He can purchase every Bryce Harper replica shirt on the shelf.
He can drag out his Allen Iverson throw-back.
He can rock the shirts of his players.
He hasn’t done the museum steps thing yet, but Nick Sirianni can do that too, if that’s how he thinks he can show how he cares about Philadelphia sports fans.
Just remember the words-actions equation before buying into the act. And remember the stunt he pulled Thursday, and how it exposed every one of those photo-op dress-up games as flimsy.
Major story abridged, 69,979 people paid heavily to watch Sirianni coach the Eagles to a victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Another several million paid to watch the game gallantly streamed. Yet when Sirianni was pinched interrupting an obvious sideline altercation between a $255,000,000 quarterback and a $100,000,000 wide receiver, he first denied knowing anything about it.
Quickly realizing that – who’d have guessed? – there was some video evidence, he went Category 5 homina-homina-homina before making this declaration: “You don’t need to know what was going on right there.”
You – you over there. You don’t need to know! You got that? You.
So that’s what Sirianni thinks of the fans – that they must know only what he deems necessary for them to know. And that should have been clear weeks earlier, when he steadfastly refused to make a decent effort to treat similarly large Linc crowds to one meaningful preseason offensive play. Nope. His business was more important than their business.
Sirianni can coach his team his way. Win – and he does – and the customers will approve anything. But the Panderer in Chief’s act has been exposed. He wants Philadelphia fans to mind their business. And no matter how bright, no red Phillies cap is going to cover that up.
• That out of the way, the deeper issue: A.J. Brown.
In what situation is it acceptable for one player in the middle of a victory to challenge his quarterback about anything on the sideline?
“I think everybody wants to make plays and everybody wants to contribute,” Jalen Hurts said. “I have no worry about him. He’s a great player, a great teammate, a great friend, and we’ll do anything and everything to win.”
Great player? Yes.
Great friend? If Hurts says so, his word is good.
But a great teammate? Really? Didn’t he force the Tennessee Titans to trade him in a contract dispute? And if he would do anything to win, then why didn’t he just continue with whatever plan it was that was helping the Eagles win at the time?
• • •
I don’t get any diner that doesn’t stay open 24 hours.
• • •
Philadelphia sports fans deserve better than being told to quietly run along. But they can do better themselves in certain situations.
For instance, they should have gotten off the Phillies’ backs for a message on the Phanavision screen last week congratulating the Atlanta Braves for their NL East championship.
While not all fans complained about that harmless display of sportsmanship, enough did on various platforms to reinforce their overstated image as unreasonable slobs.
The Braves won the division. Well done. The way it is setting up, the Phillies will likely have a chance to run them out of the playoffs. If that happens in Atlanta, they would appreciate a similar electronic golf clap.
Of course, there is one other way for the Phillies to avoid all of it: Don’t go a dozen years – and counting – without finishing in first place.
• Sounds like Charlie Manuel is recovering nicely from a stroke he suffered Saturday. That’s wonderful news for as popular an individual who has represented Philadelphia in major-league sports in this century. As for the Phillies, they should consider it a reminder that whenever the numbers of Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Cole Hamels are retired, they will be out of place if Manuel’s No. 41 is not retired, too.
• • •
You get those cheesesteak short-order cooks who badger out-of-town customers about the proper way to order?
• • •
Danny Green is back with the Sixers. That’s the same Danny Green who couldn’t play the first time he was here, is 36 years old and once summoned the cheek to scold Philadelphia fans for the way they treat players.
Who says Daryl Morey hasn’t had an Executive of the Year-level offseason?
And speaking of which…
• Absolutely up to here already with Deion Sanders. He has three – three of ’em, three – career wins as the coach of a major-college football program, yet the TV curators of all sports relevance already have elevated him to must-follow status.
Check back when he wins a conference championship, survives the negative recruiting through multiple cycles, endures a losing streak, forms a successful coaching tree, reaches multiple bowl games and develop pros. That is, check back in 2032.
• There’s a documentary out about Jason Kelce and his brother, Travis Kelce. About bloody time they are being recognized. They have flown below the radar way too long.
• • •
Extra celery sticks, please, with those Buffalo wings.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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