:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59971323/usa_today_10580098.0.jpg)
Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...
The 46th Annual Jefferson Awards
NFL player Chris Long has dedicated himself to supporting bright futures for communities and the individuals that make up those communities as Chairman of the Chris Long Foundation. In 2017, he donated his entire salary to education initiatives to help generate opportunity for underserved youth. He is a two-time Super Bowl champion.
Report: Carson Wentz is ‘shockingly ahead of schedule’ in his recovery - BGN
NFL insider Chris Mortensen appeared on ESPN’s NFL Live on Tuesday afternoon and said Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz is ‘shockingly ahead of schedule’ in his recovery from ACL/LCL injury.
Live At The Fillmore for Opening Tap - BGN Radio
John Barchard, Brandon Lee Gowton, James Seltzer, Vince Quinn and Matt Dering were all hanging out at the Opening Tap Festival live at The Fillmore in Philly as they drank some fabulous beers and chatted about the Birds. Will Foles start any games? Is there anything great about the NFC East teams? We discuss it all on this BGNR episode.
WATCH: PhillyVoice’s Jimmy Kempski talks Eagles vs. Trump on MSNBC - PhillyVoice
On Tuesday afternoon, amid controversy left and right regarding the Eagles and their non-visit to the White House after their Super Bowl LII win — after not kneeling for the National Anthem (while being accused of doing so) and having the President of the United States say that the Eagles are “abandoning their fans,” PhillyVoice’s own Jimmy Kempski was invited not once, but twice to appear on MSNBC to discuss the news of the day. First, to lead their 1 p.m. hour, Jimmy was included during MSNBC’s Craig Melvin’s discussion of the Eagles situation, with Pennsylvania congressman Brendan Boyle and former RNC chairman Michael Steele.
Back to Football - Iggles Blitz
The Eagles and Cowboys both had to deal with key injuries. The Eagles kept right on winning. Dallas fell apart. The Cowboys had some talented backups, but they didn’t play well. Part of that is due to practice. In Philly, players pushed each other. Coaches pushed players. Duce Staley was tough on Corey Clement. That helped him get ready for the season and he closed it out by having a great game in the Super Bowl. We’ve heard stories about how good OL Josh Andrews, CB De’Vante Bausby and DE Steven Means were in practice.
White House drama could have destroyed other teams … but not these Eagles - NBC Sports Philadelphia
That’s why this was all so special. This wasn’t just a football team winning games. This was a unique bunch of young men thrown together under a coach who had been booed out of town two decades earlier working together to accomplish something they kept being told was impossible. And they did it together every step of the way. This is bigger than football. The Eagles taught us some pretty basic but important life lessons about working together, overcoming adversity, the sum being greater than the parts, and never giving up no matter how stacked the odds. Winning football games was awesome, but the fashion they did it in made this maybe the most beloved sports team in our city’s history. And what we’ve seen since the season ended has only reinforced what the season brought us.
What Eagles’ canceled White House visit means, and what’s next - ESPN
What will the NFL do? Ride it out? For now, at least, it’s probably the owners’ only option. It might be more constructive for the NFL to strategize on how best to deal with Trump’s criticism rather than try to eliminate it.
At The NovaCare Complex, It’s All About Football - PE.com
The doors at the NovaCare Complex opened on Tuesday and in came the football team to do football things on a designated Phase 2 day of Organized Team Activities: They learned in the classroom. They conditioned. They did some light stuff on the field. In other words, the Eagles are back to the new normal in so many ways. Twenty-four hours earlier, plans were being made to visit the White House, part of the tradition of being the Super Bowl champions. Many weeks and hours were spent honing logistics and arranging the bus-to-train-to-bus-to-White House trip and return to Philadelphia, but then plans changed on Monday night and the Eagles, honestly, brushed it all off and got back to football. There are no distractions. The only goal is to repeat as Super Bowl champions in 2018.
Report: Foles was only confirmed Eagles player set to visit White House - The Score
The Philadelphia Eagles’ White House contingent would apparently have been a party of one, as quarterback Nick Foles was the only player planning to attend the ceremony, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.
Who Is the NFL’s Next Nelson Agholor? - The Ringer
The Eagles wide receiver looked like a draft bust until he broke out last year. The league has plenty of young wideouts who also have yet to find their footing … which one is set up to rebound?
The candidates to be 2018’s No. 1 fantasy tight end - PFF
Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles. Odds: 7/1 For the first time during his five-year NFL career, Ertz finished inside the top five in 2017, at third at the position. The numbers he had last year were nearly identical to his previous two seasons except for touchdowns. He scored a career-high eight times last year after scoring just four times in 2016 and twice the season before that. Over his past three campaigns Ertz has averaged 103 targets, 75.7 receptions, and 831 receiving yards. After years of teasing fantasy owners with his potential, things finally came together for the 27-year-old. With the Eagles’ offense flying high for the foreseeable future, Ertz will remain a highly coveted fantasy asset.
2017 Passing Plus-Minus - Football Outsiders
Most of the old guard takes up the top 13 spots, but the young guns who should shape the next decade of the league are tightly bunched together after that. We are referring to Dak Prescott (+4.4), Marcus Mariota (+3.2), Deshaun Watson (+2.9), Jared Goff (+2.8), and Carson Wentz (-3.5). Goff’s placement relative to his offense’s success is still pretty average, and we will see part of why that is next week when we look at YAC+. However, it’s still a massive improvement over his rookie season when he was -18.8 on just 186 passes. Wentz has had two minus seasons so far, but he is similar to Cam Newton in playing style. The fantastic throw after a scramble is always a possibility, but so is the overthrow on a routine play. Newton was -16.8 after two years, but did improve to +6.2 in his 2013 season
Don’t Be Fooled: President Trump Is Using NFL as Distraction for Bigger Issues Surrounding White House - Sports Illustrated
Yes, the President knows this sort of thing is red meat for his base. Sticking it to uppity black millionaires has been good for business since the first cretin came up with the lie that the first black president wasn’t born in this country, and well before that even. But that’s not what Monday’s statement was about. This was play-action. This was John Elway faking the handoff to a migraine-addled Terrell Davis in the Super Bowl. This was Dan Marino faking the spike and tossing it into the waiting hands of Mark Ingram Sr.
It feels safe to take the over on the 2018 Cowboys - Blogging The Boys
Bovada has set the Cowboys projected win total for the 2018 season at 8.5 This puts us in a classic over/under situation. Where do you fall? Do you see the Cowboys matching 2017’s production as a floor, or will they regress and fall back to their 8-8 woes at best?
Giants announce GM Dave Gettleman will start treatment for lymphoma - Big Blue View
[BLG Note: Get well soon, Mr. Gettleman.]
LeBron James says neither Cavs or Warriors would visit White House - Fear The Sword
“So it’s not surprising hearing the news today with the Eagles. But I think more importantly, as Americans and especially people in Philadelphia, we shouldn’t let that news take away from what that unbelievable team did and accomplished, what all those players did to sacrifice throughout each and every Sunday, going out and playing the style of football that they played and winning a Super Bowl the way they won it. Let’s not let that accomplishment of things that you will have for the rest of your life, and people will always call you a champion for the rest of your life, let’s not let someone uninviting you to their house take away from that moment. Because I think the championship — winning a Super Bowl or winning a Stanley Cup or winning a World Series or winning an NBA Championship or National Championship — is way bigger than getting invited to the White House, especially with him in there, in my opinion.”
Several Bears scratching their heads over feud between Eagles, President Trump - Chicago Tribune
Acho cited a favorite adage of his: “People are going to tell you who they are; it’s up to you to believe them or not. So there has to come a point where you start believing who someone is and who they’re not. … An apple tree doesn’t produce oranges. Apple trees make apples. So if you start looking at somebody’s fruit, you start realizing, OK, I’m no longer surprised. I’d be a fool to be surprised.”
Roger Goodell and the NFL have no one to blame for Donald Trump’s attacks but themselves - SB Nation
The story of Roger Goodell’s father standing up to the Nixon Administration as a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War was a popular anecdote for sportswriters last fall. Charles Goodell, a Republican senator from New York, appointed to fill the seat left vacant in the wake of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, had his political career torpedoed by a vile, corrupt president and his allies for taking a stand against an unpopular war. It made for a fitting comparison at a time when the NFL commissioner and the owners took the rare step of supporting, or at least declining to punish, players who took a knee during the national anthem to raise awareness of the injustices facing black and brown people in this country, players the president called “sons of bitches.” Charles Goodell never wavered in his opposition to the war. However, anyone who knows anything about the league knew that the younger Goodell wouldn’t have the same strength of his convictions. The NFL under Goodell never seems to do anything right.
...
Social Media Information:
BGN Facebook Page: Click here to like our page
BGN Twitter: Follow @BleedingGreen
BGN Radio Twitter: Follow @BGN_Radio
BGN Radio Facebook: Click here to like our page
BGN Radio Patreon: Support the show!
BGN Manager: Brandon Lee Gowton: Follow @BrandonGowton