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Chip Kelly delivers a football to fallen police officer Robert Wilson’s son. Somewhere, Stephen A. Smith screams nothingees into a camera.

And here we are, one of the greatest sports weeks of the year… as long as you didn’t go to Temple.

Let’s hit it!

 

But first, a word from our sponsors:

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Tickets. The best deals on NCAA Tournament tickets rounded up at Crossing Broad Tickets.

 

The roundup:

Peter King writes about Chip Kelly using Jimmy Johnson as a mentor of sorts (oh I am enjoying the plight of the Cowboys fan so much right now):

“Does Kelly remind you of you, 25 years ago?” I asked Johnson the other day.

“Well, in some ways,” Johnson said. “I really like what I have seen out of Chip Kelly. Chip called me and we visited a couple times, and what I heard from him, I liked. No one can say from the outside—right moves, wrong moves. You gotta let ’em play out. You won’t know until you see the results. I felt I was right when I did the things I did, but who knew? I traded away my starting quarterback, Steve Pelluer, to Kansas City. The leading receiver, I don’t remember his name [it was Ray Alexander] we got rid of. I talked to Danny White, and he retired. Then I traded Herschel Walker. You can’t be afraid to make moves. Chip’s not. So some of it is similar. But there is one big difference: We were the worst team in the league two years in a row [1988, 1989]. People were ready for a big change.

“The similarities? We’re both confident, both competent, both know how to win. We talked after he got the new responsibilities this year. I just said, ‘Go with people you believe in, and go with players who fit your personality and fit your system.’ I have talked to Bill Belichick about this too. Certain players are going to be successful in his system and not in others.”

King went on to write about Sam Bradford and his rehab– he’s flying to Philly today to get started up here. King made a passing mention that there’s an outside chance Chip could move up to take Mariota. And then there was this line about the Cowboys:

America’s (Punching Bag) Team: the Cowboys. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. This is exactly what happened in Dallas with the DeMarco Murray situation: The Cowboys, pre-free-agency, set a soft limit on Murray—$5 million per year on a four-year deal. When the money started getting out of sight in Oakland and later in Philadelphia, the Cowboys stretched to $6 million, on average (four years, $24 million). When the Eagles got to an $8.5-million average, with $21 million guaranteed, the Cowboys never thought about matching. In fact, the Cowboys weren’t particularly in mourning about it, other than the fact that they loved Murray the player and Murray the person and would have liked to have him back on their terms. In the old days, impetuous Jerry Jones would have written the check he’d have to write to keep Murray. But Jones and son/club COO Stephen Jones have grown through a series of contracts that bit them (Marion Barber, Demarcus Ware, Anthony Spencer), and they’re determined to not get cap-strapped again. The same way they were mature enough to pass on Johnny Manziel for Zack Martin in round one last year is the way they handled Murray.

To be honest, I didn’t read the rest after America’s Punching Bag. But that’s really all that was needed.

Love this NY Times risk-adjusted bracket with more points awarded for crazier picks.

FiveThirtyEight’s fancy, numbery-wizardy NCAA tournament predictions, and Nova is looking good!

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H/T to (@AlexFairview)

Meanwhile, Mike Hume of the Washington Post, predictably a Georgetown grad…

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…doesn’t like Villanova’s chances and, quite likely, probably didn’t watch a minute of their games this year except the two against Georgetown (one of which was a loss):

Meanwhile, 35.4 percent of their points come from behind the arc, the second most of any major-conference NCAA tournament team. Only one team in the top 50 of that stat category has reached the Final Four since 2006 – the Cinderella VCU Rams of 2011. Last season, four teams ranked in the top 50 and were ranked as No. 3 seeds or better – only one (Michigan) saw the second weekend of the tournament. The 2014 Wildcats were among that group.

Go pound Pecoats.

LOVE this analogy from Chip Kelly expert and Havard grad Mark Saltveit:

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So… is that dress green and yellow or Sam Bradford? I see green and yellow:

Photo credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

That you, Leslie?

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DeMarco Murray booed at UFC in Dallas. Those classy Cowboys fans:

H/T to legendary CB reader (@Banditmax)

And the accompanying Eagles suck chants.

Jay Wright getting soaked in the Knicks locker room Saturday night. Best team to grace that confined space this year.

Sports on Earth’s rootability guide:

6. Villanova. It is bizarre, how much Villanova has slid under everyone’s radar this season. This is a signature college basketball school, with tons of history, a charismatic head coach and a fun, lively brand of basketball. Yet no one seems to have noticed them until about a week ago. Some people blame the Big East’s deal with Fox Sports 1 for the low profile, but that channel is not difficult to find on the dial: If you haven’t gotten on the Villanova Is Great bandwagon, that’s your fault, not theirs.

Concur.

Karen Rodgers and Ginger Zee SKYROCKETING into your heart:

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My dad is going to need a timeout after this one.

And this is probably how Dick Vitale ends:

Five reasons why the Eagles are playoff bound.

SI Swimsuit Rookie of the Year.

Marcus Mariota is visiting the Bucs today. Just a tease, I’m sure.

 

Liberty Broadcast

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New episode of Glen Macnow and Joe Sixpack’s fantastic craft beer podcast, Bar Talk, up now. Perhaps lost in the Eagles last week was our interview with Brett Brown on Crossing Streams. On BGN Radio, the guys recap the Eagles’ moves– their most listened to show ever. And more. LibertyBroadcast.co.