Cam Jurgens (concussion) is questionable to play in Sunday’s rematch against the Dallas Cowboys, according to the Eagles’ final injury report.
The 26-year-old center practiced in a full capacity on Friday for the first time this week. He had been a limited participant in practice on Thursday and did not participate on Wednesday.
“Anytime these guys can get back out there coming off things, that’s huge,” coach Nick Sirianni said Friday of Jurgens’ return to practice. “We will see where he is today, but excited to have him back out there when he was.”
Jurgens exited the Week 11 game against the Detroit Lions late in the fourth quarter with the concussion, requiring Brett Toth to take over in his place. The concussion was the latest ailment that Jurgens has navigated this season. He missed the prior two games with an injury to his right knee, which still requires him to wear a brace.
Additionally, Jurgens is just nine months removed from the offseason back surgery he underwent in late February. He played through that injury in the NFC championship game and the Super Bowl.
Jurgens isn’t the only Eagles offensive lineman who has dealt with numerous injuries this year. Lane Johnson was officially ruled out for Sunday’s game after sustaining a Lisfranc injury in the first quarter against the Lions. He is expected to miss at least four to six weeks. Fred Johnson, the 6-foot-7, 326-pound swing tackle, is slated to start at right tackle in his absence.
This will be the first game that the two-time All Pro Johnson has not started this season. He has dropped out of games with various ailments, including a neck injury in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams, a shoulder injury in Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and an ankle injury in Week 10 against the Green Bay Packers (he ultimately returned to action).
Tackle Myles Hinton (back) and center/guard Willie Lampkin (knee/ankle), who are both on injured reserve, are listed as questionable to play.
The Eagles are at capacity on their 53-man active roster, so they would need to make corresponding moves to open up spots for Hinton and Lampkin if they are activated. One of those moves could be placing Lane Johnson on injured reserve.
Jaelan Phillips, who popped up on the injury report this week with a shoulder issue, is available to play.
Philadelphia developers may soon benefit from a 20-year property tax abatement to convert large, underutilized properties into residences.
Buried among the litany of provisions in the state budget and fiscal code in Harrisburg, which both passed last week, new language was included that allows Philadelphia to exempt “improvements that convert deteriorated property into residential housing units” from property taxes for up to 20 years.
If a building is deemed too difficult to convert to housing, the new legal language will allow a developer to demolish a building and still get the abatement.
The legislation defines “deteriorated property” as “any industrial, commercial or other business property, or property previously used for government purposes, including a school” that is located in what the legislation calls “a deteriorating area.”
It isnow up to City Council and Parker’s administration to craft a local law within the confines of what the state government newly allows. According to state law, local officials must also define what geographic areas under their purview qualify as “a deteriorating area.” Council President Kenyatta Johnson says he supports the 20-year abatement.
The abatements would “ensure that there are no vacant office buildings here in the city, and …incentivize the building of affordable housing,” said Parker in an interview. “That’s where I think it’s going to matter the most.”
Shuttered schools and the Roundhouse
Currently, the city has a10-year abatement that applies to all residential properties for renovations — which includes conversions — and a half-strength abatement for new construction that begins with a 100% break on a project’s property taxes and then tapers by 10% annually over a 10-year period.
Parker said that her administration worked with State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia), State Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia), and State Sen. Joe Picozzi (R., Philadelphia) to get the new language into the contentious Harrisburg budget.
The administration is now working on crafting legislation to present to Council early next year. She sees it as a crucial incentive in her H.O.M.E. effort to build or preserve 30,000 units of housing.
Parker emphasized that while the new legislation is meant to help solve the office market crisis in Center City, she is most excited for it to be applied to shuttered public schools and other large, underused buildings in outlying neighborhoods.
“We have a menu of options, and this tool, this puts our efforts on steroids to build affordable housing in the city of Philadelphia,” Parker said. It is a “public good [that is] underproduced and has to be incentivized, and not just in Center City.”
Lewis Rosman, the city’s chief deputy solicitor, pointed to the architecturally unique former police headquarters known as the Roundhouse as a property that could possibly benefit from the 20-year abatement as a way to demolish the existing structure and build a new one.
“If you have a property like the Roundhouse that you can’t directly turn into housing, you got to take it down,” said Rosman, who helped write the statelegislation. “It will be a new development, but presumably under enabling legislation from Council that will be implemented, it would be subject to the abatement.”
Impact on affordable housing?
Real estate groups in the city hailed the new legislation out of Harrisburg as a tool to fight blight and reactivate historic buildings.
“For years, [we have] advocated for tools that make it possible to convert blighted, deteriorated properties into vibrant residential communities, and this expanded abatement authority does exactly that,” said Sarah Maginnis, executive director of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association’s (NAIOP) Philadelphia chapter.
Mayor Parker said she plans to include provisions in thecity’s abatement legislation to support affordable homes.
“This is not a blanket windfall for billionaires,” Parker said.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who chairs City Council’s housing committeeand has been a champion of affordable housing, said she also supported the concept of a 20-year property tax abatement for residential conversion with the proviso that the city requiresome housing for lower-income residents in exchange for the tax incentive.
“Construction costs are really high right now, and we need more housing, so I’m not against an abatement that would generate more housing,” said Gauthier. “At the same time, if we’re going to incentivize developers through a vehicle like this, it needs to have an affordability component.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker speaking at a press conference on the future of Market East earlier this month. Jessie Lawrence, Philadelphia director of planning and development, is pictured left.
But developers with expertise in residential conversions warned against adding additional requirements, saying that the incentive is not generous enough to support below-market-rate rents.
“A 20-year abatement without any strings attached will make a difference in Philadelphia,” said Leo Addimando, managing partner with Alterra Property Group, which has successfully executed many office-to-residential conversions in the city. “But if you attach any strings to it, you neuter it.”
Addimando said a 20-year tax abatement could make some conversion projects viable by allowing developers to qualify for better financing, lowering their borrowing costs. But he argues those cost savings are not enough to pay for housing that would be affordable to low-income renters.
Addimando said the subsidy could probably allow fordevelopers to create lower-priced units for households who earn 120% to 80% of area median income — less than $123,000 to $85,000 for a family of three — but he assumed city policy would want to help lower-income families.
Cherry Hill is home to a new gaming space that takes childhood playground games and drops them into padded LED-laden arenas.
Activate Gaming is a 14,000-square-foot immersive gaming complex opening Nov. 21, where groups cantackle Mission Impossible-esque laser gauntlets and scatter from giant digital eyes in an amped-up game of hide-and-seek (Squid Game, anyone?).
Staffers (from left) Jason Shacket, Justin Dyaz, Christina Schmidbauer, and Robert Cole, prepare for the laser light gauntlet inside Active Gaming in Cherry Hill, N.J., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
“We don’t have an age bracket or a specific demographic,” general manager Tahai Exum said. “We want to encourage everyone to come, where a lot of this is just the childhood games that we used to play out in the cul-de-sac or in our backyards with our friends after school.”
Activate will be transforming the site of a former Rite Aid, a wider trend among landlords to revitalize dormant spaces. As longtime tenants of large retail spaces start to leave these facilities, a new crop of immersive retail experiences is taking them over, including a massive entertainment center in the Moorestown Mall, Cherry Hill Mall getting a Dick’s House of Sport, and Center City’s Fashion District considering experiential retail offerings after the success of Puttshack and F1 Arcade nearby.
Activate Gaming, located at the site of a former Rite Aid, at 1509 Route 38 in Cherry Hill, pictured on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
What is Activate Gaming?
Walking into the complex, about a mile down the road from the Cherry Hill Mall, players are equipped with a wristband that activates the game rooms and tracks their scores. Rack up enough points and rewards like Croc accessories, portable speakers, and exclusive apparel are up for grabs.
Players are ushered into a sprawling, cushion-floored hall with 13 stalls of different games of their choosing. Each round of a game is one to three minutes long, which allows a fresh set of new players to get in.
From there, players can choose to get back in line and scan their wristband for another round, or try the other games on offer. Think of an arcade with loads of games, but instead of playing with a controller, players are part of the game themselves.
Shooting hoops, playing hide-and-seek, and the all-time childhood classic “the floor is lava” are heightened in these rooms with interactive prompts, trivia, and thumping techno music.
For instance, Activate trades the couch cushions and ottomans from traditional “floor is lava” for an LED tile-lined floor that illuminates squares for players to take refuge on. With each new round, players race to the next pressure-triggered tile to win.
Basketball gets turned into a trivia game where contestants are prompted with questions like “Where is the most densely populated island found?” and shoot a basketball into the correctly labeled hoop. This time the answer is “Haiti,” Exum said, referring to the Haitian island of Ilet a Brouee.
Players prepare for a race through the laser light gauntlet at Activate Gaming in Cherry Hill on Nov. 18, 2025. The immersive gaming space opens at the end of November.
In the laser gauntlet room, staffers Robert Cole from Philadelphia and Justyn Diaz from Pennsauken roll like ninjas below the lasers as a smoke machine wafts clouds throughout the room to illuminate the lasers into view. The staffers — even Cole, who previously worked at Dave & Buster’s — have never had employee training like this before.
The games that guests play are the same ones staffers play every week.
“I don’t know anywhere you can go and get paid to play games,” Exum said. “Our staff are playing these games ahead of launch, and when we’re open, to better explain and suggest games to guests, but also to provide feedback on the gaming experience.”
Activate Gaming is open to everyone ages 6 and up, and yes, Exum said, adults are encouraged to join the fun. Adults must be present at the gaming facility for the entire gaming session for children ages 6 to 13.
Pricing starts at $24.99 per person for a 60-minute session and $29.99 for 90-minute sessions on weekdays, or $34.99 per person for 60 minutes and $39.99 for 90 minutes on weekends, which should be booked online in advance. Walk-ins are welcome but are subject to availability as time slots get reserved.
For birthday parties and group visits, the price drops to $19.99 per person with a minimum of 10 guests.
The display screen where players choose the various game modes within the laser gauntlet at Activate Gaming in Cherry Hill, N.J., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.
There are no limits to how many games you can play in your allotted sessions, so make sure to arrive early so you don’t eat up any valuable gaming time.
No food or drink is served on the premises, and usually only drinks can be brought inside the lobby or private rooms. But during birthday parties, bringing in party food and birthday cakes can be arranged.
Cherry Hill’s Activate Gaming is opening on Friday, Nov. 21, with an all-day free gaming event. They are running a limited-time offer of 50% off opening tickets when customers sign up for their newsletter.
Assuming the sports scientists have it right, the temperatures should be near the performance sweet spots for the runners participating in the Philadelphia Marathon Weekend races on both Saturday and Sunday morning.
At showtimes, 6:55 a.m., just moments after daybreak, temperatures Saturday are expected to be in the upper 40s to near 50 degrees for the half-marathoners, and in the upper 30s to around 40 for Sunday’s main event.
Light rain is expected through the early-morning hours Saturday, and forecasters have been on the fence about when it will shut off. Nick Guzzo, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service said Friday afternoon that rain was likely at the start of the race, but that probabilities would drop precipitously once the event was underway.
AccuWeather Inc. and weather.com were posting about a 50-50 shot that the rain would continue through the morning. The hedging isn’t surprising; timing the onset and end of precipitation has been a longstanding forecast problem.
Nor would it be surprising for those running the 13.1-mile race to experience conditions different from those logging 26.2 miles the following day, points out Kathleen Titus, the race director and runner who has been involved with the marathon for 20 years.
This time of year is a busy one for frontal passages, this being a transition period when the atmosphere isn’t quite sure what season it wants to be. The temperature has reached 74 degreeson Nov. 22 (1883), and plunged to 14 (1880), and snowed 4.6 inches on Nov. 22-23, 1989.
However, nothing momentous is expected this weekend.
Like the rains, winds are forecast to be light, under 10 mph, from the north on Saturday, and northwest on Sunday, although runners allow that on the course, the wind can be way more capricious than the temperatures.
Various studies have concluded that temperature is the most important weather variable in runner performance and that the ideal range for marathoning is 39 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit — give or take a few degrees.
“Your body is always competing between a couple of different things,” said Philip Skiba, sports medicine specialist at ThomasJefferson UniversityHospital, who helped train Eliud Kipchoge, the Kenyan who became the world’s first runner to complete a marathon in under two hours.
During exercise, muscles demand blood to work, while for the body to stay cool, blood has to flow to the skin. If it’s too hot, more blood flows to the skin. When it’s cold, blood is diverted to heat the body’s core.
With temperates in that 39-to-50 range, the blood flow can more easily serve both the muscles and skin. Said Titus, racers love that temperature range because, “It regulates your body. It just works.”
Skiba said the temperature ranged from 51 to 55 degrees on the October 2019 day Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier in a Vienna event that wasn’t held under record-eligible conditions.
Had the temperatures been lower, Kipchoge could have shaved a few more seconds off his time,Skiba said.
The wind also is a player in marathons
While not as dominant as temperature, “wind resistance … is worth a few seconds per mile,” said Skiba, a former triathlete.
“The more you stay out of the wind, you can save considerable energy,” he said.
“It’s really important to learn how to draft,” that is, get behind a group running close to your pace and using them for wind-breakers,he said. (Not sure how the wind-breakers feel about that.)
On the Philly course, the winds can be wild cards, especially on Kelly Drive, Titus said.
One instant, the wind “hits in your face. Now it’s at my back!”
Titus said she actually likes running uphill into the wind — and she is believed to be a member of a distinct minority — but agrees that “it is nice to have it at your back when you’re coming into the home stretch. Because it does give you a little boost.”
Virginia A. Smith, 75, of Philadelphia, longtime reporter and editor for The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Bulletin, the Akron Beacon Journal, and other newspapers, mentor and working-mother role model to many, and avid gardener, died Friday, Nov. 14, of interstitial lung disease at Roxborough Memorial Hospital.
Born in Philadelphia, Ms. Smith joined her hometown Inquirer in 1985 after three years at the Beacon Journal in Ohio, six months at the Bulletin in Philadelphia, and earlier stints at other papers in New York and Connecticut. Until her retirement in 2015, she covered news, health, and gardens as a reporter for The Inquirer, and served as city and Pennsylvania editor.
In her official Inquirer profile, she described her final assignment as “happily writing — and learning — about gardening full time since 2006.” Her son, Josh Wiegand, said: “She was a curious person and interested in so many different things.”
Former colleagues praised the depth and variety of her reporting, especially the detailed long-form stories she wrote about Sister Mary Scullion in 1992, the Iraq War in 2004, her own extensive garden in 2006, and the other interesting people and significant events she encountered. “She was open to reporting a story until she was confident she had all of its shadings,” Inquirer investigations editor Daniel Rubin said. “She had a gift for the stories people would talk about.”
For Ms. Smith, there was no better place than her own garden.
Ms. Smith was named The Inquirer’s garden writer in 2006, and, of course, wrote detailed previews and reviews of the annual Philadelphia Flower Show. But her favorite stories, she told colleagues, were the hundreds of others about climate change, garden gnomes, community gardens, butterflies, pruning techniques, seed banks, edible weeds, how blind people enjoy gardens, and other topics.
Her winter holiday story in 2006 was not about poinsettias or Christmas tree farms. Instead, she profiled an author who discovered a treasure trove of old black-and-white photos of gardeners tending plots in prisons, war zones, and concentration camps.
“It was her idea,” said Joanne McLaughlin, her editor then. “She wanted to write about gardens nurturing the soul under the worst of circumstances, giving hope under the worst of circumstances.”
She wrote often about her own garden in East Falls and ended one story in 2006 with: “When winter arrives, maybe I’ll settle down. Oh, what are the chances? New years are for confessions, so here’s mine: Come first snow, I’ll be out there shoveling the garden pathways, hoping to sneak another peek.”
Ms. Smith wrote this two-part series in 2012.
Her column was called “Garden Scoop,” and she blogged at “Kiss the Earth” on Inquirer.com. She won two achievement awards from what used to be called the National Garden Writers Association and the 2011 Green Exemplar Award from Bartram’s Garden.
“She understood how important the topic was to this area,” said Reid Tuvim, a longtime editor at The Inquirer.
As a health reporter in the early 2000s, Ms. Smith wrote about bottled water, flu medicine, Lyme disease, organ donation, mental illness, children’s healthcare, and other issues. In 2004, she wrote a story about the Medical Mission Sisters, a progressive religious order that offered healthcare advice and full-body massages as well as spiritual guidance. In the third paragraph, she said: “But this is no spa. And that woman doing the hands-on — are you kidding me? — is a nun!”
She covered Scullion’s acceptance speech of the 1992 Philadelphia Award for community service and described it as “fiery and heartfelt, troubling and joyful.” Inquirer staff writer Amy Rosenberg said Ms. Smith “always drilled down to such emotional depths with her subjects. She defined so much of what The Inquirer meant back then.”
Ms. Smith doted on her granddaughters.
She mentored colleagues as she had been mentored and was a role model for fellow working mothers. “I watched her over and over again get up at 5 p.m. and walk out of the newsroom to get her son when he was young,” Rosenberg said. “Never mind what any of the boys in the room thought.”
Virginia Ann Smith was born Oct. 26, 1950. She graduated from the old Eden Hall high school in Philadelphia and earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Manhattanville University in New York in 1972. In 1981, she earned a master of legal studies degree at Yale University Law School through a Ford Foundation fellowship for journalists.
She married Alan Wiegand, and they had a son, Josh, and lived in East Falls. After a divorce, she married Randy Smith in 1985. He died in 2020, and she moved to Cathedral Village Retirement Community a few years ago.
Ms. Smith was a great cook, friends said. They said she was funny, stubborn, and opinionated. She was so into gardens, her son said, that she visited him in Colorado specifically to renovate his garden.
Ms. Smith poses with her husband, Randy, and her two granddaughters.
She listened to classical music and danced at blues festivals. Everyone said she made them feel as if she was their best friend.
“She was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever known,” said friend and former colleague Mari Schaefer. Friend and former colleague Mary Flannery said: “She was so creative and so brave.”
Her son said: “She was the best. I don’t know how she did it. She wanted to do it all, and she did.”
In addition to her son and her former husband, Ms. Smith is survived by two granddaughters, two brothers, and other relatives.
A celebration of her life is to be held later.
Donations in her name may be made to the Schuylkill Center, 8480 Hagys Mill Rd., Philadelphia, Pa. 19128.
Ms. Smith tends to her garden’s black-eyed Susans in this photo.
The adage goes, “If mom says, ‘No,’ call grandma.” So if grandma says, “No,” do you call a lawyer?
Popular D.C. bagel chain Call Your Mother is doing just that after claiming that a shop in Long Branch, N.J., is cramping their style, filing a trademark lawsuit within the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Call Your Bubbi, a beach town cafe and kosher-certified bagel shop, opened last year within the Wave Resort and offers your classic bagel fare.
Andrew Dana and Daniela Moreira, the married couple behind Call Your Mother, say the Jersey cafe is intentionally using a “confusingly similar” name and branding, which can harm their nearly six-year-old company that has about 25 locations, in the Washington area and six in Colorado. The dispute has quickly gone viral within the food scene and bagel-loving communities.
“I cannot believe how this has blown up,” Dana said. “It has taken on a life we never expected.”
Call Your Bubbi owner David Mizrahi did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Inquirer.
Dana said the couple first found out about the Long Branch cafe when a neighbor texted a photo of its storefront, asking if Call Your Mother had expanded to New Jersey. From there, they looked at Call Your Bubbi’s online and social media presence.
Dana and Moreira own the trademark for the phrase call your mother for use as a deli, cafe, or restaurant, according to court documents. They’ve also trademarked their logo, a rotary phone (which mimics the shape of a bagel). In its branding suite, the Call Your Mother text often circles around the rotary graphic.
Call Your Bubbi also uses a round image with its name similarly circling around its bagel logo. According to the Washingtonian, the cafe also at one point used a rotary phone motif on its merch. Both shops use hues of pink and blue in their branding.
“People might think we’re sort of hunting this stuff out — that’s not the case at all,” Dana said. “It looks just like our logo. We tried for months and months to get in touch with the owner. We got hung up on. We didn’t know what else to do.”
At one point, Dana told the Washington Post that he noticed a tagline on the top of Call Your Bubbi’s website: If Mom says, “No,” call your Bubbi.” He told the Post, “I just felt like they were goading us.”
In August, the couple sent Mizrahi a cease-and-desist letter, court documents show. They say they never heard back or saw a change in the cafe’s branding. Last Tuesday, they officially filed the lawsuit.
Call Your Mother is being represented by Philadelphia-based attorney Matthew Homyk, a partner in the intellectual property group of Blank Rome LLP. Homyk didn’t respond for comment as of publication time.
“In Jewish culture, the terms ‘mother’ and ‘bubbi’ both denote a caring and nurturing Jewish matriarch,” the lawsuit says. “Both marks evoke the same core idea — a warm and loving (but also somewhat instructive or scolding) prompt to call your mother or grandmother, and to go grab some coffee and bagels while you’re at it.”
The suit noted that Mizrahi‘s original incorporation in March 2024 was for “Bubbies Bagels,” but that “sometime thereafter,” he began using the Call Your Bubbi label instead.
The Jersey Shore cafe appears to use a blend of both names as of publication time. On Yelp, it’s Call Your Bubbi. On Google Maps, it’s billed as “Bubbi Bagels @ Wave Resort,” but its phone line and merch still identify it as “Call Your Bubbi.”
The shop’s web domain is bubbibagels.com, but the top of its website says Call Your Bubbi. Similarly, its Instagram username is @bubbibagels, but its icon is the contested Call Your Bubbi round logo.
Dana said they saw no issue with the cafe going by “Bubbi Bagels,” or something similar.
“He can call it Bubbi’s, he can call it Mother’s, I don’t really care. But Call Your Bubbi is so close, we had to sort this out,” Dana said. Still, Dana says, Mizrahi won’t return his calls.
Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney not affiliated with the litigation, says the suit makes for a captivating case study. He posted his own analysis of the brand dispute on LinkedIn and says he believes Call Your Mother has a strong case for trademark infringement.
“As a trademark attorney who grew up in a Jewish family, I can tell you that those two names draw from the same emotional well,” he said. “If this case goes to trial, the judge or jury will have to determine whether an average consumer would think these brands are owned by the same company.”
Restaurant-related trademark disputes aren’t new. In Philly, Chickie’s & Pete’s has a grip on the use of crabfriesthanks to owner Pete Ciarrocchi registering the phrase as a trademark back in 2007. Since then, his lawyers have sent cease-and-desist letters to restaurants nationwide for using the phrase.
(It has also sparked some cheeky clapbacks, like Betty’s Seafood Shack in Margate, which now calls its version of the fries “For ‘Pete’s’ Sake.“)
The lawsuit is asking for the court to rule that Call Your Bubbi illegally used Call Your Mother’s trademark materials and engaged in unfair competition and to order that they permanently stop using the name or anything similar.
They also want all infringing materials destroyed, a report proving compliance, and financial remedies, including Call Your Bubbi’s profits, along with damages, interest, attorney fees, and other appropriate penalties.
“We want him to be able to have his business and us to have ours,” Dana said. “The last thing we want to do is spend money on legal or focus on this. We want to focus on making bagels — and figure out how to finish this quickly.”
Before the start of Tuesday’s team practice on Boathouse Row, a couple of teenagers filmed their own TikTok dances. The boy was sheepish about showing his adult coaches the final product on his phone, while a group of girls compared hairstyles. After a quick warmup in the cold air, with some students moving more enthusiastically than others, the group went off on its three-mile run.
It was one of the last steps remaining for the teenagers to get their criminal records expunged.
On Saturday, the group of mostly high schoolers will complete their program by running the 13.1 miles of the Philadelphia Half Marathon.
They are members of MileUp, a juvenile diversion program operated by the nonprofit Students Run Philly Style in partnership with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and Drexel University’s Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice. MileUp gives youth ages 11 to 17 who are charged with certain offenses the opportunity to learn and practice distance running to clear their criminal records.
MileUp intends to teach the students about accountability and responsibility through running, while creating a supportive community. According to Students Run Philly Style, about 92% of MileUp students have completed the program since 2020, which puts them on the path toward having their records expunged.
“You see young people change their mindset over how much control they have over what’s ahead of them,” said Students Run Philly Style executive director Lauren Kobylarz
“This is a chance to let that choice that maybe wasn’t the best … to leave that behind you and move forward,” she said.
This weekend, 128 Students Run Philly Style youth will run the half marathon, including eight from MileUp, and others will do the marathon or 8K, all wearing the same SRPS T-shirts.
For students, the program starts with a referral from the district attorney’s office, where the teenagers are identified as candidates for diversion programming. Some of the most common charges for MileUp students include auto theft, assault, and vandalism. For most, it is their first offense.
The teenagers are given their choice of diversion program. Under District AttorneyLarry Krasner, the officehas expanded the initiative to about 30 programs in sports, arts, and trades.
MileUp has cohorts in the fall and spring, where students meet for practice three times per week for 12 weeks with Students Run Philly Style staff, trained adult volunteers, and peer mentors, who are program graduates paid for their work.
District Attorney Larry Krasner has expanded the use of juvenile diversion programs since coming into office in 2018.
For the fall cohort, milestone runsinclude a 5K, the All-City 10 Miler, and the half marathon.
After the first race, they earn restitution fees associated with their case, which can often be a financial burden.
Afterthe second, the charges get dropped, as long as they ultimately complete the program.
And for a student who finishes the final race, writes a reflection, and is not arrested within six months, the case is expunged, erasing all records of it.
“These are honestly great students … they’re not beat down by what’s happened to them,” said volunteer Juan Batista, 25, whose mother works for The Inquirer in human resources. He said he fell in love with running after he began participating in Students Run Philly Style’s standard program when he was 12.
Batista grew up in Juniata under similar circumstances to many of the MileUp students, and started working with them after he finished college. Their shared background helps them connect, Batista said. He noticed that, in many cases, it has been just a matter of wrong place, wrong time.
“Sometimes bad things happen, and that could be on your record for the rest of your life,” he said.
Second chances
When Lucas from Northeast Philly joined MileUp two years ago, he struggled. It wasn’t fun, and the 16-year-old,whose full name is not being used because he is a juvenile, said that he had been treating his body poorly up to that point. But he showed up to nearlyevery practice, and felt himself maturing as he got stronger as a runner. His record was expunged, and he said having his restitution fees paid was a major help.
“It’s really worth it,” he said.
Now, Lucas is back with MileUp as a peer mentor. He enjoys serving as an example for the other teenagers, and said it feels good to encourage and give advice to those who need it. Lucas said that lots of kids don’t have enough people they can rely on.
“It’s good to have people you can go to for help,” he said.
MileUp diversion program participants have already completed a 5k and 10 mile race together. Their last milestone is the Philadelphia Half-Marathon on Saturday, Nov. 22.
He arrived at Tuesday’s practice with Na’Sean, another 16-year-old from Northeast Philly who is also being identified only by his first name because he is a juvenile. Na’Sean is a current MileUp student who said he came back from a family trip to learn there was a warrant for his arrest, stemming from a years-ago incident.
His focus at the half marathon will be on keeping a steady pace, without starting too fast. It happened to him during the 10-miler and he struggled near the end, but said one of the adult leaders helped him push through. He said he valued the support he has gotten and will miss the group after the program ends.
Na’Sean appreciated how his future remains wide open, and how his ability to get a good job one day won’t be limited by something he may have done when he was a young teenager.
Sixers announcer Alaa Abdelnaby had high hopes this Sixers team would erase the memory of disappointment from last season. So far, he’s gotten his wish.
Coming off a thrilling overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, the Sixers seem rejuvenated this season behind young talents Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe. Though things have slowed following their red-hot 4-0 start, newfound interest in the Sixers is showing up in the team’s TV ratings.
Through nine games, Sixers games on NBC Sports Philadelphia and NBC Sports Philadelphia+ are up 73% compared with the same point last season, according to Nielsen numbers obtained by The Inquirer. That works out to an average of about 138,000 viewers tuning into each game.
As a result, Philadelphia has the fourth-strongest growth in NBA TV ratings this season, trailing behind only Portland, Chicago, and Denver.
Not surprisingly, the most-watched Sixers game this season was last week’s win against the Boston Celtics, which, along with Denver Nuggets vs. Sacramento Kings on the West Coast, averaged 2.9 million viewers across NBC and Peacock.
A large reason behind the surge of interest is Maxey’s MVP-caliber performance. In his sixth season in the league, Maxey is averaging 33.4 points, up big from the 26.3 per game he put up last season.
Edgecombe, the Sixers’ energetic rookie, has dropped back down to Earth a bit after his 34-point debut against the Celtics. Still, Edgecombe is averaging 15.6 points and six rebounds and has been a workhorse for the Sixers, averaging 37.4 minutes per game, the second-most in the NBA behind Maxey.
NBC Sports Philadelphia’s pre- and postgame coverage, featuring Amy Fadool, Marc Jackson, and Jim Lynam, has also benefited from the increased interest in the Sixers. Viewership for Sixers Pregame Live is up 150% compared to last season’s average, while Sixers Postgame Live is up more than 60%.
Podcasts are also enjoying a bump. The Rights to Ricky Sanchez, the popular Sixers podcast co-hosted by 94.1 WIP’s Spike Eskin and Mike Levin, tends to have a loyal audience that doesn’t surge or sink too much. But Eskin said the podcast has seen a “pretty good jump,” especially during the Sixers’ hot start.
“The Ricky listeners are die-hards so they’re always there,” Eskin said, “but the hot start certainly gave the pod a lift as the people who checked out of the team last year seemed excited to get back in.”
Sixers NBA standings
Eastern Conference
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Western Conference
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Sixers news
Sixers center Joel Embiid hasn’t been on the court much so far this season.
After four days off from NHL action, the Flyers returned to the ice on Thursday night.
Although they — once again — didn’t have the best start, they battled back and skated away with a 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues.
Here are two big things we learned.
Rookie on the rise
It feels like every game lately has been a career game for Emil Andrae, and Thursday night was no different. The defenseman played a key role in tying the game and saving it, all after being promoted to the second pairing alongside Jamie Drysdale.
“When you’re playing more, the more confidence you have. I think me and Jimmy played great when we played together those shifts we had,” Andrae said.
Andrae started the game with Noah Juulsen on the third pair, but according to Natural Stat Trick, played 11 minutes, 48 seconds with Drysdale at five-on-five — and it did feel like they were out there every other shift in the third period. They were on the ice for 11 chances for and eight against, and each of the Flyers’ goals in regulation.
“I was talking to [defensive assistant coach] Todd [Reirden] after the first. I said, ‘Let’s make the switch here,’” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “I just felt, Emil, he’s been playing pretty good for us, right? And he’s one of our better guys who goes back and wheels the puck and makes an outlet pass. Even on the blue line [he was] faking, jukin’ players and stuff like that. So, keep working with him; he’ll get some more ice time.”
On the goal by Rodrigo Ābols, the Swedish blueliner had just hopped on the ice. But on the tying goal by Tyson Foerster, Andrae read the play properly before using his quickness to track down a desperation clearing attempt by Robert Thomas. He did a quick 180-degree turn and fed an open Foerster for the one-timer.
“Yeah, he’s making a bunch of great plays, D zone, and transitioning into the offensive zone,” Foerster said. “He made a great play to me, and [Noah Cates] had a great screen. But, yeah, Email’s been playing great.”
Yes, Andrae’s nickname is “Email,” but he’s not mailing anything in. He may just stand at 5-foot-9, but Andrae doesn’t shy away from contact, plays the proper body position on bigger guys, and as Travis Sanheim said, “he makes good reads” and is “not afraid to make them.”
In fact, he sacrificed his body to stop a sure-fire goal by Dalibor Dvorský with three minutes to go. On the play, he was probably on the wrong side of Pavel Buchnevich atop the crease, which allowed the big Russian to get a Grade A scoring chance. However, because he was not on top of Buchnevich, he was able to turn and block the shot with goalie Dan Vladař sprawled on the ice.
“I probably owe him some steak, for sure,” Vladař said.
“A great player and you can really tell that he wants to be here. I think that he showed that he's a regular guy and can play a lot of minutes in this league…I probably owe him some steak for sure.” – Dan Vladar on Emil Andrae’s game-saving block. pic.twitter.com/jb3pmfrrff
After skating in 42 games last season, Andrae has now played in nine games and has three assists and a plus-minus of plus-4. Across the past three games, as the new coaching staff gains confidence in the defenseman, he is averaging 19:34 of ice time; his season total is 14:31.
“I think, still, I have stuff that I can improve from tonight,” Andrae said. “I think the things I did well was get up in the play. I created a lot of offense and moved the puck quick. But I think just overall defense and being strong on the walls can be a better improvement going from here. But yeah, I think it was a step forward.”
The fourth line is alive
There’s no denying the fourth line has been struggling. And considering the four guys who have played on that line, Ābols, Garnet Hathaway, Nic Deslauriers, and Nikita Grebenkin, entered the night with 131 goals across a combined 1,363 NHL games, they are not expected to bury the biscuit every night.
But, they still need to do what they do best: pressure, forecheck, wreak havoc.
“I mean, that should be our motto as a line,” Ābols said when asked about their uptick in pressure against the Blues. “I think, obviously, nothing fancy, just tilt the ice that we’ve been talking about.
“We had some good meetings this week where we talked about it. Todd grabbed us yesterday, said we should play more predictable, and I think we did that today, where it was quite easy to read off each other and just kind of put constant pressure on their D.”
According to Natural Stat Trick, the fourth line had the best Corsi For percentage (86.7%) with 13 chances for and just two against. They had seven scoring chances to none — none — for the Blues. And it gets better. While it is subjective what determines a high-danger shot, the statistics site had the line notching four high-danger chances and zero against.
They threw the body around, with Deslauriers leading the way with six hits. And Ābols scored his first of the season, albeit on the ice with Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippett after jumping on the ice when Christian Dvorak went for a change.
“Fourth lines especially have to play predictable; everyone knows where the puck is going,” said coach Rick Tocchet. “You watch, they were on the forecheck. They were connected, right? I think in the past, they were a little too wide. Tonight, they were connected. More predictable.
“They had some big shifts there for us when the game kind of went the other way, and they got to regain the momentum. For us, they did a nice job.”
Union manager Bradley Carnell said at his weekly news conference Friday that he has “never personally experienced” the discriminatory behavior alleged against sporting director Ernst Tanner.
“I’d be remiss to not briefly to address the reports that surfaced earlier this week and the subsequent announcements from the club,” Carnell said of the allegations published by the Guardian. “First of all, on a professional level, I want to say that I’ve never personally experienced anything like what’s been reported in my time with Ernst. But as an organization, we fully recognize the seriousness of the situation, and that’s as far as I’ll go to discuss the topic that’s ongoing during this investigation.”
Asked if the investigation has been a distraction to the team this week as it prepares for Sunday’s Eastern Conference playoff semifinal against New York City FC (7:55 p.m., FS1, Fox Deportes, Apple TV), Carnell said it has not been.
“The players have been amazing,” he said. “Over the last three weeks, 20 days [since the Union’s last game], whatever it’s been, [they] have been incredible. And then, obviously, we were informed about the situation, but for the players on the ground and the day-to-day organizational operations, we haven’t skipped a beat. The train is moving, and the players are engaged and excited about the prospect of playing on Sunday.”
Union head coach Bradley Carnell said he has “never personally experienced” the discriminatory behavior alleged against sporting director Ernst Tanner.
Longtime captain Alejandro Bedoya said the same.
“Yeah, of course everybody knows what’s happening on the outside, but the team is focused on this weekend’s game,” he said. “And we control what we can control as players, and we’re focused on that.”
Sunday’s game will be Danley Jean Jacques’ first action at Subaru Park since his Haiti team qualified for next year’s World Cup for the first time since 1974.
Jean Jacques missed Tuesday’s clinching game because of yellow card accumulation, which unintentionally gave him a bit more rest before Sunday. Carnell said the midfielder is “fit, he’s healthy, he’s strong, he’s happy with the emotions of qualifying for a World Cup.”
Cette équipe le mérite tellement, on a tout donné. Ce qu’on vit, c’est pour vous, pour tout notre pays ! 🙌🏽
It also will be goalkeeper Andre Blake’s first game since Jamaica’s heartbreaking failure to finish the job on home turf. Friday was Blake’s 35th birthday, and Carnell said the Union held a celebration to lift his spirits.
“I think ’Dre carried Jamaica on his back — he made some crucial saves, he kept them in the game, he made big, big plays,” Carnell said. “We’re celebrating his birthday and making sure he has all the mojo around him, and the good feeling of being back around our group. I think he’s excited to hopefully have a good experience on Sunday and lead his team to a winning game.”
Gio Reyna (left) had the opening goal and the assist on the game-winning goal against Paraguay at Subaru Park.
“I think you’re slowly seeing, and based on all the quotes and what the guys on the team have been saying, it’s Poch’s team now, and he’s definitely put a stamp on it,” Bedoya said, referring to U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino. “I think it took a little bit — and it takes time, right? To change a little bit of the culture inside and out — but you have to be pleased with the effort and the intensity and the way the guys played. Especially with kind of new faces back in the team, and different guys being put in different positions.”
Bedoya noticed, as many people did, how Pochettino took exception to being asked Tuesday night about winning that game without many “regulars” — not just absent stars like Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams, but a lineup with nine changes from the starters vs. Paraguay.
Pochettino was adamant that he doesn’t believe in such a hierarchy, even if the valid part of asking about winning with so much rotation got lost in the moment.
“When you instill a certain culture, and you talk about putting your stamp on a team with your principles [and] the philosophy, whichever player comes in and takes a certain role, they already have a good understanding of what it takes and what’s expected out of them,” Bedoya said. “So it was great to see some of these other guys come in and perform very well. And you have to say, I mean, whenever you beat a national team like Uruguay, 5-1, there’s a lot to get excited about and a lot of optimism.”
Mark McKenzie (left) celebrates with Tanner Tessmann after Tessmann scored the U.S.’s fifth goal against Uruguay.
Bedoya also praised former Union teammate Mark McKenzie, who wore the captain’s armband for the first time against Uruguay.
“That was awesome — I texted him on the side after the game, being happy for him,” he said. “Knowing him from his early years here in Philly, I mean, the guy was always mature beyond his years … It just shows the trust and the faith that Pochettino has in him, which is amazing, and he’s been playing well in Europe since he left, especially now at Toulouse [in France], getting a good run of games.”
After Tuesday’s game, McKenzie called being captain “a huge honor, a real blessing, [and] also a great moment because it shows the level of trust that the group has in me, but also Mauricio and the staff.”
