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  • Fear factors: Ranking the Eagles’ road to the Super Bowl, from the real Rams to the fraud Bears

    Fear factors: Ranking the Eagles’ road to the Super Bowl, from the real Rams to the fraud Bears

    It’s a weird year in the NFL. Each of the traditional powers is missing something. Everything we fret about with the Eagles are worries in Kansas City and Buffalo.

    The Chargers have failed to take the next step. The Lions and Ravens might miss the playoffs. Brock Purdy just threw three interceptions against the Panthers. Drake Maye is a great quarterback. Do the Patriots really have a great roster?

    Something to be thankful for: Nobody else is great, either.

    We’ll see that on Friday, when the Eagles host the Bears. Chicago is among the more fraudulent 8-3 teams we’ve seen.

    Here is a look at all of the NFC teams that matter more than the Bears.

    1. Rams (9-2)

    It sure feels like 2025 is setting up for a Rams-Eagles NFC championship game that could launch an era-defining rivalry. The only thing missing right now is a big Rams win. The Eagles have beaten them four times over the last three seasons after initially replacing them as NFC champs in the 2022 season. But the Rams have walked away from the last two outings feeling like the Eagles’ equals if not betters.

    Nick Sirianni just gave Kevin Patullo a vote of confidence. He didn’t have a choice.

    First came that snowy 28-22 playoff loss when the Rams gave away six points on fumbles and still had a first down on the Eagles’ 21-yard line with 1 minute, 25 seconds remaining and a chance for a go-ahead touchdown. Then came Week 3, when L.A. blew a 26-7 lead and still had a shot at a game-winning 44-yard field goal with three seconds left only to have Jordan Davis block it and score a touchdown to boot.

    The Rams are due. Sean McVay is too good of a coach, Matthew Stafford too good of a quarterback, and Les Snead too good of an executive to not eventually announce it to the rest of the world. What they’ve done in the four years since they won the Super Bowl is every bit as impressive as the mini-dynasty that Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts, and Howie Roseman have put together.

    Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis brought the last meeting with the Rams to a thrilling end with his touchdown.

    Snead and McVay have orchestrated an incredible turnaround on par with the Eagles post-2017. Stafford is one of only four players remaining on either side of the football who played at least 20% of the offensive snaps in 2021, when the Rams won the Super Bowl (The others: OT Rob Havenstein, TE Tyler Higbee, CB Darious Williams). They exited their Super Bowl with a bloated cap sheet and just one first-round pick between 2017 and ’25. Now, suddenly, they are the most impressive team in the NFL. The only impressive team, arguably, along with maybe the Colts. Since losing to the Eagles, their only loss was in overtime to the division rival 49ers (more on them later). They’ve beaten the Colts, the Ravens, the Jaguars, the 49ers, the Seahawks, and the Bucs. Of their six straight wins, five have been by at least two touchdowns. Of their nine overall wins, seven have come against teams whose Super Bowl odds rank in the top half of the NFL.

    2. Detroit Lions (7-4)

    The eye test says Detroit is a team nobody should want to face, particularly at home. But they wouldn’t even make the playoffs if they started today. And they would need to overcome some considerable odds if they hadn’t pulled out an overtime win over the Giants on Sunday. The Lions’ last six games are all losable: on the road against the Rams, Vikings, and Bears; at home against Green Bay, Dallas, and Pittsburgh.

    Don’t get it twisted. They are a serious threat, one of two teams in the NFC who would have a strong argument to make to be favored over the Eagles in a playoff game at home. That’s a long shot to happen, given the tiebreaker the Eagles hold. But the Lions’ 16-9 loss at Lincoln Financial Field in Week 11 didn’t exactly establish them as the definitive favorites even at home.

    Baker Mayfield and the Bucs have a soft schedule ahead.

    3. Buccaneers (6-5)

    Tampa Bay has one of the easiest remaining schedules in the NFL. Arizona, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, and Carolina twice. Find me two losses among those, assuming Baker Mayfield starts at quarterback. Even if Mayfield misses a week or two with his sprained nonthrowing shoulder, the Bucs should be able to finish atop the putrid NFC South. That means they have six weeks to get Mayfield and Chris Godwin healthy. Which means they could easily be a threat once the playoffs arrive.

    4. 49ers (8-4)

    Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Like I said, the field is weird this year. Who else would you put ahead of San Francisco? The Eagles are the only legitimate contender of the NFC’s three-loss teams. They already beat Green Bay on the road. Seattle is quarterbacked by Sam Darnold and will be playing as a wild card with the Rams winning the division. The Bears are the fakest of them all. You’ll see that on Friday.

    Eagles QB Jalen Hurts deserves criticism, but what are we arguing about?

    The 49ers? They are faker than they usually are. The Fred Warner injury — out for the season — was the final deal-breaker. They sorely miss Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk on the offensive side. San Francisco is only a threat to the Eagles if the Eagles turn out to be the team they’ve looked to be over the last several weeks. That team is capable of losing to anybody with a competent quarterback and a great head coach.

    5. Cowboys (5-5-1)

    This is not recency bias. The Cowboys would be second on this list if you could guarantee me that they would make the postseason. As it stands now, they will probably need to win two out of three against the Chiefs (home), Lions (road), and Chargers (home) just to have a reasonable chance of qualifying for the postseason. And that’s assuming they beat the Vikings, Commanders, and Giants.

    Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott running for a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Eagles.

    That being said …

    If all of that happens, then we’d be foolish to consider the Eagles as anything better than a coin flip in a playoff game against the Cowboys, whether at home or on the road. Dallas has outplayed them even this season, once in a game the Eagles should have lost and, more recently, in a game the Eagles should have won. In both games this season, the Eagles have struggled to find an answer for CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Dak Prescott is playing at a near-MVP level and gives the Cowboys the advantage at quarterback. Mostly, this is a referendum on the rest of the NFC.

    6. Seahawks (8-3)

    Look, Darnold has been better than anybody could have envisioned after the Jets drafted him at No. 3 overall. But he is still the biggest reason to doubt that Seattle has been anything more than the beneficiary of a light schedule. The Seahawks’ best wins have come on the road in Pittsburgh in Week 2 and on the road in Jacksonville in Week 6. It’s definitely worth something that they put up 414 yards of total offense and nearly beat the Rams despite Darnold throwing four interceptions. But, then, Darnold threw four interceptions.

    Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean forcing a fumble by Packers quarterback Jordan Love on Nov. 10.

    7. Packers (7-3-1)

    Jordan Love is the most overrated quarterback in the NFL, and Matt LaFleur might be the most overrated play-caller. Not a good combination. The Eagles already beat Green Bay at Lambeau Field on a night when a better team would have beaten them. No worries here.

    8. Bears (8-3)

    For whatever reason, I’ve watched more of the Bears this season than virtually any other team. At no point have they looked capable of beating even a semicompetent team. That holds true for some of the games that they’ve actually won. Caleb Williams is missing something. I think we will see that on Friday.

  • Jefferson Health hit with federal WARN Act lawsuit

    Jefferson Health hit with federal WARN Act lawsuit

    A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Philadelphia accused Jefferson Health of violating federal labor rules when it laid off 1% of its 65,000 employees in October and this month without providing a 60-day notice.

    The purported class-action lawsuit says the proposed lead plaintiff, Ciara Brice, lost her job as a medical assistant on Nov. 12 with no notice and has not received the severance pay she was promised.

    Brice was not available for comment, said her lawyer, Jeremy E. Abay, with Philadelphia law firm Pond Lehocky Giordano Inc.

    The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act has a complicated rubric for determining when a mass layoff requires advance notification, which is filed with state labor departments. One of the triggers is an employer cutting at least 500 jobs, according to Abay.

    Even though the layoffs happened throughout Jefferson’s entire footprint from South Jersey to near Scranton, Abay said notice is required because Jefferson operates as a single entity.

    “We believe the facts will show that there was no violation of the federal WARN Act,” Jefferson said in a statement.

    The nonprofit filed a notice of 108 layoffs at Jefferson Cherry Hill Hospital, Jefferson Stratford Hospital, and Jefferson Washington Township Hospital because New Jersey has its own rules, Abay said.

    In August, Jefferson reported a $195 million operating loss on $15.8 billion in revenue for the year that ended June 30.

    The nonprofit, which grew through acquisitions from three hospitals in Philadelphia in 2015 to more than 30 now, provided no details when it announced the layoffs in mid-October.

    That layoff was part of a series of large job cuts starting in the summer of 2023, but may have been the first time patient-facing workers like Brice were hit.

    The lawsuit seeks back pay, benefits, and damages for each laid-off employee who did not receive a 60-day notice.

    Editor’s note: The headline on this article has been updated to clarify that a lawsuit claims violations.

  • You asked, Craig LaBan and co. answered: The Inquirer’s food team fields readers’ questions

    You asked, Craig LaBan and co. answered: The Inquirer’s food team fields readers’ questions

    Last week was a busy one for our food desk: Michelin announced its first-ever stars and honorees in Philadelphia’s food scene, a much-anticipated reveal sandwiched between The Inquirer’s inaugural food festival and Thanksgiving week. To cap it all off, we solicited subscribers’ questions on our site. No surprise, there were lots of Michelin questions, along with a slew of requests for restaurant recommendations.

    Our team had answers. Read on for our musings on Michelin, where Philly’s restaurant scene is going, and staff picks for red gravy joints, BYOBs, and Philly’s best roasted duck.

    The Philadelphia chefs acknowledged at the Michelin Guide announcements at the Kimmel Center Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Philadelphia.

    Michelin machinations

    Can you give us an idea how much the [Philadelphia Convention and] Visitors Bureau had to pay Michelin to come to Philadelphia? It was shocking to find out these awards are “pay to play,” but now I understand why decades of world-class dining in Philadelphia have never garnered a Michelin star until now. Is it possible James Beard awards are more highly regarded, which I doubt, since they are not pay to play.

    Michael Klein, food & dining reporter: We don’t have any idea how much Michelin was paid. As a private nonprofit, the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau does not have to release that. It’s rolled into its budget, and it likely will be rolled into unspecified marketing fees. Its most recent tax return, which covered July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, was filed in February 2025. The deal for this year’s other new Michelin city, Boston, also was not made public; one report pegged it as over $1 million for the three-year partnership. Typically, small markets and individual cities pay $70,000 to $300,000 per year, typically in three-year deals. For the 2025 American South regional guide that came out Nov. 3, cities and states across the South collectively are contributing $1.65 million per year for three years (about $4.95 million total).

    Why wasn’t Mawn recognized by the Michelin Guide? Are you surprised by fact there was no recognition for Mawn?

    Jenn Ladd, deputy food editor: Michelin’s decision-making is famously secretive, but we are operating with an informed assumption that an inspector could not get a table/reservation there (or perhaps couldn’t get more than one, since they are supposed to make repeated visits) and so did not include it. You can find more thoughts in our writers’ reactions to the Michelin picks.

    As a team, we definitely were surprised by that choice. While it’s understandable (to at least some on the food desk) that Royal Sushi’s omakase wasn’t considered due to how difficult it is to get a reservation there, Mawn’s lunch is walk-ins only. Will you have to arrive early and wait in line? Yes, but it’s not impossible to dine there without connections. Hopefully next year, Michelin’s inspectors have a longer timeline during which to consider our city’s food scene.

    Chef-owner Jesse Ito makes “Industry Chirashi” (a late night bargain chirashi they make in a plastic tub with scraps from the nigth’s omakase, at Royal sushi and Izakaya, in Philadelphia, Friday, August 11, 2023.

    Is there a general concern that higher-end restaurants will get even more expensive and perhaps “one-dimensional” in a way in striving to impress Michelin with more tasting menus and the like? What do we not want to see in prospective changes?

    JL: This is a concern we share. As Craig wrote earlier, “My only hope is that restaurateurs keep cooking from the heart, and that they don’t alter what they do simply in pursuit of a star.”

    We were heartened by the fact that Michelin gave such a spotlight to Her Place Supper Club, which had a characteristically Philly start (from Penn dorm room to BYOB pop-up residency to full-fledged restaurant). I also think there are plenty of restaurant chefs and owners in Philadelphia who aren’t aspiring to Michelin-star status, who just want to cook good food for people. I’m an admitted Michelin skeptic, but even I would have to say, I don’t think Philly will lose its restaurant-scene identity anytime soon, even if we do see more awards-bait menus.

    The bean and prosciutto-stuffed farfalle, center, at Her Place Supper Club on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024 in Philadelphia. Her Place is located at 1740 Sansom Street in Center City.

    If each of you could pick your top 5 restaurants that didn’t make any of the Michelin Philly selections, what would they be?

    Bea Forman, food & dining reporter: First off: There’s a lot more than five restaurants I wish Michelin would’ve selected. All the honorees are so deserving, but I couldn’t help but feel like the Bib Gourmand selection especially painted a white-washed version of Philly’s dining scene. They hit up at least three cheesesteak places but couldn’t find it in their hearts (or stomachs) to find a gem in Chinatown? Or a Vietnamese restaurant? Or more restaurants that speak to Philly’s rich tradition of excellent Mexican, Latino, and African food? Lame. Tomato. Tomato. My five picks for Bibs or recommendations would be:

    The Ghee Roast Dosa at Amma’s on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024.

    Hira Qureshi, food & dining reporter: I’d love to have seen these five/six restaurants get a Bib or Recommended: Amsale Cafe for their beautiful injera-lined platters with kitfo and gomen wat; Samson Kabob House for their insane chapli kababs alone; and Kabobeesh for their mutton karahi that’s just as good as my mom’s. Apricot Stone or Al-Baik Shawarma & Grill have the best hummus and falafels in Philly. And Black Dragon Takeout really does nail personality like no one else in the city.

    A saturated restaurant scene?

    There are so many good and great restaurants in the city — many moving into neighborhoods that are still deep into renovation/gentrification (i.e. near the York/Dauphin station for example), and there are quite a few empty seats especially on non-prime evenings. Is the Philly restaurant scene reaching a point of saturation?

    JL: Hard to speak for our entire team on this one, but my best guess — from years on the food beat here and from reading my colleagues’ work very closely over the past 7 years — is not a chance. Year after year, there have been more restaurant openings than the last, even post-pandemic. There IS more out-of-town interest in opening in Philadelphia (a theme that’s been building all year and is sure to play out more in 2026), which could affect our restaurant scene in all sorts of ways.

    We are seeing fewer BYOBs open and more capacious, expensive restaurants, but there are plenty of neighborhoods left in Philadelphia — I live in one! — that could use more restaurants. I for one hope that as the rents go up in the saturated neighborhoods, the scrappy entrepreneurs and chefs that have defined our culinary scene start to consider properties in those pockets of town.

    A rendering of the bar at Flueur’s, 2205 N. Front St.

    Craig LaBan, restaurant critic: I think only time will tell on this question. There is a lot of new construction going up in these very neighborhoods, and some extremely ambitious restaurants to match. I’m thinking of Fleur’s, for example, which is farther north than many of the earlier Fishtown hits. It was quite the midweek night I visited, but that is totally normal for a new restaurant. Once it starts to get press and social media buzz, if it is positive, that will change. They have to be well-capitalized to weather the storm of early months as they build their audience. If they do a good job, Philly diners will come. Restaurant-goers’ enthusiasm for excellent new places, in fact, almost always helps boost gentrification.

    Helm, for example, was one of the few destinations on its block, save for a good neighboring taqueria, when it opened there… Now it is completely surrounded by new development. Same for Que Chula es Puebla at Second and Master. The new Honeysuckle is dealing with the same dynamic on North Broad Street. It is very much a residential neighborhood in progress of being built. It’s all about timing, capitalization, and performance. So far the quality the food is there for Honeysuckle. Hopefully the business will follow.

    Restaurant recommendations

    As an old-timer, I go back to the days of the great Django with BYOs. Are there some underrated BYOBs that didn’t make your 76 list?

    JL: There are quite a few — 76 spots gets awful tight when you’re considering the full range of the Philly region’s restaurants! Illata in Grad Hospital, Little Fish in Queen Village, Helm in Kensington, and Elwood in Fishtown, not to mention a slew of suburban gems like Spring Mill Cafe in Conshy, Maize in Perkasie, Charcoal in Yardley, for starters.

    Ravioli with meatballs from Villa Di Roma on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Philadelphia .

    In addition to Dante and Luigi’s, what other old school “red gravy” joints have best survived the passage of time?

    MK: Ralph’s, Victor Cafe, Villa di Roma. You might also count Ristorante Pesto, whose owner Giovanni Varallo had the long-ago Io E Tu on Passyunk. (Craig LaBan adds: “Scannicchio’s! But technically a ‘post-red gravy’ generation restaurant, not unlike Pesto.”)

    Where are the best places in Philly for college students to eat at? (Besides food trucks)

    BF: Penn class of ’22 grad here, so I would be silly to not shout out our campus bar Smokey Joe’s for having sneakily excellent and oversized pizza and burgers. If you go for lunch or dinner early in the evening, it’s kind of the platonic ideal of a dive bar.

    Michael Wirzenberger, managing partner at Sampan Philly, mixes a scorpion bowl of cucumber margarita at the restaurant’s Graffiti Bar. Wirzenberger came up with the recipe. ( Abi Reimold / Staff Photographer )

    Otherwise, you and your friends should be taking advantage of happy hour deals throughout Philly and far, far away from your campuses. Food is cheaper that way. My faves:

    • Rosy’s Taco Bar: Happy hour is 3 – 5 p.m so it’s always been mostly other college students. Everything is $5, and deeply reliable.
    • Sampan: Very yum pan-Asian small bites all under $10. Split a scorpion bowl with your friends if everyone is of drinking age.
    • La Chinesca: This is for when you want to feel classy and cool and adult, eating tacos from a retrofitted mechanic’s shop.
    • Harp & Crown, Giuseppe & Sons, and Bud & Marilyn’s all felt the right amount of fancy for a college student for happy hour. Very solid small bites, lots of young people.

    If you are actually looking for places to to eat and not experiences with good enough food like I wanted in college, I would recommend just exploring Reading Terminal Market and a lot of the mom-and-pop or hole-in-the wall restaurants in Chinatown and the Italian Market. You’ll feel like you actually live here.

    Is it fair to say that the very best roasted duck in Philly is sold at Ting Wong on 11th Street in Chinatown??

    CL: Ting Wong reopened earlier this year after a short closing and everyone rejoiced because it’s such a neighborhood standby for Hong Kong-style noodles, soups, and BBQ meats — including a stellar roast duck. It’s still very good, but I’ve long been a bigger fan of two others in Chinatown: Siu Kee, the takeout-only duck shop just across 10th Street from Ting Wong, which supplies many of the best restaurants in Chinatown with their ducks (including Tai Lake, which I revisited this year), but also Lau Kee, a cozy little storefront on the 900 block of Race Street owned by the longtime former duck chef of Sang Kee. It’s great!

    The Peking duck is pictured at Lau Kee in Philadelphia’s Chinatown on Thursday, April 1, 2021.

    One more: While these previously mentioned shops are examples of the savory, marinated Hong Kong duck style, a newer entry called Beijing Peking Duck and Seafood Restaurant on Arch Street makes one of the best Peking-style ducks I’ve had — with a cracker-crispy golden skin that gets carved dramatically tableside. You have to order a whole duck, but it is an event worth the splurge.

    I miss Gigi Pizza and Nomad Pizza so much. Are there any casual pie spots with great sides and salads like them in Center City or in the works? Vetri Pizza is missing something lately and Pietro’s is good but Rittenhouse gets SO crowded anymore…

    MK: Gigi and Nomad had a good thing going. A little fancier is Sally at 23rd and Spruce Streets, which just was awarded a Bib Gourmand by the Michelins. Charcuterie boards, fab meatballs, really nice salads (the green salad with miso and pickled shallot), and crispy pies, like the Loud Red, whose arrabbiata sauce is perfect for the spice fans… Wilder at 20th and Sansom has a raw bar, a few salads, and seasonal wood-fired pies, like the lamb bacon…. Clarkville at 43rd and Baltimore has a warm cauliflower salad that supplements the pizza list… I’m also really fond of the new-ish Corio at 37th and Market, not only for the pizza, pasta, and salads, but the inviting vibe.

    The Zucchini Pizza and Stuffed Long Hots at Corio on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025 in Philadelphia.

    When I lived and worked in Philly in the ’90s, Caribou was near the top of my dining list. The menu still looks fine. What is your take on this restaurant?

    CL: Caribou is still kicking! This Center City standby — going on 33 years in its current Walnut Street location — had a change of ownership over a year ago, with chef Townsend Wentz’s group taking it over. I’ve not been since a solid lunch in the early weeks of Wentz’s takeover, but here’s a few basic observations: They’ve largely kept the classic brasserie vibe intact, including that fantastic long bar with its art deco statuettes, and they’ve simply made an effort to update and improve some of the classic French bistro fare. Wentz is good at that, and I loved the initial French onion soup I tasted there. But I’d like to return for a check-in. As the weather gets cold, a good stewy plate of boeuf bourguignon or a hearty choucroute garnie sounds good to me. But you never know until you go. With the unfortunate closing of Bistrot La Minette last year, Center City needs all the great French bistros it can hold onto.

  • North Catholic beat Frankford on Thanksgiving in 1978. It’s a victory the Norphans haven’t forgotten.

    North Catholic beat Frankford on Thanksgiving in 1978. It’s a victory the Norphans haven’t forgotten.

    Not long after North Catholic’s building and campus were sold in 2011, an alumnus found pieces of sports equipment in a nearby dumpster. Ruby-red helmets, game-used footballs, and faded trophies were discarded carelessly, bound for a landfill, until this anonymous Samaritan fished them out.

    To the seniors who were part of the school’s 1978 football team, these items were anything but garbage. They represented cherished memories, including the greatest of all: the 50th anniversary Thanksgiving Day game between the North Catholic Falcons and the Frankford Pioneers.

    The “Norphans” — derived from “North Catholic” and “orphans” — are determined to keep the legacy of that game alive. For decades, it was a Northeast Philadelphia tradition. The neighboring high schools, one public and one Catholic, played from 1928 to 2009, not for a state championship or a league title, but for bragging rights.

    The 50th anniversary pushed an already-intense rivalry to new heights. Eagles coach Dick Vermeil relocated his team’s practice to Franklin Field so the high schoolers could play at Veterans Stadium. Twenty-five thousand people showed up, including politicians and scores of local reporters.

    A souvenir from the Frankford-North Catholic 1978 football game. For decades, North Catholic and Frankford had a heated rivalry that played out in a Thanksgiving Day game.

    The Falcons were heavy underdogs. They’d gone 5-6 that year and had lost their previous four Thanksgiving games to Frankford. The Pioneers were a bigger team, with a renowned coach in Al Angelo, who led them to a 7-1-1 record en route to a city title in 1978.

    But North Catholic was gritty. And on Nov. 23, it pulled off an improbable win, beating its rival, 21-14, in the seniors’ final game together.

    As the Falcons walked off the field, nose tackle John Kane imagined returning for the 100th anniversary in 2028. That became impossible in 2010, when North Catholic closed because of dwindling enrollment, rendering the Thanksgiving tradition a thing of past.

    He’d never preached before. But in 1990, Jack Hibbard became the Phillies chaplain.

    But the 1978 North Catholic seniors still have remnants of that game, recovered from the dumpster. They still have the film. They still have the memories, and they still have one another. And for that, they are grateful.

    “It was the last game we’d ever play together, and we went out as a winner,” said offensive lineman Chuck Cianci. “It was our championship.”

    ‘Our Super Bowl’

    North Catholic and Frankford occupied the same swath of Northeast Philly, about a mile and a half apart. The high schools’ proximity made the Thanksgiving game a hotly contested neighborhood event.

    Kane compared it to the “Catholics and the Protestants in Northern Ireland.” Cianci said it was like “hell week.” Stories of past Thanksgiving games were passed down from generation to generation. Local children dreamed of playing in it — and quickly learned to embrace the rivalry.

    Fullback Tim Keller, then a freshman, recalled taking the bus home after the Falcons lost to the Pioneers, 12-7, in 1974. As the North Catholic bus turned off Adams Avenue and onto Roosevelt Boulevard, the Frankford bus pulled up alongside it.

    “The next thing you know, the windows came out, and the [North Catholic fans] were throwing the [bus] seats at them,” Keller said. “We lost the game and tore the bus apart.”

    North Catholic and Frankford played their Thanksgiving game at Veterans Stadium on Nov. 23, 1978.

    A police officer pulled the vehicle over. He allowed women and children to exit, but raucous students and adults spent their Thanksgiving at the 15th Police District on Levick Street.

    “The cop gets on [the bus] and says, ‘Sit down!’” Keller said. “And we’re like, ‘We can’t. There are no seats anymore.’”

    The officer took the North Catholic fans’ IDs but did not search their pockets. They smuggled a bottle of wine in and passed it from cell to cell.

    Even when the games weren’t competitive, the rivalry remained intense. North Catholic was shut out every Thanksgiving from 1975 to 1977. Frankford put up a combined 65 points over that span.

    But the Falcons entered the 1978 season with a singular focus. North Catholic coach Jeb Lynch started harping on the Thanksgiving game during the team’s summer workouts at Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales (now DeSales University).

    First-year coach K.C. Keeler is committed to Temple, Philly, and his ‘grandpa’ dance moves

    They practiced from morning until night, turning their car headlights onto the field when it became too dark to see.

    It ended up being a lackluster season. By Thanksgiving week, North Catholic had lost four consecutive games, including a 49-11 drubbing by Archbishop Ryan.

    Nevertheless, the excitement around the 50th anniversary was palpable. It was all anyone in the neighborhood talked about. Teachers and students expressed their support — some in unorthodox ways.

    North Catholic slotback Dan Galiczynski took an electronics class his senior year. He was struggling. A few days before the game, his teacher, a religious brother, offered him a lifeline.

    “The brother said, ‘Dan, all you’ve got to do is beat Frankford,’” Galiczynski said. “‘And I’ll give you a 72.’”

    (He chose 72 because it would allow Galiczynski to “barely pass” without exaggerating his electronics savvy.)

    A poster from the 1978 game brought by former North Catholic football players gathering at Dagwood’s Pub in Torresdale on Nov. 16.

    Before 1978, the Thanksgiving game had been played at Temple Stadium (which was demolished in 1997) or Franklin Field, but to commemorate the 50th, Angelo proposed that it be moved to Veterans Stadium. The city signed off on the idea and arranged for Frankford to use the Eagles’ locker room. North Catholic was to use the visitors’.

    Just before 9:45 a.m. that Thursday, the Falcons walked out of the tunnel to thousands of screaming fans. They looked up and saw friends and family in the crowd.

    Frank Correll, who played on special teams, got goose bumps.

    “We all came from small neighborhoods,” he said. “So it was overwhelming. Now you understand why these guys all come out for big football games running around and jumping. There’s a lot of energy. And this was, for our school, our Super Bowl.”

    High school heroics

    It didn’t take long for things to get contentious. Frankford fans began chanting “We don’t want turkey, we want Falcon!” Some threw whiskey bottles at North’s captains during the coin toss.

    As handles of hard liquor careened through the autumn air, tailback Harry Ulmer turned to Cianci.

    “He was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Cianci said. “That wasn’t good. That wasn’t good.”

    Despite the hostility, North Catholic got off to a promising start. Defensive back Ray Dovell recovered a fumble on Frankford’s first possession, setting the Falcons up at the Pioneers’ 21-yard line. Moments later, Ulmer rushed for a touchdown to give North Catholic an early lead.

    Frankford responded with a 60-yard touchdown drive. But a two-point conversion attempt failed, leaving North Catholic with a 7-6 lead with 10 minutes, 23 seconds left in the second quarter.

    North Catholic vs. Frankford in a Thanksgiving game at Veterans Stadium on Nov. 23, 1978.

    Then North Catholic got another break. Defensive back Joe McCourt intercepted a pass from Frankford quarterback Chris Yurkow, and ran 18 yards to reach the Pioneers’ 30-yard line.

    With less than two minutes to go in the half, North Catholic was desperate to add to its lead. But on the next three plays, the team didn’t get any closer to the end zone; it went backward, losing 6 yards.

    Now, there was only a minute remaining. North Catholic sat on the 35-yard line, too close to punt and too far for a field goal. Lynch settled on a conservative play. He wanted to run the ball.

    But Cianci had other ideas. The offensive lineman jogged into the huddle.

    “Coach just wants you to run the ball,” he said. “We’re not doing that. What do you want to do?”

    Wide receiver Tim Weidenmiller looked at quarterback Tony Daulerio. The team had practiced a tight end out-and-up play but hadn’t used it in the game yet.

    “I can beat this corner right now,” Weidenmiller told him.

    “All right,” Daulerio responded. “Let’s do that.”

    On fourth-and-16, Daulerio hit Weidenmiller for a 23-yard pass that put them at Frankford’s 12-yard line. Ulmer then ran it in for his second touchdown of the day, giving North a 14-6 lead at the half.

    In the third quarter, Frankford blocked a North Catholic field goal and recovered the ball at its own 33-yard line. The Pioneers drove 67 yards to tie the game, 14-14, with 4:04 left in the quarter.

    North Catholic vs. Frankford was a Thanksgiving game tradition. The Falcons beat the Pioneers on Nov. 23, 1978.

    Ulmer exited with a sprained ankle. Running back Dave Paul replaced him and ran 26 yards for a touchdown, but the play was called back for a clipping penalty. The ball was returned to the 29-yard line.

    Galiczynski walked over to his coach.

    “Listen,” he told Lynch. “I’m a senior. Dave Paul is a sophomore. I ran tailback my whole junior year. Put me in.”

    “Go ahead,” Lynch responded.

    Galiczynski scored two plays later. The Falcons made the extra point, giving them a 21-14 lead with 10:22 left.

    Grieving Roman Catholic coach and his family find solace in their football community

    The Pioneers had ample time to score, but North held the line. Defensive back Paul Golden finished the game by intercepting Yurkow’s Hail Mary pass with just over a minute remaining. The clock ran out. The Falcons crowd roared.

    A few players lifted Lynch on their shoulders as they triumphantly marched off the field.

    “We got to this game, in this special place, and we won it,” Cianci said. “And to look around and see the fans, and how much joy they had … it was unbelievable. We were like folk heroes.”

    A new tradition

    After graduating, the seniors from the 1978 North Catholic team went their separate ways. Some moved out of the city, some moved out of the state. But the group stayed in touch while supporting each other from afar.

    In the early 1980s, Cianci was accepted into the police academy. A few months later, he was told classes for that semester had been canceled. He had to find a new job until the academy opened up, and happened to run into Galiczynski at a local softball game in Philadelphia.

    Cianci explained his predicament.

    “Danny said, ‘You can work with me in construction,’” Cianci said. “And he put me to work until the academy called me back. That’s the kind of friendship we have.”

    Former North Catholic football players Paul Golden (from left), Tim Keller, Joe McCourt, and Mike Butler catch up on Nov. 16 at Dagwood’s Pub in Torresdale.

    In 2018, Tommy Campbell, a senior defensive tackle on the 1978 team, fell ill. He was diagnosed with amyloidosis and a rare blood disease. His heart and liver were failing him. The North Catholic graduate spent six months on life support in the intensive care unit.

    Campbell worked as a mechanic for an airline at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington. The airline’s insurance company told him it wasn’t going to cover a heart and liver transplant because of the blood disease.

    His wife, Karen, began a letter-writing campaign to persuade the insurance company to pay for the operations. Multiple members of the 1978 North Catholic team joined in.

    Linebacker Pat Jordan, a 1978 senior captain, took it a step further. He was a longtime plumber with Local 690. The union used the same insurance as Campbell, so Jordan decided to apply some pressure.

    Meet Allison Stoutland, a children’s book author and ‘Mama Bear’ to the Eagles

    “He went to the international, and said, ‘Listen, we need to do something. This is one of my best friends,’” Cianci said. “‘We’re going to call the insurance company. We’re going to threaten to pull our insurance for all union members if they don’t get this approved.’”

    The company reversed its decision and covered Campbell’s surgery. To this day, he believes his teammates saved his life.

    “These were guys I hadn’t seen in 30-35 years, coming to the plate,” Campbell said. “Everybody should be lucky enough to feel that.”

    Jordan died unexpectedly on Feb. 3. He was 63. The 1978 seniors toasted to him during a reunion last summer in North Wildwood.

    Former North Catholic football players gather together on Nov. 16.

    This is their annual tradition now. There are no more North Catholic-Frankford games to go to. The local Thanksgiving games that remain just don’t feel the same.

    So every July, the Norphans will meet at the beach before they head to Keenan’s Irish Pub. They’ll celebrate Jordan, linebacker Frank Wodjak, guard Ken McGuckin, and other fallen teammates.

    They’ll wear black-and-red polo shirts with uniform numbers stitched into their sleeves and relive a day that still feels like dream.

    “And we’ll toast,” Galiczynski said, “until the last of us is standing.”

  • Nick Sirianni just gave Kevin Patullo a vote of confidence. He didn’t have a choice.

    Nick Sirianni just gave Kevin Patullo a vote of confidence. He didn’t have a choice.

    The worst thing the Eagles can do right now is the thing that everybody wants them to do. Nick Sirianni isn’t going to do it. He has said it all season and he said it again on Monday, even though he did not need to. You don’t make a change in play-calling duties after a late afternoon road game in the week of Thanksgiving when you are scheduled to play on Friday. Even if Sirianni was entertaining the idea of demoting offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, doing it this week is almost a non-starter.

    But let’s be clear. He shouldn’t be entertaining such a move, short week or not. It doesn’t make sense on a practical level. It doesn’t make sense on a logistical level. And it certainly doesn’t make sense on an existential level, as the Eagles have seen before.

    “I feel like we’ve got the right people, as players, as coaches, that have had success, and we’re all searching for answers to make it more consistent,” Sirianni said Monday. “There’s some good things, there’s obviously some not so good things. We have to find the things that we can really hang our hat on and the complements that come off that.”

    It matters not whether you believe him, or whether he believes himself. Whatever he or you or the players think of the job Patullo has done in his first 11 games calling plays, the important thing is that he is the one who has been doing it. It has been his voice over the headset. It has been his messaging in the meetings. From a command and control perspective alone, changing coordinators this late into a season would introduce a whole new list of things that could go wrong. But what really matters is the message such a move would send.

    Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo “did a good job” of calling plays against the Cowboys, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said.

    Sirianni and the Eagles say they learned a lot of lessons a couple of years ago when their 10-1 start to the 2023 season ended with six losses in their last seven games. The biggest of those lessons is the one that so many of us can’t seem to wrap our heads around. Firing a coordinator this late into a season can do more harm than good, however much he deserves the blame.

    We all remember how the movie ended in 2023, right? When the Eagles stripped defensive coordinator Sean Desai of his play-calling duties on Dec. 17, the circumstances were remarkably similar to now. They were coming off two of their ugliest outings of the season, the second of them a 33-13 loss to the Cowboys at Dallas. But they were 10-3, still very much in the running for the top seed in the NFC playoffs, and only a few weeks removed from back-to-back statement wins over the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. The ship was hardly sinking. Then Capt. Matt Patricia took charge.

    A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    There’s a strong argument to be made that the 2023 season ended the day they demoted Desai. Up until then, the Eagles still had the confidence and swagger of a defending conference champion. They were a good team going through a rough patch. There was no reason to think otherwise.

    By demoting Desai and replacing him with Patricia, the Eagles made an unprompted announcement that things at One NovaCare Way were more dire than they seemed. From that point on, every week brought more dysfunction.

    Sirianni barely survived the fallout. It took him until last February to finally shake off the last of the weakness.

    The Eagles demoted defensive coordinator Sean Desai during the disastrous finish to their 2023 season.

    The kicker, of course, is that the defense didn’t get better. In Patricia’s first week on the job, the Eagles allowed a touchdown pass with 28 seconds left to lose a game to the Seattle Seahawks that they’d led throughout. The next week, they allowed 25 points to Tommy DeVito, Tyrod Taylor, and the Giants, with New York’s potential game-tying touchdown drive ending at the Eagles’ 26-yard line. After that, they lost a 35-31 shootout to an Arizona Cardinals team that hadn’t cracked 30 points all season.

    Demoting Patullo has even less potential upside. Anybody who would replace him is already in the building. That person would almost certainly try to do things the same way the Eagles have been doing them throughout Sirianni’s tenure as coach. Kellen Moore didn’t take the secret recipe box with him to New Orleans. He just happened to be calling plays with an offensive line that was averaging 6 yards per carry.

    Sirianni will get some ridicule for his messaging during Monday’s news conference. The worst thing you can tell an emotionally unstable Eagles fan is that everything is well.

    The head coach didn’t even go that far. He was asked if he’d considered making a change in play-calling duties. He answered definitively.

    “No, I haven’t,” Sirianni said. “Again, I think that we’re always looking for answers, as coaches we’re always looking for answers and we’re never into assigning blame, it’s just looking for answers. … It’s every piece of the puzzle: coaching, playing, execution, scheme, everything … have to be better in all of those aspects. Yesterday, I thought Kevin did a good job of calling. Obviously, he’s going to want plays back just like every player and myself, we all want plays back. … It’s never in football one thing. So, no, I haven’t considered that.”

    Eagles QB Jalen Hurts deserves criticism, but what are we arguing about?

    Anybody who calls plays for this offense is going to face the same challenges as Patullo. The Eagles have an offensive line that is missing its best player in Lane Johnson and looks incapable of the same dominance it showed on the road to a Super Bowl last season. They have a quarterback who isn’t confident enough in his arm to make the sorts of throws that Dak Prescott was making into traffic on Sunday, when the Cowboys overcame a 21-point deficit and the Eagles offense stalled for three quarters of a 24-21 Dallas win. They have a superstar wide receiver who looked like a distant third behind George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb as the best receivers on the field. They have a superstar running back who doesn’t have the same burst he did last season.

    In order for Sirianni to make a change, he would need to be reasonably confident that things would get better. If not, things would get appreciably worse. Sirianni and the Eagles would be operating from a position of weakness for the duration of the season. The worst thing they can do right now is panic. We’ve seen how that sort of thing ends.

  • Book it: The Eagles’ loss to Dallas will put their coaches under Jeffrey Lurie’s microscope

    Book it: The Eagles’ loss to Dallas will put their coaches under Jeffrey Lurie’s microscope

    There are games in the NFL that have repercussions. The Eagles’ 24-21 loss Sunday to the Cowboys — a game in which they blew a 21-point lead, throttled back their offense after taking that lead, and committed one egregious mistake after another — is likely to be one.

    Those repercussions might yet be good for the Eagles. The NFL is so parity-ridden, each team separated from the other by such small differences, that it’s possible that Sunday’s meltdown will inspire the Eagles to clean up their sloppy play, beat the Chicago Bears on Black Friday, and embark on another deep playoff run. They’re still going to win the NFC East, at a minimum. It will be difficult to call such a season, no matter its final endpoint, a complete failure.

    But Eagles chairman Jeffrey Lurie stopped judging his franchise by that standard a long time ago. Sunday’s loss went from See, the team is rounding into form to HOLY HELL EVERYONE’S WORST FEARS HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED in a matter of minutes. That sudden reversal of fortune, though, really had been the culmination of a steady accumulation of inconsistent performances, injuries to important players, and consternation both inside and outside the locker room.

    Whoever is captaining the Eagles offense — Nick Sirianni or Kevin Patullo — veered off course in loss to the Cowboys

    Those conditions are the kind that, in the past, have compelled Lurie to act. It is, of course, true that the offensive line’s decline is a huge factor in the Eagles’ overall regression, maybe the biggest factor, and that reality, one could argue, should absolve Nick Sirianni, Kevin Patullo, Jalen Hurts, and anyone else for an 8-3 team that feels like it’s 3-8. But it’s naive to think, given the nature of Sunday’s loss and the arc of this season, that Lurie isn’t taking a long, hard look at the coaching staff, Sirianni included.

    Raising such questions might seem premature or unnecessary. It’s not. There are reasons for Sirianni to be worried here — not necessarily that he’s going to be fired after the season, but that he’s more vulnerable than he once was. Nine months after winning the Super Bowl, six months after getting a contract extension, he ought to understand that, if recent history is any indication, there’s a lot at stake for him over the next 6-12 weeks. Consider:

    1) The Eagles aren’t playing offense the way Lurie has generally wanted his teams to play offense.

    This assertion is obvious, and it’s based on the Eagles’ production, or lack thereof. But it’s also based on the Eagles’ style of play.

    For years, dating to the Andy Reid era, the Eagles made their bones by remaining aggressive in their play-calling even after taking a big lead, by using analytics to set themselves apart from the rest of the league. Sometimes, it cost them games. In February 2018, it won them their first Super Bowl. Lurie loves that approach.

    The last two years, however, the Eagles have turned themselves into a full-fledged running team. Lurie is not necessarily anti-running the ball — not when it leads to the big plays and the Super Bowl victory that Saquon Barkley and that dominant offensive line delivered last season. But those plays haven’t materialized and the line hasn’t dominated this season, and Sirianni’s response has been to lean into being uber-conservative. He doesn’t call plays, no, but the offense is his, and he hasn’t prioritized piling up points. He has prioritized protecting the football, eliminating turnovers, and walking a thinner line to victory. He has tempted fate by trying to win games in a manner Lurie is inclined to reject once it fails.

    Hayes: Jerry Jones reveals who saved the Cowboys’ season; Tom Brady’s Chip Kelly problem; more Week 12 thoughts

    2) Lurie has never hesitated to insist upon coaching changes when he has thought them necessary.

    After the 2019 season, for instance, the Eagles parted ways with then-offensive coordinator Mike Groh and then-wide receivers coach Carson Walch. A year later, after the team’s disastrous 4-11-1 season in 2020, then-head coach Doug Pederson was fired.

    For the moment, Patullo is a great shield for Sirianni. Everyone knows that Patullo is the Eagles’ offensive play-caller. Everyone knows that he’s a neophyte when it comes to this role and its responsibilities. And everyone can see that the Eagles offense has not been good this season, even though it has plenty of superstar-level players to whom Lurie is paying superstar-level dollars. So if the Eagles offense remains dysfunctional — and it really hasn’t been functional at all, not to the degree it was expected to be — Patullo will be and has been the coach who bears the blame, and a layer of protection will have been removed from Sirianni.

    Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts on the sideline with head coach Nick Sirianni (right) during Sunday’s loss in Dallas.

    3) Lurie expects his franchise quarterback to grow into greatness, then remain there.

    One of the problems that the Eagles’ play-not-to-lose strategy creates for Sirianni is the implication that Hurts can’t be trusted or isn’t at his best when asked to operate a more dynamic, more daring offense. Lurie doesn’t care and doesn’t want to hear that the Eagles’ coaches feel like they have to run a Frankenstein’s monster style of offense, patching together parts from several systems just to maximize Hurts’ skill set. He wants his franchise quarterback to be worth the franchise-quarterback money he’s paying him, and if that player isn’t meeting those expectations, Lurie will greenlight a search for a replacement only as a last resort.

    Remember: Even after Carson Wentz’s horrible 2020 season, the Eagles fired Pederson first. They were willing to make it work with Wentz until they finally understood they couldn’t. Only then did they trade him.

    The Eagles had problems with the Tush Push against the Lions. Nick Sirianni has to adjust his coaching accordingly.

    4) Sirianni’s personality is different from Pederson’s, and that difference doesn’t help Sirianni.

    Pederson was a go-along-to-get-along kind of guy, at least as much of one as an NFL head coach ever is. But after he won the Super Bowl, he started to assert himself. He wrote his autobiography. He sought more power within the organization, at least with respect to his assistants. Lurie eventually disabused him of those notions.

    Sirianni is naturally more emotional and combative than Pederson. He, too, has won a Super Bowl, and his winning percentage is among the best of any head coach in league history. It’ll be interesting to see whether he’ll have to quell his assertiveness with Lurie and Howie Roseman — and if he’s able.

  • A Philadelphia jury reached $35 million verdict against Main Line Health and Penn Medicine for cancer misdiagnosis

    A Philadelphia jury reached $35 million verdict against Main Line Health and Penn Medicine for cancer misdiagnosis

    A Philadelphia jury reached $35 million verdict last week against Main Line Health and the University of Pennsylvania Health System for a cancer misdiagnosis that led a then-45-year old Philadelphia resident to undergo a total hysterectomy in 2021.

    Main Line discovered later that the biopsy slides used to make the diagnosis in February 2021 were contaminated. The cancer diagnosis was due an error that involved a second person’s DNA, not that of the plaintiff, Iris Spencer, who did not have cancer.

    Main Line settled with Spencer in 2022 for an undisclosed amount, so it won’t have to pay its share of the verdict.

    The jury found Penn and its physician, Janos Tanyi, a gynecological oncologist, liable for $12.25 million, or 35%, of the total awarded in damages for her unnecessary hysterectomy. The lawsuit said Spencer suffers from “surgically-induced menopause.”

    The lawsuit against Penn and Tanyi said the physician did not do enough to resolve a conflict between biopsy results at Main Line and those at Penn, where Spencer sought a second opinion.

    A Penn biopsy did not find cancer. Other tests were also negative, but Spencer did not know about those results.

    “The verdict affirms the central importance of the patient and the doctor’s obligation to inform the patient of all of the test results, of all of her options, and that she shouldn’t be dismissed because she’s a patient and not a doctor,” Spencer’s lawyer, Glenn A. Ellis, said Monday.

    The $35 million verdict is Philadelphia’s largest this year for medical malpractice, according to data from the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.

    Medical malpractice costs have been rising throughout healthcare. A factor in Pennsylvania is a 2023 rule change that allowed more flexibility in where cases can be filed.

    In 2023, a Philadelphia jury issued a state record $183 million verdict against the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in a birth injury case.

    A laboratory mistake

    Spencer’s troubles started in February 2021 at Main Line’s Lankenau Medical Center where her biopsy found that she had cancer in the lining of her uterus despite the lack of symptoms.

    For a second opinion, Spencer saw Tanyi at Penn a few days later. A repeat biopsy came back negative, according to Spencer’s complaint that was filed in early 2023. Tanyi also performed other tests, all of which came back negative, but he did not share that information with Spencer, the complaint says.

    After Tanyi performed the complete hysterectomy on March 8, 2021, Penn’s pathology laboratory found no cancer in the tissues that had been removed from Spencer’s body.

    That’s when Spencer, who has since moved to Georgia, went back to Lankenau seeking an explanation. Seven months later, Main Line informed her that she never had cancer.

    Main Line and Spencer subsequently “reached an amicable full and final settlement to resolve and discharge all potential claims for care involving the health system,” Main Line said in a statement. Main Line did not participate in the trial.

    Penn said in a statement: “We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict in this case that was unmoored to the evidence presented at trial on negligence and damages. Our physician reasonably relied on the pathology performed at a hospital outside our system that revealed a very aggressive cancer.”

    Penn said it plans to appeal the verdict, which could increase by more than $2 million if the court approves a motion for delay damages that Ellis filed Saturday.

  • Jerry Jones reveals who saved the Cowboys’ season; Tom Brady’s Chip Kelly problem; more Week 12 thoughts

    Jerry Jones reveals who saved the Cowboys’ season; Tom Brady’s Chip Kelly problem; more Week 12 thoughts

    It took 19 minutes for the Cowboys defense to remember it doesn’t stink anymore. Once that happened, they shut down the Eagles and saved their season.

    “If anything could go wrong, we had it happen to us, against one of the best teams there is,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

    He stood outside a jubilant home locker room in a royal blue suit, relieved that the last six weeks of the season had not been rendered meaningless. The Cowboys roared back from a 21-0 deficit Sunday and won, 24-21, on a last-second field goal.

    “We came back from it and won the game when our backs were against the wall,” Jones said.

    Their backs aren’t exactly clear of the wall, and they’ll be spotlighted for the next three weeks. They host a desperate Chiefs team Thanksgiving afternoon, visit Detroit on Thursday Night Football, then host Minnesota on Sunday Night Football.

    Frankly, after their first two-game winning streak of the season, they seem up to it.

    Marcus Hayes: A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.

    Dak Prescott threw for 354 yards and the receiving tandem of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens made unreal catches. But the 41-minute shutout the defense pitched gave the man who runs this 5-5-1 team real reason for hope.

    “A balanced effort with a defense carrying things,” Jones said, and paused. “I wouldn’t have dreamed that could have come out of my mouth six weeks ago.”

    Six weeks ago, Jones’ defense was the worst in the league. Not only had it been ravaged by short-and long-term injuries, it hadn’t recovered from the trade of edge rusher Micah Parsons to Green Bay just before the season began. That was a trade made necessary by Jones’ latest botched offseason contract talks, which also resulted in the crippling contracts of Prescott and Lamb.

    Jeff McLane: Whoever is captaining the Eagles offense — Nick Sirianni or Kevin Patullo — veered off course in loss to the Cowboys

    Further fallout: Jones had to spend first- and second-round picks in a deadline trade for Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, who went to the last three Pro Bowls. Williams, 27, is under contract through 2027, but the impact he’s made the last two weeks has been, to use Jones’ malaprop, “Incremental.”

    We’ve covered Jerrah for 35 years. He meant “instrumental.” He continued:

    “We had to have something at this level of excellence on run-stopping that he brought to the table.”

    Jeff McLane’s Eagles grades: Nick Sirianni’s conservatism; offense’s complacency costs the Birds at Dallas

    The Cowboys allowed 143.0 rushing yards per game before Williams arrived. They’ve allowed 100 yards, total, in the two games since.

    Williams was relieved that, not only did the Cowboys win, but the most significant owner in the league credited him with the recent turnaround.

    “This organization took a chance on me by trading for me,” Williams said. “The best I can do is give my all.”

    The Brady Bunch

    The NFL last October allowed Tom Brady to purchase 5% of the Raiders. Brady was not required to leave his post as the top Fox Sports NFL broadcast analyst, despite the clear conflict of interest.

    Brady has been instrumental in the hiring of staff, including retread head coach Pete Carroll and failed Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, the offensive coordinator who was fired Sunday after 11 games. The Raiders reportedly are on the hook for the remainder of Kelly’s three-year, $18 million contract, the amount it took to pry Kelly away from the coordinator job at Ohio State.

    Saquon Barkley thinks he’s ‘in a little funk’ as the Eagles fail to put a big lead away in Dallas

    More evidence that Kelly — who also failed in San Francisco — might be able to manage lesser beings in the NCAA, but he clearly lacks the depth to coach the elite, independent athletes in the NFL. Also more evidence that Brady, who reportedly met with Kelly at least twice a week to discuss strategies, is unable to manage the roles he now fills.

    The Raiders are 2-9 and also fired special teams coordinator Tom McMahon on Nov. 7.

    Colts cooled, Chiefs saved

    It was the sort of win that would have made Shane Steichen the Coach of the Year favorite and would have earned Jonathan Taylor the sort of MVP buzz that fellow running back Saquon Barkley enjoyed last season.

    Alas. The coaching award now looks destined for Mike Vrabel, who has resuscitated the Patriots (10-2).

    Instead of winning at Kansas City and further diminishing that dynasty‘s postseason odds, the Colts blew a 20-9 lead and went three-and-out in their last four possessions, including one overtime drive, as the Chiefs avoided a losing record with a 23-20 win.

    The Chiefs are 6-5 and still outside of the playoff picture due to tiebreakers. But in two weeks they play Houston, one of the teams ahead of them in the wild-card race.

    Lionhearted

    Jahmyr Gibbs’ career-high 264 yards from scrimmage, including a 69-yard touchdown run on the first play of overtime, pushed the Lions past the Giants. Like the Chiefs, the Lions are on the outside of the playoff roster looking in, but they too play one of the teams in front of them when the Packers visit Thursday to begin the Thanksgiving slate of games.

    Extra points

    Consider it stolen valor: Rookie quarterback Shedeur Sanders, Prime Time’s nepo-famous son, won his first game with a modest performance and stole the headlines from Cleveland’s defense, which recorded 10 sacks against the Raiders. … MVP favorite Drake Maye, whom Stephen A. Smith bizarrely called a “liar” for saying he doesn’t watch Smith’s ESPN morning show, First Take, led New England to its 10th win. He beat Joe Flacco and the Bengals, who plan to have franchise QB Joe Burrow back Thanksgiving night in Baltimore. Burrow has missed nine games with a toe injury, and the Bengals have now lost eight of them. Ja’Marr Chase was suspended for the game for spitting on Steelers corner Jalen Ramsey last week. … The Giants, who fired head coach Brian Daboll on Nov. 10, on Monday fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen after they blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter for the fifth time. They lost to the Lions in overtime and fell to 2-10. … The Ravens are back atop the AFC North after a fifth straight win, the last four under the helm of Lamar Jackson, who’d missed three games with a hamstring injury.

  • Temple Health says its new medical malpractice strategy is working

    Temple Health says its new medical malpractice strategy is working

    Temple University Health System‘s medical malpractice expenses have surged in the two years that ended June 30 as part of a campaign to reduce financial risk by settling old cases.

    The hope is that “aggressively” settling cases will pay off over the next few years by reducing medical malpractice expenses, Michael DiFranco, the health system’s chief accounting officer, told investors during a conference call last week on the health system’s fiscal 2025 financial results.

    Temple Health has 12,000 faculty members and employees who work mainly on five hospital campuses. Its fiscal 2025 revenue was $3.3 billion.

    Temple’s annual medical malpractice expenses increased nearly fourfold, to $117.8 million in fiscal 2025 from $31.6 million two years ago. Over the same period, it cut its reserves for future expenses by $88 million, or 22%. Temple’s reserves peaked at $402.9 million in 2023.

    Rising medical malpractice costs are reverberating throughout healthcare. Tower Health recently boosted its reserves after its auditor decided they should be higher to deal with anticipated claims. Lifecycle Wellness, a birth center in Bryn Mawr, blamed its decision to stop delivering babies in February in part on rising medical malpractice costs.

    The average number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed in Philadelphia every month has risen from 34 and 35 in the two years before the pandemic to 51 last year and 52 so far this year, according to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. In additional to lawsuits against hospitals, the tally includes litigation against physicians, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers.

    Contributing to the increase was a rule change at the beginning of 2023 that allowed more cases to be filed in Philadelphia rather than the county where an injury occurred. Malpractice lawyers say they like to file in Philadelphia because the system for trying cases is efficient. Health systems often note that Philadelphia juries sometimes award large verdicts.

    A ‘wake-up call’ at Temple

    Temple Health started rethinking its medical malpractice strategy after John Ryan started as general counsel in January 2022. A month before he started, The Inquirer published an article about three suicides at Temple Episcopal Hospital in 2020. At least two of the families sued Temple.

    “That was a wake-up call,” Ryan said in a recent interview on his approach to handling malpractice cases.

    Then in May 2023, a Philadelphia jury hit Temple with a $25.9 million verdict in a case involving a delayed diagnosis of a leg injury leading to an amputation.

    After that loss, Temple changed the kinds of outside lawyers it hires to defend it in malpractice cases, Ryan said, swapping medical malpractice specialists for commercial litigators from firms like Blank Rome, Cozen O’Connor, and Duane Morris. Such lawyers cost more, but it’s paying off, he said.

    “The settlements we’re getting from the plaintiff lawyers, because they can see that we’re serious, are much better,” Ryan said. The two Episcopal cases were settled this year for undisclosed amounts, according to court records. A birth-injury lawsuit against Temple University Hospital in federal court settled for $8 million this month.

    In 2024, a jury awarded $45 million to a teen who was shot in the neck and suffered brain damage from aspirating food soon after his release from Temple. Temple appealed and the judge who oversaw the original trial ordered a new one. That case then settled at the end of October for an undisclosed amount.

    The new approach has helped Temple reduce the number of outstanding cases at any one time to 65 or so now compared to 110 three years ago, according to Ryan.

    Temple is using the money it is saving on malpractice costs to invest in better and safer care, Ryan said. “That’s not a byproduct of all we’re trying to do as the lawyers. It’s the goal,” he said.

    Inquirer staff reporter Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.

  • Darris Nichols and his brother have one mission at La Salle: Make Explorers men’s hoops a winner

    Darris Nichols and his brother have one mission at La Salle: Make Explorers men’s hoops a winner

    Growing up in Radford, Va., basketball games between Darris and Shane Nichols almost always ended in a fight.

    Shane is two years older than Darris and was stronger and faster when they were kids. The brothers were ultracompetitive, but the tone shifted when they began to play organized basketball. The fights stopped, and they focused on pushing each other on the court.

    Darris and Shane went on to play college basketball at West Virginia and Wofford, respectively, before shifting to the sidelines. They made multiple stops at different schools as assistant coaches but never overlapped in their first decade as coaches.

    After nearly a half-century in college athletics, A-10 commish Bernadette McGlade is retiring

    That was until Darris was named Radford’s head coach in 2021 and he brought Shane with him. The pair led the Highlanders to multiple 20-win seasons, before Darris earned a new opportunity at La Salle and was named its head coach in March. Shane followed again as the associate head coach. The brothers, now in the City of Brotherly Love, are ready to lead the Explorers back to success behind a culture built on toughness.

    La Salle coach Darris Nichols conducts practice at John E. Glaser Arena on Nov. 14.

    “We value toughness before anything,” Darris said. “I think that when you have a common [theme] in college basketball where guys just leave after every year or two years, it’s hard to build toughness. So you got to recruit to it.
And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that in Year 1. So that’s kind of in our philosophy of getting in the right direction.”

    The brothers had similar coaching paths. Darris and Shane went overseas to play professionally following their college careers, but that time was short-lived.

    Darris injured both knees and Shane also got banged up. Their post-playing days were unceremonious at first, with Darris working as a valet and Shane at a sales job.

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    Shane missed basketball and spent time coaching at Radford High School, his alma mater, before returning to Radford University in 2010 as an assistant coach. Darris turned to his West Virginia coach Bob Huggins and joined his staff as a graduate assistant in 2010.

    The brothers spent the next 10 years building their profiles as assistant coaches at multiple schools. They made sure to consistently stay in touch during the season and would bounce ideas off each other and learn more about players the other may have faced.

    La Salle head coach Darris Nichols had multiple 20-win seasons in his four years at Radford University.

    “We talked every day,” Darris said. “Most of the time it was about, ‘Have you seen this player? What do you know about this? Can you send me this guy’s contact info?’
It was a lot of that going on.”

    Darris also jokingly tried his luck with poaching future NBA All-Star Ja Morant from Shane when his older brother was at Murray State, and he was at Florida.

    “When he was at Murray State, they had Ja Morant, and I called him and I said, ‘Hey, man, I’m trying to get Ja Morant to transfer.’ He said he wasn’t going to do a transfer.”

    Darris earned the head coaching job at Radford after six seasons as an assistant at Florida. Shane was coaching at Murray State at the time, and the Racers had won three straight regular-season conference championships with him on staff. Still, the decision to join forces with his brother back home was a no-brainer.

    “I wanted to come help my brother be successful, and I felt like there was nobody else in the profession that could help him do that more than me,” Shane said. “That’s just because I got his back. He can trust me, and I’m going to work hard to make sure he is successful.”

    The brothers spent the next four seasons building the Radford program together.

    Radford won 21 games in 2022-23 and 20 games in 2024-25. Darris and Shane won 68 games in their four years with the Highlanders, but a new opportunity presented itself this past offseason.

    The Nichols brothers replaced La Salle and Big 5 legendary coach Fran Dunphy, who retired after returning to coach his alma mater in 2022.

    La Salle’s head coaching job was open following the retirement of Fran Dunphy, and Darris got the offer to fill the role. The move offered a change and new challenge in his eyes, so he made the move up to 20th and Olney. Shane followed suit.

    “It was cool opportunity because most of the college jobs that I’ve been at have been in college towns or small towns,” Darris said. “So I wanted something different. Let’s coach in the college city.”

    The brothers are taking over an Explorers program that has not won more than 20 games or the Big 5 title since the 2012-13 season. Darris and Shane crafted a natural family feel at Radford and are looking to do the same at La Salle.

    “Throughout the years with the teams we’ve had is just being able to mold and really build them, and they take on our mentality to the game,” Shane said. “You see it toward the middle and end of the year where they buy into the toughness piece. They buy into the togetherness piece. Right now, our guys are doing that. We just got to keep molding that, building that, and making it stronger.”

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