Philly Sports Jabronis

With two consecutive wins, largely in the hands of backup quarterback Nick Foles, the Eagles are showing signs of actually being able to win a division title — even if it is the NFC Least. This week’s showdown with Dallas is for the current rights to first place, and the fans aren’t taking that lightly. Neither are the Jabronis. We’ll talk about the Cowboys we love to hate, some of our favorite moments throughout the course of one of football’s greatest rivalries and, of course, our predictions for the game. We’ll also try to wrap our hands around the season-long Flyers debacle that somehow seems to get worse and throw out some love to the Philadelphia Union, which still could turn out to be the only local team to make it into the 2013 postseason.

The year of upheaval in Philadelphia continues to continue. The Flyers set an unprecedented record for short-leashing this week with their belligerent firing of coach Peter Laviolette after just three games into the 2013-14 season. Yeah, they were all losses, but WTF? Aside from sending shock throughout the organization and city, the move also has raised serious questions about the culture of the franchise and the faculties of owner Ed Snider. Are the Flyers really best off with his aggressive style of management or does his love for the team really hinder his ability to set it up for sustained success? With the Eagles, the season is at least temporarily back on track with their win in New York last week. Tied for first in the futile NFC East, the Birds really have a chance to take command of the division with a trip to the struggling Buccaneers of Tampa Bay before squaring up for a potential showdown for division supremacy against them Cowboys! But is a quasi quarterback controversy in the making after the injury to Michael Vick and subsequent game-clinching performance by Nick Foles against the G-Men? We’ll discuss!

The U.S. Government is shutting down, but the Jabronis are staying put! As we head into the first matchup between the Eagles and the New York Giants this weekend, the Birds’ season is quickly sinking into an abyss. This Sunday’s game could end a lot of relevancy to the still-young 2013 season should another loss ensue, and the Jabronis are here to talk about what crisis mode could look like for the fan base. How much of a grace period does/should Chip Kelly get? Are we headed for a QB controversy? How lame is it that a once prominent NFC East has become a laughing stock of the NFL? On the bright side is the optimism (somewhat) that still exists for the Flyers. Just how much optimism is healthy to hold for the Orange and Black? Could it really be that the best thing to look forward to this season is a predetermined disaster for the Sixers in hopes that they bottom out and get a No. 1 draft pick? Don’t forget about the Union; soccer playoffs may be the only postseason we get to see the rest of the year. Tune in to vent your own frustrations or, who knows, maybe even talk politics. What’s the deal with that governmental shutdown, anyway? Eh, we don’t need ‘em. One Nation, Under Jabonis!

Get your friggin’ Jabroni on, it’s Friday. We’ll be spitting game for an hour, rapping about everything from why Eagles fans shouldn’t hit the panic button on Chip Kelly, which quarterbacks could help them in the 2014 draft and throw out some MLB postseason predictions. Oh and hey, ‘Do you ever wonder why baseball doesn’t have cheerleaders?” Well, we did — and still do — and we’ll talk about live land unadulterated. Jabroni Joe, my loyal sidekick and partner in Jabroni-ness, has been chasing down our fantasy football money in Las Vegas. He’ll be checking in live from the casino floor with updates from the sports book. We’re going to get him to place some bets — on the Birds, of course — and help him track down the ghost of Elvis.

There are generally three subjects that you shouldn’t talk about in the city of Philadelphia unless you’re ready for a debate: religion, politics and the career of Donovan McNabb. On Sept. 20, the Philly Sports Jabronis are discussing one of them. You already know which. The Philadelphia Eagles will be retiring the No. 5 jersey of their former franchise quarterback the evening before during a capacity crowd at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia. For most, the sentiment and the ceremony will be much obliged. However, there still remains a definite segment of the Eagles fan base that never warmed to him. Where does his legacy stand today? The Jabronis and their listeners will debate just that.

It’s Friday the 13th in Philadelphia, and the Philly Sports Jabronis are hoping the football gods aren’t throwing any black cats or ladders across our paths after our frightful predictions of how the Eagles’ recent trip to Washington, DC would play out. We’re ready to conduct our penance, and will even open up the phone lines for our listeners to suggest ways that we can atone for our horrific, albeit objective, opinions during last week’s show. We’ll attempt our Week 2 predictions as well, talk about the all-too-poetic timing of a string of recent bad luck by the Flyers and, naturally, provide an ode to the 13th by dishing on some of our personal superstitions as they relate to sports and real life.

Football is back! The NFL season officially kicked off in Denver Thursday night and the Philly Sports Jabronis couldn’t be any more turned up. How the hell did we make it through the past eight months without the NFL? Anyway, the long wait is over and we’re here to break down the entire Eagles schedule from Week 1 (looking like it might be a blowout in D.C.) all the way down to the finale in Big D. We’ll cap wins and losses, predict breakout stars and busts, and maybe even dust off the pom-poms and do some cheers … wait, what!? Disregard that last part unless you are a hot college student looking for an internship. All this discussion and more with the Philly Sports Jabronis, recently nominated for the PHL 17 Philly Hot List — voting ends Sept. 6.

One of the greatest athletes to ever don a Philadelphia uniform, Allen Iverson, is set to retire—and the Philly Sports Jabronis aren’t handling it well. How could one of our most iconic (and, yes, controversial) athletes not go out in a blaze of glory? With no NBA championship to bookend his electrifying career, it seems like the legend of AI will always remain a tad unwritten. Or, um, we’ll always be looking for “answers” as to why the latter stage of his career was so chaotic. But, fear not, we have at least one solution—get this guy a statue outside the Wells Fargo Center. We’ll discuss other star athletes who should be given the same honor. And maybe those who shouldn’t! Of course, we can’t ignore the suddenly resurgent Phillies and the Chip Kelly-led Eagles. All this and more with the Philly Sports Jabronis, who were recently nominated for the PHL 17 Philly Hot List!

Summer is coming to an end, which really means three things: the baseball season is winding down, the kids are going back to school and the older kids are conducting fantasy football drafts. Thank God for the Philly Sports Jabronis, who are taking fantasy football to a whole new level — we’re letting our fans help us pick our teams live during our show! Several lucky contestants will be selected to play in our Fantasy Football “Fan”tasy, with prizes to be won and reputations to be ruined. All fantasy players will want to be a part of this, and all you have to do to sign up is visit our Facebook page. Yes, we also conduct some Philly sports talk; most notably the start of the Ryne Sandberg era, the re-start of the Michael Vick and whatever else is popping. Join us!

The winds of speculated change are blowing in Philadelphia. The Sixers (finally!) have a new coach, the Eagles’ new coach is supposedly this much closer to naming the “new” quarterback for 2013, and now that Charlie Manuel has earned his heart-warming 1,000th career win, the rumor persists that he will be relieved of his Phillies managerial duties as soon as the season ends. Thank goodness for the stability of the Philly Sports Jabronis, who will celebrate their 1-month anniversary by trying to determine how much longer we can last in Philadelphia beyond the aforementioned guys and by paying homage to the “other” great duos in Philly sports history. We’ll also divulge our favorite summer vacation spots, and we may even spin another yarn or two about anything else we damn well please. Philly’s Finest Sambonis One of the stars from the upcoming fourth season of the popular Food Network program “The Great Food Truck Race,” Joe Toner (photo, center) of the team Philly’s Finest Sambonis will join the Jabronis to talk about his team’s newfound fame, on-the-road experience and what exactly it is that makes the Philly samboni a cheese steak to be reckoned with. Fresh off the heels of his team’s appearance on ABC's “Good Morning America,” Toner will share with listeners the story of how a couple of guys from Northeast Philly landed such a gig, give a sneak peak of what we can expect from the show, which airs each Sunday beginning Aug. 18, and maybe even eat a sandwich live on air. And, yeah, we’ll be sure to grill him during our interview. Bring a hearty appetite to this week’s show with us!

The Philadelphia Eagles kickoff their 2013 preseason schedule live in Philly during our episode, and the Jabronis will be there to look up stats on the Internet and share with listeners. Oh, wait, you people don’t need us for that! But you do need to hear our opinions on how this team can or cannot be successful with their fourth- and fifth-string wide receivers being relied on at an unprecedented rate to this point. Hmmm, maybe one of us will get summoned to take the field the way things are looking? Or maybe Jonathan Papelbon will get a shot since he doesn’t seem to want to be a Phillie anymore and doesn’t remember how to close out games. And when’s the last time any athlete in Philly has so quickly worn out their welcome in this town as Papelbon? Maybe Antonio Bastardo? Probably not high-profile enough, huh? Are some fans seriously not happy that Chase Utley has been extended by the Phillies? Are these people drinking bleach or something? We’ll be here to debate it, and encourage you to debate with us!

The MLB trading deadline has come and gone, and the Philly Sports Jabronis are here to dissect (and probably dispute and debate) what went down. Or, what didn’t go down in Philly, to be more accurate! The Phillies have quickly sunken into a black hole, thanks to their recent losing streak—effectively terminating a season that once seemed full of promise. Luckily for Philly sports fans, there’s more football going around. The Eagles creep closer to the start of preseason, which leaves much to discuss related to who their starting quarterback should be and how they’re going to rebound after some devastating player injuries. Which receiver will crawl out of the woodwork to replace Jeremy Maclin? Speaking or receivers, what was Riley Cooper thinking? And of all places, a country concert?! The Philly Soul are headed for the playoffs and we’ll have star wideout Anthony Tiger Jones on to talk shop and his team’s chances at a long postseason run. And, will the Sixers ever, and we mean EVER, hire a coach? We’ll also answer some fan mail we’ve received and maybe find the time to be belligerent. We'll also touch on Curt Schilling's induction onto the Phillies Wall of Fame and his chances at the Baseball HOF. Jabroni it up with us!

It’s been a bit of a cruel summer in Philadelphia, and we aren’t just talking about the transition from rain-soaked to sun-stroking days. The baseball team has been playing only tantalizing well enough to make you think they can make the postseason, the football team doesn’t have a starting quarterback and the basketball team doesn’t have a head coach (they have uniforms and everything else, though, supposedly. Oh, and the hockey team has made some nice front office and on-ice changes to move past last season’s debacle ASAP, but, um, how soon until they lace up again? Still, as training camp approaches for the Eagles, and the Phillies continue to toe the line of contention, and the Sixers comb outer space for a general, there’s plenty to discuss, dissect and debate. Cue the Philly Sports Jabronis.