for the NFL to award the 1925 NFL title to the Pottsville Maroons. They write, “Until the NFL corrects the situation, the Pottsville championship status remains, very simply, marooned.”
Until that day comes, and as a native Pennsylvanian and football fan, the matter should at least be considered; there is only memorabilia from a bygone age in a second-floor alcove at the Schuylkill County Historical Society, a cozy museum in a former school on Centre Street.
Joe Zacko, the late sporting goods store owner and die-hard fan who ordered the jerseys that gave the Maroons their name, had Berry’s shoe bronzed after a 1961 reunion. The goal was to present it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, then under construction.
The shoe is still in Pottsville. I am not a Skook, but, as I said, I love Pennsylvania and football, and I say a real NFL trophy belongs right next to that shoe, coal trophy, and old ball.
Dave Caldwell, an Inquirer sports writer from 1986 to 1995, grew up in Lancaster County and lives in Manayunk.
