The No. 2 seed in the NFC was on the line on Sunday during the late window — but Nick Sirianni and the Eagles instead chose to rest their starters against Washington. The Birds needed the Bears to lose to have a shot at it, but the two games were unfolding simultaneously.
Instead of playing for the win and hoping for a Bears loss, the Birds looked forward to the playoffs. But some other former NFL coaches didn’t understand that decision, including Rex Ryan.
“If we had a chance for the two seed? Hell yeah, you’re playing the whole game, we’ll rest in the offseason,” Ryan said of the Eagles’ opportunity to guarantee themselves a second home playoff game if they advance past the San Francisco 49ers.
"One thing I know about Philly, they are hard as hell to beat in the playoffs at home." 👀
The Birds earned the No. 2 seed in 2024, and had home-field advantage until the Super Bowl thanks to last year’s No. 1 seed, the Detroit Lions, losing in the divisional round. This year, the third-seeded Eagles could potentially get just one home game, Sunday’s wild-card round game against San Francisco.
“I don’t understand Nick Sirianni not playing for the 2 seed Sunday,“ Peter King wrote in his newsletter. ”Makes no sense. If you’re the 2 seed and you win the Wild Card game, you’re home for two playoff games. If you’re the 3 seed and the 2 seed wins the Wild Card game, you’re home for only one playoff game. Seems like a missed opportunity to me, sitting so many of your guys in a game you’d likely win. Sirianni said he opted for resting guys who needed it. We’ll see if impacts the next two weeks.”
Chad Johnson, however, disagreed. The former wide receiver said giving the players the week off and not concerning themselves with the results of the other teams was the best path forward, to make sure everyone was good to go for the games that matter.
“Honestly, I like it, especially with the way they’ve looked,” Johnson said on Nightcap. “They’ve been up and down all season long. It’s one game or go home. It doesn’t matter where we’re seeded. We still have to play the game.”
Former Eagles defensive end Chris Long agreed that due to the injuries along the offensive line, it was best to just rest everyone to avoid anyone else getting hurt ahead of the playoffs. After the previous game against the Commanders ended in a scuffle, Long believes it was also the safest outcome.
“It’s a bit of a rockhead take, but if Jalen Hurts were playing in that game, [Commanders LB Frankie] Luvu would have done some crazy [expletive] to him,” Long said on his Green Light podcast. “Dudes were head hunting. … You had to rest the offensive line. That’s the crux of it. That offensive line is hanging on by a thread. Jalen out there without that offensive line, it’s going to be terrible.”
Hurts — and the rest of the Eagles starters — will be back out on the field Sunday when they host the Niners at 4:30 p.m.
University of Pennsylvania researchers recently won a $25 million grant to see if they can fight heart disease with a game that promotesa healthy behavior — walking.
The intervention works by tracking how many steps a person takes each day and assigning points and levels accordingly. Participants get text messages with their daily tally.
The Penn team previously tested the concept in a clinical trial with 1,062 patients and found the approach increased participants’ activity by an average of nearly 2,000 steps daily.
Now, with funding from the nonprofit Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, they hope to show that their game cannot only promote exercise, but can alsoreduce the incidence of heart events.
Dozens of studies have already shown that people who take more steps a day experiencefewer heart attacks and strokes. However, these findings have largely been based on observational data, which is not proof of a cause-and-effect relationship.
The Penn team will be using the $25 million grant to pursue the gold standard for establishing scientific causality: a randomized controlled trial. Patients will get divided into two groups — one gets to play the game, and the other does not — so researchers can compare their outcomes.
Theclinical trial involving 18,000 participants will launch in a year and a half and runfor roughly five years. Patients will be recruited through a partnership with the private healthcare system Ascension, which spans 15 states and the District of Columbia.
Scientists theorize that walking could help by reducing blood pressure, blood sugar, and inflammation. Activity may also improve the way muscles get oxygen from the blood, “so that your heart doesn’t have to work as hard,” said Alexander Fanaroff, a Penn cardiologist and one of the lead researchers on the project.
The researchteam will see whether the participants who had access to the gamesustained significantly fewer instances of stroke, heart attack, or heart failure.
Only people with an elevated risk of heart disease can take part in the trial.
Making walking into a game
As a cardiologist, Fanaroff spends a lot of time telling patients to exercise more.
It doesn’t always work.
“The hardest thing for people to do is change their behavior,” he said.
The Penn team has spent the last decade using concepts from behavioral economics — a field that combines psychology and economics to understand human decision-making — to hone an intervention to promote exercise.
The current program design, which works like a game, is the product of three previous clinical trials that showed the potential of Penn’s game-based approach to improving physical activity.
Here’s how it works:First, participants establish their baseline step count over two weeks, and then set a goal to increase their daily stepsby 33% to 50%.
Each week, patients are given 70 points — that’s 10 per day. Every day that they meet their goal, they keep their points. If they fail to keep up, they lose 10 points.
They move up or down levels each week, based on the cumulative points.
Patients need only to own a smartphone to participate, since their steps are tracked by thebuilt-in sensors now in most devices.
Daily results aredelivered through text.
“If you have an app on your phone, you might not look at it, but if you’re getting a text message every day, you’re engaged,” Fanaroff said.
Participants also identify a support partner, such as a family member or friend, who will get weekly email updates on how the person is doing in the game.
The study is entirely remote, with patients enrolling via a web platform.
Participants who are not sorted into the game approach will receive “usual care,” which consists of medical providers simply telling patients to be more physically active. They will also download a standard exercise app, which normally monitors their steps without turning it into a game.
This includes anybody who has ever had a heart attack or stroke, or received a stent, Fanaroff said. It also includes almost all people over 65 with multiple cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, or diabetes.
“It’s not everybody, but it is a good-sized chunk of the population,” he said.
If successful, he hopes the evidence could convince insurers to fund programs that increase physical activity.
The Penn team estimates the game could be delivered for less than $50 per person.
“If it’s effective at reducing cardiovascular events, it would actually probably be cost-saving to the health system,” Fanaroff said.
He also hopes the results can guide doctors to bettercounsel patients.
“We just don’t know the best way to get people to increase physical activity at all, so all we wind up doing is telling people, ‘Physical activity is important for your health,’” he said.
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) on Monday praised President Donald Trump’s order to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, breaking with most Democrats’ messaging on the military operation that took place early Saturday without congressional authorization.
“I don’t know why we can’t just acknowledge that it’s been a good thing what’s happened. … We all wanted this man gone, and now he is gone,” Fetterman said during an interview on Fox & Friends on Monday morning.
Fetterman’s comments come days after the Trumpadministration orchestrated a strike on Caracas, resulting in the capture of Maduro, Venezuela’s president since 2013, and his wife, Cilia Flores, early Saturday.
The event followed months of escalation by the U.S. military and claims from the Trump administration that Maduro is responsible for large-scale drug trafficking operations. The future of the Venezuelan government is unclear, but Trump has suggested that U.S. involvement will continue.
“I think [the military operation] was appropriate and surgical,” Fetterman said during the interview. “This wasn’t a war, this wasn’t boots on the grounds, and in that kind of way, this was surgical and very efficient, and I want to celebrate our military.”
The military operation provoked mixed reactions from members of the Philadelphia region’s Venezuelan community, some of whom are thankful for Maduro’s ouster but were concerned by Trump’s comments over the weekend that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela.
The incident also garnered sharp disapproval from many Democratic lawmakers.
Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) said in a post on X on Saturday that Maduro is a “brutal dictator who has committed grave abuses” and that the U.S. military carries out their orders with “professionalism and excellence,” but stressed that Trump’s military operation defies the Constitution and isa culmination of a repeated failure by Congress to exercise its check on presidential power.
“We face an authoritarian-minded president who acts with dangerous growing impunity. He has shown a willingness to defy court orders, violate the law, ignore congressional intent, and shred basic norms of decency and democracy,” Booker said.
“This pattern will continue unless the Article I branch of government, especially Republican congressional leadership, finds the courage to act,” Booker said.
Other Democrats and opponents to the military operation havealsoquestioned its legality.
This is not the first time that Fetterman has differed with fellow Democrats on key issues. Recently, the Pennsylvania senator wasone of only a handful of Senate Democrats who supported the Republican-led plan to reopen the federal government without addressing the expiration of healthcare subsidies.
During his interview Monday, Fetterman noted that Democrats, including former President Joe Biden, have called for the ouster of Maduro.
“Why have a bounty of $25 million if we didn’t want him gone? Why would you do these things if you weren’t willing to actually do something other than harsh language,” Fetterman said.
Villanova was starting to look unbeatable. The Wildcats had turned a shaky beginning of the 2025-26 season into a 10-game winning streak that stretched into Big East play.
They’d won five straight conference games, including a crucial New Year’s Day matchup vs. Creighton. However, Marquette ended Villanova’s hot streak, exposing its flaws in an 85-69 win on Sunday in Milwaukee.
Villanova (12-3, 5-1 Big East) entered the matchup at No. 28 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. Despite Sunday’s disappointment, coach Denise Dillon’s Wildcats have piled up wins and seem poised to contend with the top women’s teams in the Big East.
Defense falters vs. Marquette
Villanova entered the game with the second-best defense in the Big East. Opponents were averaging just 58.8 points and shooting 37.2% from the field against the Wildcats.
However, the Golden Eagles (10-5, 4-2) were unfazed. Villanova gave up the most points it had this season, and, although it tied the score twice, Marquette led for the majority of the game and shot 51.75% from the field.
Marquette’s Halle Vice was unstoppable. The junior guard scored 14 points in the first quarter alone and made each of her first nine shots from the field en route to a 32-point outing. Guard Jaidynn Mason and forward Skylar Forbes also scored 20 points each.
Villanova especially struggled to defend Marquette’s three-point shooting. The Golden Eagles knocked down 61.1% of their shots from long range, going 11-for-18. The Wildcats’ full-court press didn’t slow them down, and they led by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe has been Villanova’s dependable backcourt leader. She held up the offense against Marquette with 20 points and four assists. Bascoe is averaging a team-best 17.3 points, which also is good for third in the Big East.
While Bascoe remains a crucial presence for the Wildcats, the team’s depth on offense has helped it thrive this season. Bascoe, also the team’s assists leader, has plenty of reliable options around her.
Those options were tested on Dec. 29 at DePaul, as Bascoe went down with a leg injury in the first quarter and missed the rest of the game. Junior forward Brynn McCurry filled the gap, scoring 18 points as four Wildcats finished in double figures in an 81-48 win.
Bascoe was back on the court in the Wildcats’ 74-64 win over Creighton. Freshman forward Kennedy Henry led the scoring with a career-high 19 points in that win, while Bascoe added 15.
Brynn McCurry is among Villanova players who stepped up when leading scorer Jasmine Bascoe was sidelined vs. DePaul.
Big East competition
Villanova sits in second place in the conference standings behind No. 1 UConn (15-0, 6-0). The Wildcats have defied expectations early in conference play, after being picked to finish fourth in the Big East preseason poll.
With the loss to Marquette behind them, the Wildcats will look to bounce back on their home court. Villanova next hosts Xavier (9-6, 2-4) on Thursday (11:30 a.m., ESPN+).
The images are historic and alarming: Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, captured and transported by a U.S. warship to stand trial in a New York federal court. President Donald Trump hails this as justice, promising Maduro will face the “full might of American justice.”
This double standard extends to the world stage. The United States fiercely rejects the jurisdiction of respected judicial bodies like the International Criminal Court, even restricting its prosecutors in order to protect Americans. Yet, it now unilaterally extends its own domestic courts to sit in judgment over a foreign leader, echoing the 1989 capture of Panama’s Manuel Noriega.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro places his hand over his heart while talking to high-ranking officers during a military ceremony on his inauguration day for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, in January 2025.
The charges of “narco-terrorism” may be serious, but the process is purely an assertion of power through legal theater.
This action shatters global order; it does not uphold it.
What principle will stop China from arresting a Taiwanese leader for “secessionist terrorism” to face a court in Beijing? What stops Russia from charging a Ukrainian president with “Nazi conspiracy” in Moscow? By normalizing this model — where powerful nations kidnap and try the leaders of weaker states — the U.S. is inviting a world of legalized vendettas.
It replaces a fragile system of rules with raw power.
For Americans, this is a direct threat to our security. It makes every U.S. official, diplomat, and service member abroad a potential target for retaliatory arrests by rival powers who will cite this case as their precedent.
We have just handed our adversaries a blueprint for political kidnappings disguised as “law enforcement.”
The acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, is right to call this a mortal threat to sovereignty. True democrats in Venezuela, who seek a future free from Maduro, now face an impossible dilemma: Their cause has been co-opted by a foreign power’s invasion of their nation’s self-determination.
This act will not foster democracy; it will fuel nationalism and anti-American resentment for a generation, making a genuine, Venezuelan-led transition harder.
We cannot defend democracy by obliterating its foundations.
If we believe in any kind of justice, it must be a justice that respects the equality of nations before the law, not a justice delivered at gunpoint by the world’s most powerful navy to a courtroom in Manhattan.
The capture of Maduro and his wife by Trump may seem like victory for the U.S. administration today, but its legacy will be a more lawless, dangerous, and unstable world for all of us tomorrow.
He is not enforcing the law; he is proving that, in his view, only might is right.
Januarius Asongu is a scholar and the author of more than 20 books on political philosophy and international conflict. A resident of Townsend, Del., he is the founder and chancellor of Saint Monica University in Cameroon and of the American Institute of Technology in Sierra Leone.
A new slate of Chester County elected officials are taking office after they were officially sworn in at a ceremony over the weekend surrounded by friends and family.
Four officials in the county’s row offices — clerk of courts, controller, coroner, prothonotary — and three magisterial district justices took their oath of office Saturday at the Chester County Justice Center.
“I’ve found, in this line of work, when you’re finding people to run for office, it’s quite difficult to get the good people to do it,” county commissioner Josh Maxwell told the incoming officials. “It sometimes attracts maybe the wrong people. I’m so excited to be here today because we have a lot of good people who rose their hands — maybe a higher bar than we typically have in the county.”
Sophia Garcia-Jackson (facing camera) hugs the Honorable Alita Rovito after being sworn in as the coroner during the ceremonial administration of oaths, for elected officials and magisterial district judges, at the Chester County Justice Center on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.
The row offices oversee essential government services residents regularly interface with — from maintaining criminal and civil court records, to monitoring the county’s financial contracts, to investigating the circumstances of sudden deaths — andoperate under four-year terms. Magisterial district judges handle traffic cases, and minor criminal and civil cases, for six-year terms.
The slate of row officials includes:
Clerk of Courts: Caroline Bradley
Controller: Nick Cherubino
Coroner: Sophia Garcia-Jackson
Prothonotary: Alex Christy
And the county’s new magisterial judges are:
Anthony diFrancesca
Joe Heffern
James C. Kovaleski
James C. Kovalski’s family helps him don the judges robe after he was sworn in as a magisterial district judge during the ceremonial administration of oaths, for elected officials and magisterial district judges, at the Chester County Justice Center on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.
“Those of you taking the oaths … are amongst the people who will help Chester County continue to be a place where so many want to live, work, and raise their family,” Moskowitz told the officials.
During the ceremony, the judges donned their robes and the row officers took their oaths with their partners, parents, and children nearby. Dozens of supporters lined the benches in the courtroom, and elected officials received a standing ovation when all the oaths had been administered. (Those supporters got a nod, too, with Maxwell noting that public service comes with long hours, personal sacrifice, and difficult decisions. “No one serves alone,” he said.)
The oaths of office were administered by Commonwealth Court Judge Stella Tsai, Court of Common Pleas Judge Alita Rovito, and Magisterial District Judge Nancy Gill.
Caroline Bradley (right) has just been sworn in as clerk of courts by the Honorable Stella Tsai (left) during the ceremonial administration of oaths, for elected officials and magisterial district judges, at the Chester County Justice Center on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.
“The oath you have taken is more than a formality, it is a promise to the people of Chester County, a promise to uphold the law, to treat every resident with fairness and dignity, and to carry out your duties with independence, integrity and care,” Maxwell said. “Those values matter deeply, especially at the local level, where government has its most direct impact on all our lives.”
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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.
