First and final thoughts, rapid-fire style \u2026<\/p>\n
The NFL is reportedly considering scheduling a game on Thanksgiving Eve as soon as this season<\/a>, and the only appropriate question to ask is, why stop there?<\/p>\n There are now three games each Thanksgiving and three games each Christmas, and we already have Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football, and there are always a couple of games on the last Saturday before Christmas, and the Eagles and Bears even played on Black Friday last year. So it\u2019s only a matter of time before the league forms the Tuesday Night Football Club, with Sheryl Crow performing at halftime.<\/p>\n Soon enough, a regular season that is now 17 games will be 18 games, which means that, soon enough, the Super Bowl<\/a> will be pushed back to the weekend before Presidents Day. And who knows where the big game will be played? Could be New Orleans. Could be Tampa. Could be London. Could be Mexico City. Could be Hamburg or Hangzhou. Maybe Roger Goodell won\u2019t tell anyone until the week of the game, just to see how far we\u2019ll fly and how high we\u2019ll jump for our fix. Think of it: We\u2019ll go right from the Super Bowl to the Scouting Combine to free agency to the draft to the start of training camp to a new, souped-up regular season with at least one game on every night of the week.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Murphy: It\u2019s time to admit what the Eagles have been telling us all along during this free agency period<\/a><\/p>\n And all this will unfold, of course, without putting the men who play an already brutal sport at any greater risk for their immediate and long-term health, without diluting the product to the point that the games grow as sloppy and unwatchable as a high school JV team\u2019s first practice, without ruining the best thing that pro football has going for it. When everything is available to everyone instantaneously all the time, scarcity is a precious commodity, maybe the most precious. The NFL seems bent on testing that truth. \u2026<\/p>\n Between the 38-plus minutes Tyrese Maxey<\/a> was logging every night and his recent remarks about the 76ers\u2019 sagging play and morale, I began picturing him as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. I wondered what would break first: his spirit or his body<\/a>. Guess we got our answer. \u2026<\/p>\n Never met the man, but I\u2019m willing to bet that Mark DeRosa would be surprised to learn that football games can end in ties. \u2026<\/p>\n If Dan Hurley coached in Philadelphia, his team \u2014 whether the Sixers or one of the Big 5 programs \u2014 would instantly become the most interesting one in town. Just for his presence and personality. \u2026<\/p>\n Former Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas, now with the Anaheim Ducks, knocked out Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews for the rest of the season with a knee-on-knee hit Thursday night. The only thing more outrageous than Gudas\u2019 action is the NHL\u2019s spinelessness in suspending him for just five games.<\/p>\n Those familiar with Gudas\u2019 tenure in Philadelphia, from 2015 to 2019, should have simply shaken their heads at his familiar and continued dirty play. He was suspended four times during that four-year stretch with the Flyers for a combined 21 games<\/a>. Slashing, high-sticking, targeting an opponent\u2019s head: Gudas did it all and more.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has proved to be \u2026 a cheap-shot aficionado,\u201d I wrote about him in February 2016, \u201creckless, careless, damaging to the Flyers\u2019 chances of winning and to other athletes\u2019 health and safety, a player who can\u2019t be trusted by either his teammates or his opponents to play a tough, clean game.\u201d<\/p>\n A decade later, nothing has changed. \u2026<\/p>\n The Atlantic 10 held its men\u2019s postseason basketball tournament in Pittsburgh this week, because when you think of A-10 hoops and history, the first thing you think of is \u2026 Duquesne?<\/p>\n A note to all Philly-area parents of children and teenagers who love basketball: If you have the means and opportunity, buy a couple of train tickets for yourself and your sons and daughters, hop on Amtrak or New Jersey Transit up to Penn Station, and take your kids to a game at the Big East Tournament.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Villanova\u2019s bad Big East tournament loss shouldn\u2019t mar Kevin Willard\u2019s good work. Just ask Dan Hurley.<\/a><\/p>\n Thursday night\u2019s quarterfinals were, as usual, sold out \u2014 19,000-plus in Madison Square Garden loud and locked in and creating a remarkable atmosphere for games and rivalries that matter. Nothing this week or even the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament<\/a> comes close. It\u2019s a remarkable event, it always is, and it\u2019s a two-hour trip away, maybe less. Too many people from the Philadelphia region act as if New York City is on the dark side of the moon. Two hours is nothing. Two hours is a drive down to Sea Isle City<\/a> or up to the Poconos. Go. It\u2019s great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First and final thoughts, rapid-fire style \u2026 The NFL is reportedly considering scheduling a game on Thanksgiving Eve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,209635,82],"class_list":["post-535687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-schedule-thanksgiving-eve-flyers-radko-gudas-big-east-tournament","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}