Josh Harris escapes unscathed; Jerry Jones whiffs; Jeff Stoutland shines; Bills get Bill-ed: NFL championship weekend

It might turn out that, in the short run, the Commanders losing to the Eagles in Philadelphia in the NFC championship game was a blessing for Josh Harris. He has never been less popular in the city where he went to college.

Harris leads the group that owns both the NFL’s Washington franchise, NFC East rivals of the Eagles, and the 76ers (as well as the NHL’s New Jersey Devils). Harris and the Sixers, now in the 12th season of their failed lose-to-win strategy called ”The Process,” are 10 games below .500 after committing more than $400 million to Paul George and Joel Embiid, 30-something stars who have been, and who continue to be, perpetually injured. Harris and the Sixers spent the past two years in a divisive campaign demanding a downtown arena, but when they got approval they abruptly reversed course and negotiated co-development of an arena and will stay in South Philly.

If Harris and the Commanders had won Sunday, he might not have made it out of Lincoln Financial Field. Certainly, his attendance at Tuesday and Wednesday’s Sixers home games — he sits in a prominent courtside seat near the bench — would have been, at the very least, interesting.

Harris might just be delaying the inevitable. The Commanders are going to be a problem for a long time, from quarterback Jayden Daniels, the favorite to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, to Dan Quinn, who should win Coach of the Year, and general manager Adam Peters, who was superb in his first year on the job.

“I am proud of everyone. We have a great future ahead,” Harris told Front Office Sports as he left the Commanders’ locker room, anonymous and unmolested.

For now.

Maybe Jerry Jones just wants to keep his late Januarys free. Maybe he’s a big fan of the Australian Open. Because the guy he just hired, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, to succeed his last bad hire, Mike McCarthy, will make sure that Jones has nothing to do in the weeks preceding the Super Bowl.

Since Barry Switzer in 1995 exhausted the benefits of the afterglow of Jimmy Johnson’s tenure as head coach, Jones has employed a circus of Cowboys coaches: Chan Gailey, who told the Cowboys to not draft Randy Moss; Dave Campo; Bill Parcells, who’d retired twice; Wade Phillips, who’d been fired twice; clap-happy offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, who hasn’t gotten another head coaching job since; and McCarthy, who hasn’t even gotten an interview this hiring season. They’ve gone a combined 5-13 in the playoffs and haven’t reached the NFC championship game in 30 years.

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts quiets haters and leads the Eagles back to the Super Bowl

Jones hired Schottenheimer over Leslie Frazier, Robert Saleh, and, incredibly, Eagles OC Kellen Moore, whom Jones nurtured as an assistant in Dallas and who NFL sources told me was a shoo-in for the job if he wanted it, and reports have since surfaced that he wanted it.

Must’ve been a really bad interview.

At any rate, Godspeed to Schottenheimer, who is a decent fellow, if not typical head-coaching material. He’s a 51-year-old nepo-hire — he worked for his father, Marty, three times early in his career — who has never been a head coach and has never lasted anywhere for long: He’s been an assistant with nine NFL teams and three colleges. He’d had one official NFL head-coaching interview in his life before Jones gave him the job.

Jeff Stoutland, the best assistant coach in Eagles history, did it again.

1. He prepared left guard Landon Dickerson to play center in place of Cam Jurgens, who didn’t start due to a bad back. Dickerson was pretty good.

2. He prepared backup Tyler Steen to play left guard, where Steen was good enough.

3. He went back to Jurgens in the second half after Dickerson left with a knee injury.

Still, the Eagles gave up just two sacks while throwing the ball 28 times and had 229 rushing yards.

» READ MORE: ‘He’s a warrior’: Cam Jurgens plays through injury in Eagles’ NFC title win, gets Jason Kelce’s seal of approval

I spent the first four years of my career covering the Bills part-time, from 1990-93, when they lost four consecutive Super Bowls. I’ve experienced the depths of Western New York malaise. Buckle up, folks.

Because now we get to spend the next six months hearing Buffalo Bills fans (and NFL conspiracists) whine about how the referees screwed the Bills and favored the Chiefs after the Bills’ failed fourth-and-1 try at the Chiefs’ 41-yard line with 13 minutes to play ... while ignoring how Josh Allen went 1-for-4 on the Bills’ last possession, or how he ran that quarterback sneak like a prima ballerina.

Here’s a thought: Don’t leave it in the hands of the officials.

At any rate, this incident only reinforces the argument that the RFID chips that already are implanted in NFL footballs — yep, they’ve tracked the balls for motion and air pressure since 2017 — should be used to help officials determine whether the ball has crossed the line-to-gain or has entered end zone. The argument against it is that the current location capabilities are accurate only to within 6 inches, but that’s done by triangulation; incorporating complementary mobile devices along the sideline, perhaps at the base of the existing and archaic devices, which are two sticks connected by a 10-yard chain.

So, instead of laser accuracy determining the outcome of million-dollar games and the careers of million-dollar athletes, we get two officials — 50-year-old, part-time employees — running in from 25 yards away, from opposite sidelines, and guesstimating the location of an 11-inch, 15-ounce object among 5,500 pounds of 22 sweaty, writhing, angry men.

Brilliant.

There are numerous Philly-KC associations, chief among them Andy Reid, coordinators Matt Nagy and Steve Spagnuolo, and GM Brett Veach, who all worked for Jeffrey Lurie at one time. But the most intriguing connections are running backs coach Todd Pinkston, who played wide receiver for the Eagles from 2000-04, and, of course, Carson Wentz, the franchise quarterback who forced a trade from Philly after the 2020 season, failed as a starter in Indianapolis and Washington, and served as a backup for the Rams in 2023 and, this season, for the Chiefs.

» READ MORE: Carson Wentz’s second act has him back in the Super Bowl as Patrick Mahomes’ backup: ‘It’s been a journey’