Philly sports talkers are likely to debate the decision all week, but what’s done is done. The Eagles will enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, a position that has produced surprisingly few Super Bowl teams.
Wharton professor Deniz Selman crunched the numbers. Since 1975, when the current playoff seeding began, just five No. 3 seeds have made it through the playoffs and ended up in the Super Bowl. By comparison, 55 No. 1 seeds, 24 No. 2 seeds, and 11 No. 4 seeds have made it to the big game.
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The most recent No. 3 seed to advance to the Super Bowl was the Kansas City Chiefs, who made it to Super Bowl LVIII in the 2023 season and defeated the No. 1 San Francisco 49ers.
The Eagles’ four Super Bowl appearances have all come as either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, including last year’s victory against the Chiefs.
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The Eagles were the No. 3 seed in 2013, but they lost to the New Orleans Saints in the wild-card round at Lincoln Financial Field. They also didn’t advance past the wild-card round as a No. 3 seed in 2010, while in 2006 their postseason run ended in the divisional round.
The Birds made it to the NFC championship game as the No. 3 seed during the 2001 playoffs, but lost to the then-St. Louis Rams, 29-24 when Aeneas Williams intercepted Donovan McNabb with less than two minutes remaining.
Here are the five NFL teams that entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and advanced to the Super Bowl:
Custardy egg tarts are wiggly, lightly gelatinous conveyors of joy. The finest ones are not too sweet, but beyond that, they have variable compelling qualities, be it their lightly torched tops or innovative whole-fruit or vegetal flavors. There are three styles of egg tarts covered in this map: Portuguese pasteis de nata, flaky Chinese egg tarts, and cookie-style shortcrust egg tarts. They are all magnificent, whether you pick them up from a bakery by the dozen or nibble on them from a dim sum parlor’s lazy Susan.
Beijing Duck Seafood Restaurant
By night, this Race Street restaurant becomes a Peking duck emporium, with white-toqued chefs wheeling roasted ducks through the dining room, announcing their arrival at tables by striking a gong. But by day, Beijing Duck Seafood serves a menu filled with dim sum classics like char siu bao, turnip cakes, spring rolls, and, of course, delightfully and thoroughly classic dim sum-style egg tarts. These are some of the best egg tarts you can get in Chinatown. They’re served piping hot (as all the best egg tarts are), and they have molten, deep yellow custard centers encased by a flaky pastry crust that dissolves in your mouth with a slight chew. They’re small — but not the tiniest you’ll see — and come three to an order.
The pateis de nata at Gilda in Philadelphia on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024.
Gilda
The flavors of pasteis de nata at Gilda rotate according to whims and seasons. All of the Portuguese tarts have a creamy, cinnamon-flecked egg-yolk custard base that is looser, jammier, and almost whipped compared to the harder-set centers of their Chinese-style counterparts. Baked at high heat, Gilda’s natas naturally develop bruleed brown leopard spots. The tarts themselves have firm, flaky crusts that get filled with core custards like lemon-raspberry and dark chocolate with sea salt. In summer, look for natas flavored with corn, passion fruit, and strawberry. The staff here even makes a sweet nata latte to mimic the three-bite treats, using a house syrup infused with vanilla, cinnamon, and a squeeze of lemon juice. All the egg whites the natas generate get fried and stuffed into a soft but crusty mealhada roll with cheese, avocado, and aioli, resulting in the Sammy, one of the city’s best breakfast sandwiches.
These are the Platonic ideal of dim sum-style egg tarts, which means they’re small — two perfect bites each — with pastry that flakes apart in crisp petals in your mouth. They’re filled with even, yolky custard that balances lightness and richness. These are the perfect mildly gelatinous coda to stuffing yourself with all the other goodies wheeled past your table during dim sum at China Gourmet, and no dim sum experience here is complete without them.
A dim sum cart with full-size dishes at Grand Palace restaurant, 600 Washington Ave.
Grand Palace
This Washington Avenue establishment’s name is not delusional — it truly is grand. This is where you want to bring your 10 best friends for dim sum or brunch, and shout engagingly back and forth with the ladies pushing carts piled high with bamboo steamer baskets. As a bonus, it’s a stone’s throw from Center City and there is parking. Grand Palace has absolutely mastered both steamed buns (its char siu bao is positively fluffy) and egg tarts. The tarts are larger than the average dim sum rendition, coming two to an order (vs. the usual three). The pastry shell crust is incredibly flaky, with a thinner layer of custard than typical Cantonese tarts. The filling is soft, barely sweet, and one of the highlights of a raucous dim sum experience.
Occupying a cheerful, cartoon-muraled, bright blue corner in deep South Philly, Dodo Bakery peddles an impressive variety of Chinese-inflected baked goods, tea-based beverages, and smoothies. The kitchen makes two types of egg tarts: one in a traditional flaky pastry shell, and another whose egg yolk custard is spiked with pandan for a hint of grassy, coconutty flavor and a neon-green hue. Pop them in the toaster oven at home to revive their jiggly freshness. Dodo also churns out enormous renditions of classic Hong Kong pastries, like the staple Canto-British chicken pot pie and triangles stuffed with chopped, bright red char siu roast pork. Their red bean pastries are also excellent and extremely flaky.
There was a point last season when Don Mattingly was planning on calling it a career.
He went into 2025, his third year as the bench coach with the Blue Jays, expecting it to be his last in the sport. Mattingly, now 64, thought he had accomplished what he had set out to do in Toronto, helping a younger manager in John Schneider become established.
But it was his 11-year-old son, Louis, who helped change his mind.
“Dad, you can’t stop,” Louis told him. “You’ve got to keep going.”
And after Toronto fell to the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series — marking Mattingly’s first World Series appearance in more than 40 years in baseball as a player, manager, and coach — he was approached by the Phillies for their open bench coach job.
The position had been vacated after Mike Calitiri was moved to the role of major league field coordinator at the end of the season. The fit was natural on both sides. The Phillies wanted a veteran voice to add to manager Rob Thomson’s staff. Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22.
He had also previously worked alongside Thomson and hitting coach Kevin Long in the Yankees organization, as well as assistant hitting coach Edwar Gonzalez with the Marlins.
And he will reunite with another of his sons, Preston Mattingly, who is the Phillies’ 38-year-old general manager.
“When it came to me that there was a possibility that Donny was going to be available, I said, ‘This is the perfect guy,’” Thomson said Monday after the Phillies announced that Mattingly’s hiring was official. “Because I know the integrity, I know the knowledge. I know how detailed he is. And plus, I think he’s a great sounding board for our players and our stars. He’s been there, and he’s done all these things, and the rest of us really can’t answer that.”
Thomson’s contract was recently extended through 2027, and Mattingly said Monday he had committed to “a couple of years” with the Phillies’ manager.
He also said he has no further aspirations to be a manager again. His approach as a bench coach is to be another set of eyes and ears for Thomson.
A six-time All-Star, Don Mattingly was a career .307 hitter over 14 seasons with the Yankees.
“I know it gets busy and fast at times when you’re thinking about your pitching, and then you got a pitch-hit situation, and all those things get fast,” Mattingly said. “ … Try to stay ahead of him and just lighten the load for him.”
Mattingly’s playing career, during which he was a six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glove winner at first base, and 1985 American League MVP, also influences how he coaches.
“The one thing I’ve tried to always do is never forget how hard the game is,” Mattingly said. “Guys make a lot of money, and we expect them to come through all the time, and that’s just not that way. … I’m always going to try to be myself [in] any role that I’ve played, as a coach or a hitting coach or manager, I feel like I’m here to help players. I’m here to serve, help them get the best out of their ability.”
Mattingly managed Phillies pitcher Jesús Luzardo on the Marlins, and is looking forward to developing relationships with the other Phillies players. He met Bryce Harper at the 2017 All-Star Game in Miami.
“He’s always been a guy for me who’s been really interesting, just because of how young he was when he came [up], how good he was when he broke into the league, watching his development over the years,” Mattingly said of Harper. “This cat can go, for me. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, hands down. So I love being around guys like that.”
It’s a bit of an unusual arrangement to have his son in the front office, but Mattingly said his priority is preserving trust with the players.
Don Mattingly, then the Marlins manager, talks with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski before a game in 2022.
“I’m not a voice that’s just running upstairs and talking about anything and everything,” he said. “That’s just not the way I operate. I came from a different era where that is not something that happens. I’m going to have to build that trust with players so they will trust me that that’s not going to happen.”
But there is also the possibility for a storybook ending for Mattingly’s career. He had hoped last season that Toronto would meet the Phillies in the World Series to go head-to-head with Preston. Now, they’re on the same side.
“To be able to do it with him would be incredible,” Mattingly said.
I don’t vote on the Associated Press version of NFL postseason awards, which are the NFL’s official awards. That voting is done by an eclectic panel of 50 semi-rotating media members — and I use the term “media members” extremely loosely, partly because last year the panel included Fox analyst Tom Brady, who also is an NFL owner.
Maybe this year, too. Voters can out themselves, as Mike Florio at ProFootball Talk.com did to himself and his colleague Chris Simms, but we won’t know who all of this year’s voters are until the AP publishes the list during Super Bowl week.
While I’m not an AP voter, I have written a weekly NFL column for years, and I have covered the NFL extensively for 35 years. Therefore, it’s not entirely inappropriate to offer my insight, if only to inform the judgment of any actual voters, who have to vote by 3 p.m. Monday.
Read fast, Tom.
MVP
Brady said Sunday that his choice was Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford over Patriots QB Drake Maye. This, after Stafford rebounded from a three-interception game against the gritty Falcons with a four-touchdown home game against the pathetic Cardinals. Part of Brady’s rationale: Stafford, 37 and MVP-less, won’t have as many chances as Maye, who is 23 and in his second season.
This is the dumbest reason ever. Football is violent, tomorrow is promised to no one, and the only criteria should be the 2025 season. Unfortunately, I don’t think Brady will be the only voter who considers this year’s competition a lifetime achievement award.
Maye secured the No. 2 seed in the AFC with the highest passer rating among regulars, at 113.5, and did so with a new coaching staff in just his second season. Still, Stafford led the league with 4,707 passing yards and 46 touchdowns passes, and secured the No. 5 seed against the NFL’s toughest schedule.
I actually agree with TB12.
Stafford it is.
But not because he’s old.
Mike Macdonald is 24-10 in two seasons as Seahawks coach.
Coach of the Year
This, by far, is the toughest call, because there are so many worthy Coach of the Year candidates, and some fresh faces.
Sean Payton and the Broncos have the No. 1 seed, but he’s done it for 24 years and he’s had three years to build in Denver, two of them with his current quarterback, Bo Nix. Should having experience and tenure count against him?
Mike Vrabel is in his seventh season but his first in New England, where the pressure as a Patriots legend was immense and where the Patriots were the last-place team in the AFC East. They won the division and got the No. 2 seed, but Vrabel inherited Maye, who already was a Pro Bowl quarterback. Should that count against him?
In his second season as a head coach, Mike Macdonald added Pro Bowl QB Sam Darnold to a solid, 10-win Seattle roster, won 14 games, and took the NFC West from the Rams and the 49ers. Irrelevant fact: He’s only ever really worked for Harbaughs — John with the Ravens and Jim at Michigan. Anyway, the Seahawks led the NFL in point differential, at plus-191, three touchdowns better than the No. 2 team.
Liam Coen, the first of the rookies, was an NFL offensive coordinator for only two years — one of them a stormy season as OC with the Rams — before a bizarre courtship tore him away from being OC at Tampa Bay. He succeeded Doug Pederson in Jacksonville, won 13 games against some really good teams, and finished on an eight-game heater … but he inherited a franchise QB in Trevor Lawrence.
Ben Johnson, the second of the rookies, flipped the Bears from worst-to-first in the NFC North and refined second-year QB Caleb Williams. He was my slam-dunk pick two weeks ago, but the Bears have faded. Seventh seed Green Bay certainly isn’t scared to travel to the No. 2 seed now; the Bears lost to the Packers earlier this season and they needed overtime to beat them three weeks ago.
Who’s my choice now?
It’s Macdonald, but only by a meticulously groomed hair.
Falcons running back Bijan Robinson led the NFL in yards from scrimmage with 2,298.
Offensive Player of the Year
Player of the Year usually is the category reserved for the best running back or receiver, since only quarterbacks have been allowed to win MVP since Adrian Peterson in 2012.
My favorite offensive player this year: Falcons back Bijan Robinson, who led the NFL in yards from scrimmage with 2,298, the best by 172 yards, on a team so bad it fired its head coach and GM on Sunday night.
Unlike Robinson, both Jaxon Smith-Njigba of Seattle and Puka Nacua of the Rams will be catching passes in the playoffs. But what Robinson did, and with such little support, reminds you of Christian McCaffrey with the 5-11 Panthers in 2019.
McCaffrey was second in yards from scrimmage this year.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett celebrates on Sunday after breaking the NFL record for sacks in a season with 23.
Defensive Player of the Year
Browns lineman Myles Garrett sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter Sunday to break the sack record of 22½ shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.
However, Garrett’s 23rd sack came in the 17th of his 17 games. Watt played in just 15 of 17 games in 2021, which is remarkable. Strahan played in just 16 games of the 2001 season, which is all they played back then, but Packers quarterback Brett Favre essentially surrendered to the last “sack,” in the last game.
I know there’s a few people out there that say Myles Garrett had an extra game which he did, but let’s not forget Brett Favre literally dropped like a corpse to give Michael Strahan the record! S/O Myles Garrett on setting the new sack record! pic.twitter.com/lEcqX1pMHl
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough had a worse passer-rating season than Jacoby Brissett.
Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan caught 70 passes for 1,014 yards, better than either A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith, and seven touchdowns. No contest.
Linebacker Carson Schwesinger had 156 tackles in 16 games as a rookie for the Browns this season.
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Carson Schwesinger, the Browns’ tackling machine, is really the only choice this season. He’s a second-round pick who looks exactly like what you’d think a linebacker from UCLA would look like.
Assistant Coach of the Year
In his first season of his second return to New England, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels turned Maye into an MVP favorite in his second NFL season, running the top yardage and scoring offense in the AFC. McDaniels had as much to do with the Patriots’ turnaround as Vrabel.
Comeback Player of the Year
McCaffrey missed most of 2024 with a knee injury and might win OPOY this year. Sorry, Dak.
The Eagles (11-6) will face the San Francisco 49ers (12-5) Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on Fox in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Here’s the full wild-card schedule.
Eagles running back Tank Bigsby started Sunday’s game against the Commanders.
Resting the regulars meant Tank Bigsby got the start at running back with Saquon Barkley on the sideline.
Bigsby has flashed in his limited role as a backup, and he showed Sunday why some are clamoring for more of him.
Bigsby rushed 16 times for 75 yards and a touchdown. He also turned a check-down completion into a 31-yard gain, making Washington’s Jordan Magee miss with a nifty cut in the process. Bigsby, however, played just two snaps in the fourth quarter and did not have a touch after the third quarter during the 24-17 loss.
“He runs hard,” Nick Sirianni said. “He’s got extremely good ability to make you miss while also being able to put his shoulder down and finish runs through contact.
“The way he walks through, the way he practices, it really does show up in the game with how hard he runs and how hard he plays.”
Perhaps the Eagles will feature more of him, especially if they find success on the ground vs. a weakened San Francisco front seven.
49ers are paying the price for not resting their starters
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Tatum Bethune (48) will miss the entire postseason with a groin injury.
One team had a meaningful game with a lot on the line and a lot of things in their control. The other had a meaningful game with a lot on the line and only some things in their control.
The Eagles, the latter team mentioned above, elected to go the conservative route and rest most of their regulars. The San Francisco 49ers, meanwhile, played a big game in prime time Saturday and lost at least one starter for the playoffs in the process.
Of course, had the Eagles been in situation where a win guaranteed them the No. 2 seed in the NFC, Nick Sirianni would have made a different decision than the one he made for Week 18 vs. Washington.
As it happens, the decision may have cost the Eagles a chance at a second home playoff game, but what it did guarantee was the Eagles entering the wild-card weekend with the healthiest roster they could have. It was an extra week for right tackle Lane Johnson and linebacker Nakobe Dean to continue working toward their returns from foot and hamstring injuries, respectively. It was a day off for Jalen Carter to give his ailing shoulders a break. Jaelan Phillips got to rest his ankle injury. Dallas Goedert got to stay off his knee.
The 49ers, meanwhile, lost starting linebacker Tatum Bethune to a season-ending groin injury during their loss to Seattle. San Francisco remains without star linebacker Fred Warner, who is unlikely to be ready until at least the NFC championship game. Two other linebackers, Dee Winters (ankle) and Luke Gifford (quad), will be evaluated this week for their injuries.
San Francisco was also without star left tackle Trent Williams for their game Saturday. He is dealing with a hamstring injury, and the 49ers really struggled offensively without him, though the Seahawks have one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Johnson, the Eagles’ star tackle, seems to be trending toward returning for the postseason. Dean’s status remains unclear. But the Eagles could start their postseason run Sunday with all of their active-roster regulars ready for action.
“I think it’s always a fine line of there’s two things that need to happen,” Sirianni said Monday. “You got to have your players available, and you do different things to make sure that happens throughout the year. But it is so important that you continue to get better as the season goes on.
“Our guys know how to practice. They know how to practice efficiently. So we’ve had a tendency of getting better while also having guys healthy.”
LBs Tatum Bethune (groin) is out for the rest of the season. The other two LBs, Dee Winters (ankle) and Luke Gifford (quad) will be evaluated later this week.
Eagles early favorites vs. 49ers in wild-card round
The Eagles will face Brock Purdy and the 49ers Sunday in the first round of the playoffs.
The Eagles will host the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round of the playoffs after they missed out on the No. 2 seed.
The Birds ended the regular season with with a loss to the Commanders, settling for an 11-6 record to go with their NFC East title. Meanwhile, the 49ers finished with a 12-5 record after their recent loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but had to settle for a wild-card spot.
Now, both teams will meet at Lincoln Financial Field as they try to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive, and the Eagles are early favorites over the Niners in their first-round matchup.
Jonathan Gannon has been fired by the Cardinals after three seasons.
Jonathan Gannon is the fourth head coach to lose their job on Black Monday
The Arizona Cardinals announced they have parted ways with Gannon, who they hired away from the Eagles in 2023 under a five-year deal that ran through the 2027 season and drew allegations of tampering resolved by swapping draft picks.
The former Birds defensive coordinator went just 15-36 (.294) in three seasons with the Cardinals, and his team was completely uncompetitive in the NFC West (0-6). In fact, the Cardinals lost more games last season (14) than the rest of the NFC West combined (13).
As Peter King put it in his weekly newsletter, “He’s a defensive coach, and they gave up 37 points a game in their last five games. Is that a team playing hard for the coach?”
To add insult to injury, the team wished Gannon a happy birthday on social media Sunday.
The Dolphins also requested interviews with 49ers VP of Player Personnel Tariq Ahmad and director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams for their GM job, per sources.
The Raiders have fired head coach Pete Carroll after just one season.
Three NFL coaches have been fired on Black Monday, and it isn’t even noon yet.
Pete Carroll joined the ranks of the unemployed Monday, with the Las Vegas Raiders announcing they parted ways with their 74-year old coach.
“We appreciate and wish him and his family all the best,” Raiders owner Mark Davis said in a statement.
Carroll’s team tied for the NFL’s worst record (3-14), and the Raiders had already fired offensive coordinator (and former Eagles coach) Chip Kelly during the season.
The move also means Davis will be paying three former coaches who are no longer with the team — Carroll, Antonio Pierce, and Josh McDaniels. The team was also forced to pay Jon Gruden an undisclosed lump-sum after he resigned in 2021 due to an email scandal.
Notably, Tom Brady — who will be called the Eagles’ wild-card game on Fox Sunday — will be part of the Raiders’ search for a new head coach.
Peter King calls Eagles’ decision to rest starters a ‘missed opportunity’
Nick Sirianni decision to rest his starters is being second-guessed across the league.
Add longtime NFL writer Peter King to the list of pundits who think Nick Sirianni made a mistake by resting his starters with the No. 2 seed on the line.
King, in a weekend newsletter, called the decision a “missed opportunity” for the Eagles and pointed out why the No. 2 seed offers a much easier path to the Super Bowl than the No. 3 seed.
“If you’re the 2 seed and you win the Wild Card game, you’re home for two playoff games,” King wrote. “If you’re the 3 seed and the 2 seed wins the Wild Card game, you’re home for only one playoff game.”
94.1 WIP morning show co-host and former Eagles fullback Jon Ritchie was more blunt Monday morning.
“It was a mistake,” Ritchie said. “The fact you could have had the easy path, and instead you completely forfeited that opportunity… this team has the players to win a Super Bowl if the path is the right path, and we forfeited that possibility.”
Sirianni defended his decision to reporters following Sunday’s loss, saying it came down to what he felt was best for the team and his players.
“The one thing I could guarantee was giving them rest,” Sirianni said. “I couldn’t guarantee anything else.”
“Going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us,” Sirianni added.
Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski agreed, writing the Eagles got some rest and “eliminated any risk they’d be shorthanded to a significant degree” against the San Francisco 49ers.
“Do the Eagles have a harder road back to the Super Bowl now? Maybe, but not necessarily,” Sielski wrote. “The defending champs let everything play out, and now they really get to take their chances, to show that being healthy and healed up is a bigger advantage than anything they might have gained from treating Sunday’s game like their season depended on it.”
Jalyx Hunt pulled off a first in the Eagles’ 93-year history
Jalyx Hunt made the Eagles’ history books Sunday.
If Jalyx Hunt looked like a defensive back breaking on Josh Johnson’s sideline throw intended for Deebo Samuel on Sunday evening, you can thank his background as a safety, the position he originally played in college at Cornell before transitioning to the defensive line at Houston Christian.
Hunt’s interception was his third of the season and separated him from what was a four-way tie for the team lead with two interceptions.
It also put him in the Eagles’ history book. For the first time since the Eagles were established in 1933, the same player led the team in interceptions and sacks. Hunt’s two sacks in Buffalo last week gave him a team-high 6½ sacks on the season.
Hunt, a third-round pick in 2024, also became the second player in franchise history to post 6-plus sacks and 3-plus interceptions in the same season. Seth Joyner did it twice, in 1991 and 1992.
“He’s living good,” Zack Baun said of Hunt. “He’s doing something in his life that karma is just treating him right.
“He’s super impressive. Thinking about his transition in positions in college and high school, it’s insane. Got to give credit to guys like that that work really hard to put themselves in good positions and then, at the end of the day, it pays off for them.”
Brandon Graham played a lot more snaps Sunday than he did in Week 17.
There were varying reasons for who played Sunday and who didn’t, who played sparingly and who played more.
The Eagles, for example, decided to let DeVonta Smith play nine snaps and catch three passes on four targets for 52 yards so he could get the 44 yards he needed to reach 1,000 yards on the season. Nick Sirianni said the Eagles were “safe with him as far as what kind of routes we were running and what he was doing.”
Smith exited the game after his third catch.
Some Eagles got the entire night off. Safety Reed Blankenship said he was looking back with no regrets after the Eagles rested their starters and squandered a chance at the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
“I’d rather have a week of rest and let my body recover than go out there and be in a dog fight and then feel bad going into a playoff game,” he said.
For some other Eagles regulars, Sunday was almost a normal day.
Jalyx Hunt played 52% of the 69 defensive snaps, Moro Ojomo played 51%, and Jordan Davis 49%. There was a healthy dose of Byron Young (78%) and Ty Robinson (74%) on the interior, but defensive line isn’t a position where the Eagles could rest everyone. Even 37-year-old Brandon Graham played 28 snaps, 21 more than he played a week earlier.
“The plan was that you rotate on the defensive line,” Sirianni said. “To keep somebody in there and just make them go the whole time, that’s not how D-line play works. You always want to have fresh bodies in there and so we knew they would play into the fourth and we tried to limit their reps as best as we possibly could by giving the other guys some more reps, but we knew that we would have to play them the whole time through because just the way the nature of that position works.”
The other regulars who played Sunday were right guard Tyler Steen and tight end Grant Calcaterra, both of whom played 28 snaps. Backup tackle Fred Johnson, who has been filling in as a starter for Lane Johnson, played all 64 offensive snaps.
NFL playoff schedule: Birds playing Sunday afternoon
The Eagles are making their fifth-straight playoff appearance under head coach Nick Sirianni.
The first round of the NFL playoffs begins this weekend, with the No. 3 Eagles hosting the No. 6 San Francisco 49ers Sunday afternoon at the Linc at 4:30 p.m. on Fox.
Kevin Burkhardt will be in the booth alongside Tom Brady, who will be calling his sixth Eagles game this season. It will also be his fourth Birds playoff game, which included last year’s Super Bowl victory against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fox is broadcasting two wild-card games this weekend, while CBS, NBC, and ESPN each get one.
One game will also stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video, which just finished up its fourth season as the home of Thursday Night Football.
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The No. 1 Seattle Seahawks will face the lowest-remaining NFC seed in the divisional round. Same goes for the No. 1 Denver Broncos in the AFC.
Full 2025-26 NFL playoff schedule
Wild-card round: Saturday, Jan. 10, to Monday, Jan. 12
Divisional round: Saturday, Jan. 17, to Sunday, Jan. 18
Super Bowl LX (or 60, for those who don’t like Roman numerals) is being held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers.
NBC will broadcast this year’s Super Bowl, with Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth on the call.
Here are the sites announced for future Super Bowls:
Surprisingly few No. 3 seeds have made it to the Super Bowl
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are hoping to overcome history during their playoff run.
There are a lot of opinions about Nick Sirianni’s decision to rest the Eagles starters in Sunday’s loss, especially after the Chicago Bears’ loss opened the door for the Birds to land the No. 2 seed.
But that’s all academic now. The Eagles will enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, a position that’s produced a surprisingly small amount of Super Bowl teams.
Wharton professor Deniz Selman crunched the numbers. Since 1975, when the current playoff seeding began, just five No. 3 seeds have made it through the playoffs and ended up in the Super Bowl. By comparison, 55 No. 1 seeds, 24 No. 2 seeds, and 11 No. 4 seeds have made it to the big game.
The most recent No. 3 seed to advance to the Super Bowl was the Kansas City Chiefs, who made it to Super Bowl LVIII in the 2023 season and defeated the No. 1 San Francisco 49ers.
The last time a No. 3 seed in the NFC made it all the way to the Super Bowl was the Carolina Panthers in 2003, when they went on to lose to the New England Patriots.
The Eagles were the No. 3 seed in 2013, but lost to the New Orleans Saints in the wild-card round at the Linc. They also didn’t advance past the wild-card round as a No. 3 seed in 2010, while in 2006 their postseason run ended in the divisional round.
The Birds made it to the NFC Championship game as the No. 3 seed during the 2001 playoffs, but lost to the then-St. Louis Rams 29-24 when Aeneas Williams intercepted Donovan McNabb with less than two minutes remaining.
Here are the five NFL teams that entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and advanced to the Super Bowl:
Kevin Stefanski is the fourth head coach to be fired this season.
The Cleveland Browns fired Kevin Stefanski Monday morning, becoming the fourth NFL team this season to part ways with their head coach.
The former NFL Coach of the Year (an award he won twice) and a Philadelphia native, Stefanski’s sixth season with the Browns was a disappointment. While the Browns have a history of burning through head coaches (12 since 2000), Stefanski’s three playoff games was the most for the franchise since Marty Schottenheimer’s tenure during the mid-1980s.
Overall, Stefanski went 45-56 (.446) with the Browns, the franchise’s best winning percentage since Bill Belichick’s short tenure in Cleveland in the early 1990s (not counting the eight games Gregg Williams served as the team’s interim coach in 2018).
Expect most teams with a head coaching vacancy, including the New York Giants, to have interest in Stefanski, who is just 43.
They will open the playoffs at home against a 49ers team that is coming off a sloppy loss on Saturday in its third game in 13 days. San Fran’s offense scored just three points.
The Eagles and 49ers have met twice previously in the postseason. San Fran shut out the Birds, 14-0, in a muddy wild-card game at the old Candlestick Park after the 1996 season. Three years ago, the Eagles thumped San Fran, 31-7, in the conference championship game.
Niners quarterback Brock Purdy was a rookie that season. He got hurt on the first possession, and the 49ers had an uphill climb.
Coincidentally, he was replaced that day by Josh Johnson, who on Sunday led Washington to a win over the Eagles, which knocked the Eagles out of the conference’s No. 2 seed and set up the meeting next weekend with the 49ers. Small world.
Purdy had been red-hot until Seattle shut him down in a 13-3 Seahawks win on Saturday. In the three games prior, he had 11 TD passes and two interceptions.
This will be his seventh postseason start. He’s thrown one interception in 171 playoff passes, and San Fran is 4-2 with losses to the Eagles and the Chiefs.
Lane Johnson, seen here arriving for Sunday’s game.
Offensive tackle Lane Johnson hasn’t played since suffering a Lisfranc sprain in his foot back in Week 11. He’s expected to return to the team for Sunday’s wild-card game, per the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Safety Brandon Johnson, who started alongside Sydney Brown, injured his ankle while attempting to pick off a deflected pass in the second quarter.
Tight end Grant Calcaterra hurt his ankle and knee on a hip-drop tackle from Reaves in the third quarter.
Offensive lineman Brett Toth was evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter and did not return to action.
Other players dealing with injuries include defensive tackle Jalen Carter (hip), linebacker Nakobe Dean (hamstring), linebacker Jaelan Phillips (ankle), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), and safety Marcus Epps (concussion).
If Aaron Rodgers is back next season, he’ll face the Eagles at the Linc next season.
While the 2025 season is still going on for the Eagles, we now know all the Birds’ opponents for the 2026 season.
Their final opponent was decided Sunday night. Not only did the Pittsburgh Steelers win the AFC North and punch the final ticket to the playoffs, they’ll now face the Eagles at the Linc in 2026.
The Eagles also face the first-place teams in the NFC South (Carolina Panthers) and AFC North (Pittsburgh Steelers), and will play every team in both the AFC South and the NFC West, which sent three teams to the playoffs this season.
The Birds are scheduled to play nine home games next season, which increases the likelihood we’ll see the Eagles in an international game. That could include a return to Brazil or hosting a game in Munich, Mexico City, or London.
Home games: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers
Away games: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears
Falcons kick off Black Monday on Sunday by firing Raheem Morris
Jonathan Gannon is just 15-36 (.294) in three seasons with the Cardinals.
Black Monday, the NFL’s annual send off of underperforming head coaches, kicked off Sunday night in Atlanta.
The Falcons fired both general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris, despite Atlanta finishing the season on a four-game winning streak and tied for first place in the NFC South with an 8-9 record.
“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement.
Two NFL coaches were fired during the regular season: Brian Daboll with the New York Giants and Brian Callahan with the Tennessee Titans.
It was something of a lucky confluence of factors in West Bradford Township that led to residents seeing a reduction in their property taxes going into the new year, as other communities in the state see hikes.
A number of loans that were refinanced during record-low interest rates at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, plus long-term lease agreements that brought the municipality more money, eventually equaled “substantial savings,” said Justin Yaich, town manager.
Savings in hand, the township decided they’d give it back to residents, he said, rather than funding “another pet project or another program.”
In the budget, passed last month by the town’s board of supervisors, West Bradford set its property tax millage for a 0.25 mill — a 50% reduction in the tax for residents. For a home worth roughly $300,000, residents will now pay $75 a year, down from $150.
It’s unusual, John Brenner, executive director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, said of West Bradford’s reduction.
“There have been increases, and I’ve seen a number of them from municipal leaders throughout the Commonwealth — cities, boroughs, townships,“ Brenner said. ”You’re seeing counties raise taxes that haven’t in a long, long time. So that tells you the environment we’re in.”
Local governments are fairly limited in how they can levy taxes under state law, with the biggest portion of revenue coming from “the beleaguered property tax,” Brenner said. Schools and the county take from that same source, with local municipalities usually taking far less.
“Local government is not a business,” Brenner said. “It’s a provider of services, and those services cost money, and somebody has to pay for it.”
But in West Bradford, it was years of planning and a flurry of factors, Yaich said. It started in 2019, when the town purchased the former Embreeville State School and Hospital, an abandoned 900,000-square-foot psychiatric hospital that had been deteriorating for more than two decades. A developer had sought to transform the property into a high-density residential complex, which saw community pushback and years of litigation.
To purchase the site for roughly $23 million to turn it into 200 acres of open space, the township — for the first time — levied a real estate tax. (Residents already paid property tax to Downingtown Area School District and the county but previously did not pay the town.)
But early in 2020, West Bradford refinanced its outstanding debts, renegotiated some lease terms, and began to hold other costs consistent. Over the years, it culminated in the township being able to reduce the real estate tax, Yaich said.
The board’s philosophy is to do its core responsibilities — taking care of roads and infrastructure, caring for the open spaces and parks, running trash and recycling programs — and make sure there’s enough leftover for new programs or capital improvements, Yaich said. But anything beyond that, return it to the taxpayers, rather than figure out how to spend it, he said.
It is easier to spend money than it is to trim, Yaich added, noting that the township faces rising costs and shrinking revenue sources: Cable providers, who once were paying $300,000 to the township in a year to put their lines in, are dwindling as people turn to streaming services. With more electric vehicles, fewer people are filling up at the pumps, meaning less liquid fuels money for the township, too. It’s rare, and unlikely to be replicated in a few years, to cut costs for residents like this, he acknowledged.
As other town managers call and ask Yaich how to emulate him, he tries to dispel the magic.
“We’re in a unique situation that we were able to do it,” Yaich said. “There’s no magic sauce or magic potion that we’re doing here that other places aren’t doing. It’s just that we were set up at the right time in the right place, and we acted when things were favorable to us and we were fortunate.”
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.
Something about the phrase “Do what makes you happy” struck Faridah Ismaila. It became the title of, and inspiration behind, one of her art pieces. It’s printed onto the back of her T-shirt. It’s something the 15-year-old artist lives her life by.
“When I do art, it’s because it makes me happy, and when I can give my art to other people or spread the joy of art, it’s making them happy,” she said.
Following that guiding light of happiness, Ismaila, a digital artist and a sophomore at Great Valley High School, recently launched her nonprofit, A Paint-full of Promise, which offers free monthly art classes for kids in her school district in kindergarten through gradesix.
Working with educators in the district, Ismaila devises themed art projects and provides supplies and classroom time to teach young artists how to express themselves. The first club is slated for mid-January, with a winter wonderland theme. Children will make snowflakes and paint winter-themed coasters.
Ismaila has been recognized for her art nationally: She was the state winner and a national finalist in the 2022 Doodle for Google competition, where young artists compete for their work to be featured as the Google homepage design. That recognition helped give her the confidence to pursue big dreams, like her nonprofit and club.
“It makes me feel I can still do this. Because sometimes I’ll doubt myself. … I can’t be having all these big dreams,” she said. “But if people want to vote for me and I am recognized nationally, I feel on top of the world. I can do anything.”
The first brushes of the nonprofit — which she hopes one day will grow to multiple sessions a month — started years ago, when Ismaila began making YouTube videos, teaching the fundamentals of art. She showed viewers how to make a gradient, how to depict a sunrise. She circulated the videos around her Malvernneighborhood, and she thought: Why not hold a class for younger kids?
Faridah Ismaila, 15, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.
Over a summer, in her garage, she set up two art projects — painting and colored pencils — and led about eight kids through a lesson. She called it Faridah’s Art Crafty Corner.
Holding the class made her happy. So she did it again, but bigger, turning it into a summer camp, under the new name: A Paint-full of Promise.
“Then I decided, why not actually make this a club, so not only my community can get this, my entire district can?” she said.
And now, the teenager has a nonprofit under her belt. She officially launched the organization last month at an event in Malvern, where she raised money by auctioning off prints of her work and selling T-shirts with her designs.
Anne Dale, an art teacher at Great Valley High School who is an adviser for the club, said she was impressed with Ismaila’s ability to get other high school students involved in running the club.
“A lot of students have big ideas for clubs, but there’s not always follow-through. With her, it’s definitely different, and I knew that when she approached me with it,” Dale said.
Giving kids the tools and opportunity to create artwork was essential to Ismaila, who gravitates to art to process her emotions.
“It’s just the best thing ever,” she said. “Once you start doing art as a kid, it’s just a great way to get your feelings out there and express yourself, even if you can’t use words to describe it.”
One of her pieces, Beauty Within, depicts a skeletal hand holding a white mask, a tear running down its cheek. Behind the mask, flowers bloom. It came from a feeling of constantly analyzing herself, the feeling that what you show people is not necessarily what’s on the inside.
Another piece, made when she was “seriously sleep-deprived,” shows a face with an assortment of pixels, pizza, stick figures, and paint pouring out.
Faridah Ismaila, 15, talks about some of her early works at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.
A piece she is working on now shows herself, in vibrant colors, pointing to her reflection. She wanted to capture the feeling of two versions of the self — one confident, the other fragile.
Sometimes, her mother Nofisat Ismaila said, her parents feel as if they are holding her back.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna keep keeping up with this girl, because she’s just taking us to places, keeping us busy, keeping us on our toes,” she said. “She’s turning out to be a really young, determined adult.”
Faridah Ismaila, 15, poses for a portrait at her home on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Malvern. Ismaila started a kids art nonprofit called A Paint-full of Promise. She also sells her art online.
But to Faridah Ismaila, it’s about finding happiness, and giving it to others, too.
“I really hope the kids just do what makes them happy. … It’s also just not being afraid to get out there, because when I was a kid-kid, I wasn’t afraid of anything,” she said. “I think middle school really kicks some kids in the butt, and getting up out of that — at least for me, art was a way to do that. I just want to give that to kids.”
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.
These multiple assaults on nursing inspired us to take stock and unify around our profession’s need to collectively speak up and help federal decision-makers better understand the work of nursing and what it contributes to society.
Most trusted
For years, the public has consistently identified nursing as the most trusted profession. Patients and families have invariably called attention to how nurses helped them get through the worst possible times in their lives.
In hospitals, nurses keep patients safe. They work to get to know patients and families as individual people so they can better align their care with what is specifically important to them.
Nurses are watchful 24/7, anticipating and preventing potential problems in patients at risk. They manage patient symptoms to give comfort and alleviate suffering. Nurses provide hands-on physical, therapeutic, and, when necessary, end-of-life care. They collaborate with interprofessional teams, coordinating the work of many.
They also help people understand what they need to know about their care, enabling them to better manage it at home. Nurses and patients alike thrive within the caring relationships that facilitate patient and family health and healing.
What’s more important than that? What else does the nursing profession need to do?
Looking forward to 2026, nurses need to let everyone in on their best-kept secret. Registered nurses provide the glue in our fractured healthcare system and are crucial to helping keep Americans healthy.
In 2026, we need a bold, united campaign that delivers evidence, action, and impact. To share what nurses know about their profession, and what patients and families know after experiencing their care.
Nurses demonstrate for better staffing levels and patient care in Philadelphia in 2019. Nursing today faces dire new challenges.
Nursing must focus on developing health-centered metrics that matter to patients and families, and that clearly demonstrate nursing’s value to society and to the payers, accreditors, and credentialing bodies that fund or evaluate the work of nursing.
Developing better patient-centered outcomes through our work in hospitals will allow us to provide more informed care to the right patients at the right time. While current Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) measures aligned with nursing, like rates of hospital-acquired infections, are important, they are narrow in scope and only call attention to the absence, not the presence, of stellar bedside nursing.
Challenges of AI
In 2026, nursing needs to lead in the thoughtful implementation of artificial intelligence to optimize patient and family care. AI can unburden healthcare professionals from tasks that can — and should be — automated so nurses can better focus on the empathy and experience that inform quality care. AI can be used to help predict untoward events, keeping patients safer while freeing nurses to provide the one-to-one human interaction that technology simply cannot.
In primary care, the U.S. healthcare system faces a shortage of providers, rising healthcare costs, and an increasing number of people with chronic health conditions like obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. Imagine a healthcare system in which nurse practitioners provide the majority, not just 20%, of primary care, better helping patients and families stay healthy.
To make this a reality, we must remove restrictive practice barriers and allow nurse practitioners to directly bill for their services. Nurse practitioners already help guide patients through complex transitions from acute care to palliative care and end-of-life. Nurse-run virtual clinics have successfully provided just-in-time consults that replace more costly emergency room visits. Nurse-run specialty clinics help manage long-term illnesses, such as diabetes and asthma, by coordinating care with specialists to prevent exacerbations.
Registered nurses, working in primary care, can help mitigate these challenges and strengthen America’s healthcare system by providing care, education, and support to all people, regardless of their level of health.
In the community, nurses partner with local leaders to design safety nets like vaccination clinics and disaster relief programs. They run urban community clinics, providing care to people who need help, including the homeless, the uninsured, and the marginalized. Imagine school-based registered nurses not only helping educate children about health, but also managing their chronic illnesses like asthma and mental health needs.
The future will require bold and collaborative action from nurses to combat the oncoming healthcare crisis. Millions of Americans will suffer the consequences of our government’s inaction to pass a comprehensive health bill in 2024 or shore up the Affordable Care Act in 2025.
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, registered nurses have been — and remain — a vital national asset. In 2026, nurses are the solution for delivering compassionate and evidence-based healthcare in America, and a driving force for the well-being of the public they serve.
Our healthcare system is stressed, but it can be sustained with empathetic leadership, investing in nursing research, expanding practice authority, and designing innovative models of care that recognize the value of nurses and their critical, myriad contributions to the nation’s health.
Martha A.Q. Curley is a registered nurse and professor of pediatric nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Connie M. Ulrich is a registered nurse and professor of nursing and of medical ethics and health policy, and Mary D. Naylor is a registered nurse and professor of gerontology and nursing, both also at Penn’s School of Nursing.
They will open the playoffs at home against a 49ers team that is coming off a sloppy loss on Saturday in its third game in 13 days. San Fran’s offense scored just three points.
The Birds will have home-field advantage and an edge in playoff experience — at least defensively. Here are 25 things to know about the 49ers:
1. The Eagles and 49ers have met twice previously in the postseason. San Fran shut out the Birds, 14-0, in a muddy wild-card game at the old Candlestick Park after the 1996 season. Three years ago, the Eagles thumped San Fran, 31-7, in the conference championship game.
2. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy was a rookie that season. He got hurt on the first possession, and the 49ers had an uphill climb.
Brock Purdy (13) threw 20 TD passes and 10 interceptions in nine games played this season.
3. Coincidentally, he was replaced that day by Josh Johnson, who on Sunday led Washington to a win over the Eagles, which knocked the Eagles out of the conference’s No. 2 seed and set up the meeting next weekend with the 49ers. Small world.
4. The Birds opened as three-point favorites.
5. The 49ers entered Sunday 10th in the league in scoring offense, 12th in points allowed. The Eagles were 18th in scoring offense, third in points allowed.
6. Left tackle Trent Williams missed Saturday’s game against the Seahawks. He injured his hamstring on the first snap in Week 17 against Chicago. Williams, 37, spent his first nine seasons with Washington. He’s played 20 games against the Eagles. His teams are 9-11. He’s 5-5 at Lincoln Financial Field.
7. Williams is one of six Niners selected to the Pro Bowl. Running back Christian McCaffrey, tight end George Kittle, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, special teams ace Luke Gifford, and long snapper Jon Weeks are the others.
8. Juszczyk’s 10 Pro Bowl selections are the most ever for a fullback. Williams’ 12 Pro Bowls tie him with Will Shields and Randall McDaniel for second-most ever by an offensive lineman. Only Bruce Matthews (14) had more.
Kyle Juszczyk is no stranger to the Pro Bowl.
9. San Francisco’s top two reception leaders were McCaffrey (102) and Kittle (57). Their leader among wide receivers was Jauan Jennings (55). Jennings (in 2020) and Purdy (2022) were seventh-round draft picks of the 49ers.
10. Jennings apparently is a prolific trash talker who straddles the line of what’s acceptable. In Week 12, he was punched below the belt by Carolina defensive back Tre’von Moehrig. The following game, he got into a heated scuffle with some Cleveland Browns players.
11. “I see why he got punched in the nuts,” Cleveland defensive tackle Shelby Harris said. “He said some things that you should not say to another man, ever. … I’m surprised nobody punched him in the jaw yet.”
12. Purdy had been red-hot until Seattle shut him down in a 13-3 Seahawks win on Saturday. In the three games prior, he had 11 TD passes and two interceptions.
13. This will be Purdy’s seventh postseason start. He’s thrown one interception in 171 playoff passes, and San Fran is 4-2 with losses to the Eagles and the Chiefs.
14. Of the 49ers’ defensive group that started the season finale in Seattle, only linebacker Eric Kendricks, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir, and safety Ji’Ayir Brown have ever started a playoff game.
Matt Hennessy is a Temple grad who spent preseason time with the Eagles in 2024.
15. Backup center Matt Hennessy played at Temple. He also plays special teams and has seen action in all 17 games this season. Hennessy, born in Nyack, N.Y., was a third-round pick of the Falcons in 2020. This will be his first playoff game.
16. The 49ers were 12-5 straight-up, 10-7 against the closing point spread. The Eagles were 11-6 straight-up, 10-7 against the number.
17. Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (knee) also missed Saturday’s game. Pearsall, who survived a harrowing robbery attempt in 2024 when he was shot in the chest, had 36 catches in nine games this season.
18. San Fran went 4-4 against playoff teams this season. They split with Seattle and the Rams, beat Carolina and Chicago, and lost to Jacksonville and Houston.
18a. The Eagles were 3-3. They beat the Rams, Green Bay, and Buffalo; lost to the Chargers, Denver, and Chicago.
19. The Eagles entered Week 18 with the NFL’s best red-zone offense, converting 70.73% of their trips inside the 20 into touchdowns. San Fran’s defense was 10th in the league in red-zone efficiency at 53.85%.
20. Conversely, the Eagles defense was eighth at 51.11% while San Fran’s offense was fourth at 65.15%.
21. Linebacker Curtis Robinson is the 49ers’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Robinson, in his fifth year out of Stanford, played in 14 games this season but has been deactivated after having a rough game against Tennessee in Week 15.
Robert Saleh (center) is part of the brain trust for coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
22. Renowned coordinator Robert Saleh runs San Francisco’s defense. He didn’t do so well as the Jets head coach, going 20-36 from 2020 to 2024.
23. The Niners were 12th in points allowed despite being dead last in the league with just 20 sacks and tied for 29th with six interceptions. They lost All-Pro pass rusher Nick Bosa to a torn ACL in Week 3.
24. Saleh’s brother, David, was in the south tower when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. David escaped but wasn’t able to reach his family for several hours.
25. Robert Saleh said the tragedy of that day made him reassess life’s frailty and get into coaching football. He played at Division II Northern Michigan and took his first job as an offensive assistant at Michigan State in 2002.
Robert Flesch was sitting in his first-floor room at the Bristol nursing home shortly after 9 a.m. on Dec. 23 when a staffer poked her head in to tell him he should go to the activity room. There was a gas leak near his room, the staffer told him, and Peco had been notified.
Flesch, who is 64 and an amputee, rolled his wheelchair into the hallway. “The whole hall smelled like gas,” he recalled.
Peco workers had already arrived, but nobody mentioned the possibility of needing to evacuate the 174-bed facility, Flesch said. Staffers did not seem concerned about the gas smell, and it was otherwise a typical Tuesday at the Bristol Health & Rehab Center, formerly known as Silver Lake Nursing Home.
Around 1:30 p.m., Flesch said he was told Peco had fixed “a pretty big leak” and that he could go back to his room. But the hallway outside his room had the same strong odor. “I’m telling you I still smell gas,” he said he told three staffers. He was reassured that it was just residual odor from the repaired leak.
Just after 2 p.m., another resident, Susie Gubitosi, was back inside after joining several other residents on the patio for a cigarette break. Gubitosi — known to friends as Susie Q — had become blind three years ago from glaucoma and was waiting for a staffer to help her remove old nail polish.
That’s when the place exploded.
“Suddenly I heard this loud boom,” Gubitosi, 71, said.
The blast knocked her out of her wheelchair, and debris slammed against her “as fast and hard as it could,” she said. “Next thing I’m on the floor, and I’m laying on my right-hand side, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Susie Gubitosi was severely injured in a gas explosion and fire at the Bristol Health & Rehab Center in Bristol Township Dec. 23. She has staples in her head from where a brick fell on her. Her back, sternum, neck, elbow, and hand were broken.
The explosion, just after 2:15 p.m., killed Muthoni Nduthu, a 52-year-old nurse at the facility and mother to three sons. A second person who died, a resident, has not been identified. Twenty others were injured.
Flesch’s and Gubitosi’s accounts, told to The Inquirer in interviews over the last few days, give an expanded timeline of events before two explosions rocked the center. Their recollections underscore the key questions facing investigators from multiple agencies as they seek to determine the cause of the explosion and assess whether Peco, the nursing home, or both may have been negligent.
Robert Flesch at the Gracedale Nursing Home in Nazareth.
On Friday, Peco said in a statement that since the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation, “we are not permitted to comment on this matter.”
The NTSB said it didn’t have any additional information but expects to release a preliminary report in about three weeks. In an earlier statement, it said investigators would test the natural gas service line that runs from the street to the basement of the impacted building, gather records, and interview witnesses, first responders, nursing home staff, and Peco employees.
Saber Healthcare Group, a privately run for-profit company that acquired the Bristol nursing home three weeks before the explosion and rebranded it, did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Saber has relocated about 120 residents to local hospitals and other assisted living facilities. It says it is reevaluating its evacuation procedures.
The previous owners, Ohio-based CommuniCare Health Services, had received numerous citations for unsafe building conditions and substandard care.
‘Am I dying?’
Recuperating in St. Mary’s Medical Center in Langhorne, Gubitosi said she felt as if her life was over.
Immediately, the former Bethlehem resident knew it was a gas explosion. “I heard shouting, screaming, moaning, and sirens,” she said.
“This place just blew up. And I thought, ‘Am I dying?’ I didn’t know,” she said. She was relieved when she could wiggle her toes. “I think I’m all in one piece,” she thought.
“Because I’m blind, it scared me even more. I felt ice cold water on me. The sprinkler system must have come on and I was drenched. But I was glad because I had dust, cement dust, soot all in my mouth, on my face, in my eyes and nose. And I was just trying to breathe.”
She cried repeatedly for help. “I heard all these voices and things moving. It was pandemonium. I could hear the EMT guys saying, ‘They’re in here! We’ve got to get them out! The building is going to collapse!’”
She heard one EMT, as he lifted her up, say, “This is the first patient that’s been crushed.”
Doctors in the hospital used staples to close a gash on her hairline. Her back, neck, and sternum are broken. She had surgery last week to repair fractures in her elbow and hand.
The pain, she said, is at times unbearable, even with medication. “It’s hard to breathe,” she said, lying in her hospital bed with her neck in a large brace, bandages that run from her hand to elbow, and IVs.
“It feels literally like an elephant put his foot on me and crushed me,” she said. “I was probably this close to death.”
She doesn’t know yet how long she’ll be hospitalized or where she will be placed next.
“Lawsuits are coming,” said Jordan Strokovsky, an attorney representing Gubitosi. ”There will be answers. There will be accountability.”
Hospital beds remain outside at Bristol Health & Rehab Center on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Bristol Township, Pa. Two people were killed and 20 were injured in the explosion on Dec. 23.
‘The wall was coming down’
Flesch, who lost his left leg from a brown recluse spider bite, said he doesn’t understand why he was given the green light to return to his room.
A former pool and spa tradesman from Levittown, he had been a Bristol resident a short time, sifting through a file he kept of apartments he could possibly call his next home.
“Suddenly, there was this loud boom!,” he recalled.
“I’ve never been in anything like that in my life,” he said. “I was in shock because all the glass from my windows came flying out. Then the ceiling was coming down. The wall was coming down.”
Glass shards piled a foot deep in his room, even deeper in the hallway. Crumpled furniture was hurtled everywhere. Flesch maneuvered his wheelchair through glass to check on the bedridden man across the hall. He was OK.
The facility’s part-time psychologist helped Flesch and many others get outside safely.
“It was complete chaos,” he said.
The explosion left Flesch, now staying in a nursing home in Nazareth, Pa., with nothing more than scratches on his arms.
“I am still asking myself how I survived,” he said. “It must be God. I can’t explain it any other way.”
