They basically gave him a bonus for winning the Super Bowl.
Per Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport:
Foles' deal was about hooking him up after his performance in the postseason. It is not a reflection of the team's feeling on Wentz's recovery. They remain confident he's working his way back.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 20, 2018
To add to @MikeGarafolo’s report on the raise for #Eagles QB Nick Foles: He got a $2M signing bonus and several millions in incentives if he’s the starter and hits various benchmarks, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 20, 2018
Foles was originally set to earn $7 million this season, the second year of a two-year contract.
It’s another player-friendly move via Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas. Earlier this offseason they revised Stefen Wisniewski’s contract to reward him with $250k from a missed playing time incentive. Chris Long is also returning to the Birds, reportedly with a revised deal.
In other contract tweaks, Lane Johnson’s deal was restructured. Zach Ertz also agreed to a restructure.
If you do one thing this weekend, carve out 45 minutes to watch this video, which is filled with exclusive locker room stuff that we hadn’t seen before.
It’s on Youtube:
Some schlub in the comments section didn’t like the “Worst of Philadelphia” bracket because he/she thought it was “a dumb series of posts that only enhance the negative views of the city.”
Congratulations to he/she for being the only person to take the bracket seriously, and for also lacking a sense of humor.
But I realize that a three-week competition to determine the worst things about Philly is intrinsically negative, and Crossing Broad is a website that was founded on fair and balanced journalism.
So in the interest of equilibrium, and also just to prove that I’m not a total asshole, I whipped this up:
Looks like a pretty good field to me.
I think I’d have to assign “Eagles Super Bowl champs” as the overall #1 seed. I could definitely see “it’s not New York” coming out of the bottom left region. Ron Brooks is a JUGGERNAUT on the other side of the bracket and I think “easy to walk and bike” would do some damage. Seriously, have you ever been to Atlanta or Los Angeles? You can’t walk or bike anywhere. Those cities are just big plastic suburbs.
Anyway, I think it’s important that we show positivity, objectivity, and fairness in our journalism, which I hope we’ve accomplished here.
It was 127 to 108 with four seconds remaining last night when Dario Saric drove to the rim for a layup attempt.
He was cut off and blocked by Kelly Olynyk, a hard downward slap but nothing truly malicious, as the Heat center/power foward looked to keep the homie from extending a 19-point lead with an easy garbage time bucket.
The play began with a defensive rebound and quick transition up the court. The Sixers could have easily just walked it up and run out the clock, but they did this instead:
Asshole play? Or totally fair?
You see a bit of a stare from Olynyk. He’s not giving that up at the end of the game, and I don’t blame him.
Not since Game 3 of the Flyers-Penguins 2012 series has an opponent stooped to this level of thuggery in an attempt to beat a Philly team. Granted, prior to last year, it had been since 2012 that a Philly team was relevant and warranted such tactics, but that’s beside the point. The Miami Heat are playing like asswipes, not talented enough to compete with the Sixers on merit and thus stooping to bully-ball tactics to throw the Sixers off their game.
It worked in Game 2. Last night, however, the Sixers imposed their will, stepped on the gas, and left the overmatched Heat in the dust.
The Heat are playing playground ball. A mix of also-rans and unheard-ofs, they clutch and grab and call their own fouls, clearly disregarding the spirit of the rules when they intentionally foul any player who gains a step toward the basket. Goran Dragic is the pain in the ass nerdy kid who shows up and punks his way to 20 and invites you to punch him in the face, even if you’re somewhat jealous of his abilities. Wade, who has settled on resting bitch face in old age, gets into the act by testing the restraint of younger players when he LITERALLY PULLS THEM OUT OF BOUNDS HOW IS IT THE NATIONAL CREW ON TNT FOUND NOTHING WRONG HERE:
Justin Anderson and Dwyane Wade going at it. pic.twitter.com/jD7qaOTyfB
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) April 19, 2018
I have never seen that before in basketball. Sure, you’ve seen players tangled up, occasionally yank each other. You’ve seen the post-whistle fracas. But you just don’t see a player get tugged out of bounds while play is going on. Wade wanted to get under Anderson’s skin. It worked, but it also fired a laser into Anderson’s vortex and put him in that Porsche defensive position.
But while Wade’s tactics may have seemed more calculated than emotional, this post-game quote would lead you to believe that Anderson has invaded at least a small portion of Wade’s innards:
Wade said Justin Anderson brought in by 76ers as "tough guy" and refs wouldn't do anything about it so he had to.
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) April 20, 2018
Anderson, who looked like he was ready for a fun a night at the hotel bar during a business retreat, wasn’t tripping: Continue Reading
I felt like I needed a cigarette after that game, and I don’t even smoke.
Talk about a slug fest; we watched two teams exchange blow after blow and come back for more. There was fouling and clutching and yelling and jawing and scrapping and one guy even grabbed another dude by the arm and pulled him off the court. Another guy stepped on someone’s goggles and we also saw the Slovenian guy flex at the Italian guy in some sort of 2013 EuroBasket redux beef.
Through all of that, the Sixers never really truly seemed as nervous as fans on social media. Miami successfully junked it up, slowed down the game, and got the whistles blowing, but the Sixers found an answer for everything thrown at them. They answered physicality with their own physicality. They countered a 48.5% three point mark with a 52.9% effort of their own. They ratcheted up the defense, got some stops, and then just showed their superior talent in what became a 20 point win.
If one thing stands out more than anything, it’s obviously the performance of Joel Embiid, who went for 23, 7, and 4 in his first game since March 28th. Specifically, it was Brett Brown’s decision to give Embiid 30 minutes and allow him to shake off a 0-5 start from the field, which Joel turned into a 5-11 overall mark and 10-15 effort from the foul line. He was typically stout on the defensive end and blocked and altered shots that Miami had been converting in games one and two.
Go down the list and you find contributions across the board. Dario Saric put up 21 points. Ben Simmons went for 19, 12, and 7. Marco Belinelli hit some big shots early to keep Miami from building a lead. The entire team only turned it over 12 times and showed a lot of mental fortitude out there.
All of those things add up to a really nice road win. These are the types of games where young guys learn what playoff basketball is all about.
This, I imagine, is what the Phillies had in mind when they signed Jake Arrieta to a three-year deal worth $75 million in early March:
Jake Arrieta, Wicked 79mph Curveball (grip/release/spin). 🤢
Looks like Jake got in his time machine and traveled back to 2015. Watch out. pic.twitter.com/clpqlUlnL1
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 20, 2018
Here’s the line on Arrieta’s masterful performance of what was a scorching-hot Pittsburgh Pirates team before last night:
7IP, 1H, 2BB, 10K
Now look, you can read more traditional takes about his dominant performance on pretty much any site today. But I want to provide something different for you, loyal reader, so here’s the deal. I will mention that Arrieta retired 17 of the last 18 overwhelmed and defeated Pirates hitters he faced. That the only hit he allowed was an infield single. That his stuff was filthy, evidenced by the 14 swings and misses he generated last night. That is five more than his previous first two starts combined. Such details are salient, but allow me to regale you in a different way. See this garden hose reel?
Yeah, you do. Well, if you said to me, “Hey nerd, relax with the numbers, just give me a weird carnal metaphor to describe what happened last night,” I would say, “Wow. That’s aggressive. I thought you would never ask.” And I would just show you that reel. And then I would tell you the hose represents Arrieta, and for 97 pitches over seven dominant innings, Arrieta cranked that reel’s handle and unfurled his sizable being all over the Pirates. The hose never overlapped or tangled, forcing him to wind it back up, as they sometimes do. Nay, it was a seamless and breathtaking demonstration.
Look at this: Continue Reading
Joel Embiid answered questions about whether the Sixers were a better team without him last night.
They’re not.
In his masked return, the center was a little rusty, but he led a fourth quarter close-out with 23 points, four assists, and seven rebounds in a 128-108 win to give the Sixers a 2-1 series lead.
Some Heat players tried to stop Embiid and his terror by breaking his crazy mask. But The Process had the last laugh:
“It was just about I think Justise [Winslow] stepped on it, and tried to break it with his hands. Little did they know I have about 50 of them, so it’s going to take much more than that to get me out of the series. I’m going to be a nightmare for them too.”
The Embiid beef with Hassan Whiteside was fun to watch in the regular season. Now, Justise Winslow might be starting a beef with the center:
Winslow 🖐Embiid ➡️ Embiid 🖐Winslow pic.twitter.com/8DUQwP9blY
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 20, 2018
Marco Belinelli and Dario Saric each had very impressive games, scoring 21 points each and hitting four 3s. Ben Simmons had a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds along with seven assists.
We also saw a new wrinkle from Brett Brown in the form of Justin Anderson. He played some very tough defense, especially against Dwyane Wade in the second quarter. That began the physicality and chippiness that would last throughout the game.
Goran Dragic scored 23 points to lead the Heat, while Dwyane Wade was much quieter with eight points, his fewest this series.
Game 4 is tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 PM on NBC Sports Philadelphia and TNT. We’ll see what new challenge it will bring to the Sixers.
But Kevin Hart did get his message through in South Beach:
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) April 19, 2018
The Roundup:
Continue Reading
