Rams’ Jared Verse hates Eagles fans, Jalen Hurts doesn’t need his right arm, and other thoughts
It is completely unremarkable that someone who grew up in Berwick like Verse did wouldn’t like or would feel no connection to the Eagles.
First and final thoughts …
So Rams linebacker Jared Verse spoke to the Los Angeles Times the other day about his distaste for Eagles fans. Actually, distaste is too soft a word to describe Verse’s sentiments.
“I hate Eagles fans,” he told the Times. “They’re so annoying. I hate Eagles fans.”
That initial story and the online aggregations of it have included a detail that is supposed to provide some context to Verse’s quotes: that he “attended three years of high school in Pennsylvania.” Which is true. Verse was born in Berwick and attended Central Columbia High School. Which is roughly 125 miles northwest of Philadelphia. Which means that the implication that Verse was somehow throwing shade at his hometown team and its fans could hardly be further from the truth.
It is completely unremarkable that someone who grew up where Verse grew up wouldn’t like or would feel no connection to a Philadelphia sports franchise. In Berwick, in Bloomsburg, in Scranton, in those towns and hamlets in northeastern or central Pennsylvania, football fans are as likely, if not more likely, to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New York Jets, the New York Giants, or even the Syracuse Orange as they are to cheer on the Eagles.
Berwick is not Philly. Berwick is not even Berwyn. This reality is worth remembering or, if you’re from outside the Delaware Valley, maybe learning for the first time. The crowd at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday will probably be worked up over Verse’s comments. But nobody should be all that surprised that he felt that way.
To throw or not to throw
The question of whether the Eagles win because of Jalen Hurts, in spite of Jalen Hurts, or just with Jalen Hurts has become the primary point of debate around them entering their divisional-round matchup Sunday against the Rams. And for good reason.
No matter what you think about Hurts and his performance as the Eagles’ quarterback (He doesn’t throw enough for them to win the Super Bowl … He can’t throw well enough for them to win the Super Bowl … He can throw the ball just fine; they just don’t need to have him pass that much to win the Super Bowl), it’s striking to peruse the numbers and see just how little the Eagles have relied on his arm.
Hurts threw 24.1 passes a game during the 2024 regular season. That is, by far, the lowest average of his career; even as a first-time starter in 2021, he threw 28.8 times a game. Compared with previous Eagles QBs in the modern age, it’s a complete outlier.
In 2019, his last full season as the Eagles’ starter, Carson Wentz passed the ball more than 37 times a game. In 2017, among Wentz, Nick Foles, and Nate Sudfeld, the Eagles averaged more than 35 passes. In 2015, Sam Bradford — no one’s idea of a QB who should be the centerpiece of an elite offense — threw the ball 38 times a game.
Granted, with the exception of the 2017-18 Super Bowl champions, those Eagles teams trailed more frequently than this season’s team has. So it’s natural that those quarterbacks would throw more often. Still, there’s no denying that, if the ‘24-25 Eagles end up winning the whole thing, they’ll probably have broken from the franchise’s recent history in doing so.
Paying TK
Travis Konecny hasn’t missed any of the Flyers’ 46 games, spends more than 20 minutes on the ice per night, is on pace for 35 goals and 94 points, and is a plus player on a team that ahead of Friday had given up 17 more goals than it had scored. Danny Brière and Keith Jones still have plenty to do to shape the Flyers into a genuine Stanley Cup contender, but signing Konecny in July to that eight-year contract looks, at least so far, to be a smart decision.
March Sadness?
Villanova’s back-to-back losses to St. John’s and Xavier — on the heels of its two-point win over UConn last week — have increased the likelihood that no Big Five men’s basketball team will qualify for this year’s NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats, who were 11-7 heading into their Friday night game against Providence, weren’t even among the teams “on the bubble” in bracketology expert Joe Lunardi’s most recent projections.
Assuming that Villanova or no other city team sneaks into the tournament, this will be the third straight season that no Big Five squad has made it. And if ’Nova can’t make it, which local team can? In the era of name, image, and likeness and pay-for-play, it will only be harder for programs such as St. Joe’s and La Salle to keep up with the big dogs. A tradition once taken for granted — that the Philly hoops community would have some connection to March Madness each year — might be ending.