Temple kicked off its much-anticipated 2026 season on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. While many of the program’s burning questions remain unanswered, the Owls still delivered a strong performance in nearly every facet of the game to fuel a 38-14 win over FCS opponent Rhode Island.
Temple paired balanced production from both quarterback contenders with a breakout performance in the backfield, while its defense stymied the defending Coastal Athletic Association champions in the second half.
“We did a really good job at keeping them down in the second half,” said Owls coach K.C. Keeler. “We held them to a second-half shutout, and I’m happy with a lot of parts of this performance.”
Hunter Smith (29) runs through Rhode Island’s defense during the first half of Saturday’s game.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The quarterback rotation
After an offseason of speculation about which quarterback would take the field for Temple, Keeler went with both — Jaxon Smolik at quarterback and Ajani Sheppard at running back.
Smolik shuffled the ball to Sheppard, who made the on-the-run throw to Colin Chase, who took it 21 yards.
That set up a 19-yard run from Keveun Mason, which was followed by an 18-yard strike from Smolik to Jayce Freeman, putting the Owls up, 7-0, with not even three minutes into the first quarter.
Temple quarterback Jaxon Smolik (14) runs as Rhode Island’s Trey Lubin looks to make a tackle on Saturday. Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The Owls scored two more times in the half, with Smolik having control on all three scoring drives.
Both Sheppard-led drives in the first half ended with punts, while Smolik’s inaugural drive of the second was thwarted when the Penn State transfer fumbled trying to escape a sack.
“It’s an ongoing competition,” said Keeler. “It would be a disservice to those guys for me to name anyone right now. That’s [offensive coordinator] Tyler [Walker’s] job, and he’s handling that.”
Sheppard went on to lead the Owls’ only scoring drive of the second half.
Defensive tone
Since the onset of spring camp, offensive and defensive coaches alike have praised Temple’s defense at every chance.
The Owls’ defense backed up that praise in their first opportunity of the season. After letting up a touchdown on Rhode Island’s opening drive, Temple forced two punts and saw sophomore Jamarcus Pierre take a 35-yard interception into the end zone to take a 17-7 lead.
The second half began with Tyree Alualu putting an end to the Rams’ first drive with any promise when he gave Temple its second pick-six of the day, taking the score back 63 yards and claiming a 38-14 lead.
Jordan Montgomery forced a fumble recovered by Bryson Goodwin late in the game, as the defense finished with three turnovers.
Second-team walk-on linebacker Reggie Jones, who has grown a social media following for his series, “Road to One Tackle,” got in on the defensive festivities as well and recorded his first career tackle, taking down Rams wideout Marquise Buchanan on a short crossing route midway through the fourth quarter.
Keveun Mason (center) scored twice against Rhode Island on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The Keveun Mason game
Projected first-team running back Sam Brown sat out of the Owls’ opening game despite being a full participant in team warm-ups, paving the way for Mason to receive the bulk of the snaps.
Mason carried the ball 20 times and broke off a couple of big runs early before punching in his first score of the year from one yard out to give Temple a 24-14 halftime lead just before time expired.
Mason added another score in the second half, running through a couple of defenders to find the end zone. He’d finish the day with 158 yards and two touchdowns.
Up next
Temple will prep for its much-anticipated home matchup with Penn State when the Nittany Lions visit South Philadelphia on Sept. 12 (noon, ESPN).
The Flyers and goaltenders go together like oil and water. But it hasn’t always been that way.
Original Flyer and franchise icon Bernie Parent backstopped the team to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and ‘75 with arguably the best two-year run by a goalie in NHL history. But fast forward 51 years, and the Flyers are still waiting to hoist Lord Stanley again, and still searching for a franchise goaltender who can hold a candle to the man that Philadelphians joked saved almost as much as the Lord.
There have been aspirants along the way: Pelle Lindbergh tragically died just as he was entering his prime. Ron Hextall never quite reached the hype of his Conn Smythe-winning rookie season. Future Hall of Famer Sergei Bobrovsky was shipped out in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov, and most recently Carter Hart’s promising start here ended in disgrace.
That brings us to the next great hope to solve the Flyers’ longstanding conundrum in the crease: Dan Vladař.
Signed to a two-year, $6.7 million contract before last season, the 29-year-old career backup was a revelation for the Flyers, finishing sixth in Vezina Trophy voting and leading the team to an improbable run to the second round of the playoffs. For his efforts, the Flyers rewarded Vladař this summer with a five-year, $27.5 million extension, one that will pay the Czech netminder through his age-34 season.
Given Vladař’s exploits and the Flyers’ perpetual void between the pipes, you’d have expected his extension to be greeted warmly. Instead, due to his age and short track record, it has become a point of contention among the faithful. Here’s a closer look at Vladař’s new deal and why it was a no-brainer from a Flyers perspective.
Vladař’s the team’s most important player
Why were the Flyers so eager to extend Vladař even with a year remaining on his contract? Well, to start, he was really bleeping good.
Among goalies who started 40 games last season, Vladař ranked third in goals-against average (2.42), tied for eighth in save percentage (.906), was ninth in goals saved above expected (13.8), second in quality start percentage (72.5%), and third in even-strength save percentage (.923). He was even better in the postseason, leading all qualified goalies in save percentage (.922) and ranking second in goals-against average (2.18) and goals saved above expected per 60 (.805), according to Money Puck.
Dan Vladař came to Philly to prove he can be a No. 1 goalie. He passed that test with flying colors in Year 1.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
For a Flyers franchise that has recycled goalies like soda cans over the years, and that was just one year removed from posting a historically bad .879 team save percentage among Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov, Vladař stabilized the problem position beyond imagination and showed he was capable of handling the workload of a No. 1. He also demonstrated the calm demeanor and bounceback ability needed to play the much-scrutinized position in a city like Philadelphia.
But what if he is a one-year wonder?
While never a full-time starter, the 6-foot-5 Vladař showed promising signs before last season and was well regarded in the goalie analytics community. He posted a .906 save percentage in 23 games in 2022-23, and in his final year with the Flames, he ranked 18th in the NHL in even-strength save percentage (.913), only to be done in by the league’s 25th-ranked penalty kill. That’s not to say anyone expected a top-10 Vezina glow up, just that he’s long been a solid NHL netminder.
Vladař’s value to the Flyers goes beyond his play in the crease as well, as, rather atypically for a goalie, he was a team leader and a prominent voice in the dressing room. Rick Tocchet and several of his teammates praised his positivity in tough moments, while Owen Tippett said he’d “never played with a goalie that’s been that vocal, both on the ice [and] off.”
“Dan Vladař wanted to be a Flyer,” general manager Danny Brière said on July 1. “He was adamant … when you have your MVP from the previous year who says,’ I want to be here, this is my team, I want to lead this team,’ it made it really easy for us to [sign him] — especially at the number that we got [him at].”
The force (environment) is strong in Philly
As good as Vladař was, and anyone who watched him last season will vouch that he was excellent, he was also helped by the way the Flyers played.
The Flyers were one of the league’s best shot suppression teams, surrendering just 25.5 per game, the fourth-best mark in the NHL. That correlated to high-danger shots as well, as the Flyers allowed the fourth-fewest high-danger chances at five-on-five and had the fourth-fewest expected goals allowed mark, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Flyers general manager Danny Brière is confident Dan Vladař can live up to his new contract extension.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
This was no fluke either, as Tocchet is a defense-first coach who has a track record of keeping opposing teams’ shots to the outside and insulating his goaltenders. Thatcher Demko came second in Vezina voting during Tocchet’s time in Vancouver, while the Arizona Coyotes ranked in the top five in team save percentage in two of Tocchet’s four years in the desert.
The Flyers upgrading the backup position with a starting-caliber goaltender in Joseph Woll should also only help Vladař. Last season, the gap in quality between Vladař and Ersson was so vast that the Flyers were forced to overplay Vladař, especially as they pushed for the playoffs late in the year. Woll, 28, comes with durability concerns, but if he’s healthy, he’s a .906 goalie for his career and someone who should allow the Flyers to divide the 84 games up more evenly and keep Vladař fresh.
While many are harping that Vladař is over the hill, he only turned 29 in August and should still have a lot of good hockey in front of him.
Being 29 as a goalie is not nearly the same as being 29 as a skater, as many goalies’ primes run into their early-to-mid-30s. In fact, five of the last six Vezina winners have been 29 or older, while each of the top four goalies in save percentage last season was at least 29.
Like with a starting pitcher, Vladař should also age more gracefully than most given he’s been relatively healthy throughout his career and has an extremely low number of games under his belt for someone his age. Theoretically, the lower number of miles on Vladař’s speedometer should mean his body is fresher and less taxed than the typical 29-year-old netminder.
For context, Vladař has started 156 games (including playoffs) entering his age-29 season. That number pales in comparison to contemporaries like Andrei Vasilevskiy (535), Connor Hellebuyck (407), Igor Shesterkin (252), and Ilya Sorokin (202) at that age — the latter two also had 117 and 244 Kontinental Hockey League games played, respectively, before coming to North America. How little has Vladař played comparatively? Jake Oettinger, who is entering his 28-year-old season, has already started 365 games, and Jeremy Swayman (27) has 261 under his belt.
Flyers goaltender Dan Vladař established himself as a leader on and off the ice in his first season in Philadelphia.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Those numbers all bode well for a goalie who started 51 games last year in the regular season and all 10 in the playoffs after previously never starting more than 29 in a season. Vladař did so without showing any signs of fatigue or his play dropping off, case in point being his stellar play in Round 2 vs. Carolina.
All these factors make a five-year contract, at a below-market average annual value of $5.5 million per year, a good bet for the goalie-starved Flyers. When his contract kicks in after next season, Vladař will only rank 21st in terms of goaltender AAV. If he continues to play anywhere like he did last year, when he finished sixth in the Vezina and even received MVP votes, for even half this deal, that would represent one heck of a bargain and maybe, just maybe, another parade down Broad Street some day.
Never mind the 85-degree heat and 65% humidity. If you focused on everything else — Sánchez vs. Sale; Game 1 of seven, albeit over two weekends; a jam-packed ballpark — you might have sworn this was October.
Instead, call it what it was: a dress rehearsal.
Because even if the Phillies don’t run down the Braves for the division crown — and it got considerably more difficult after a 5-2 loss Friday night that widened the deficit to five games with 21 to play — they remain firmly in postseason position after 2½ torrid weeks in August.
“It’s not the way we wanted to start the series,” said Alec Bohm, who doubled and homered against Braves ace Chris Sale in only the Phillies’ fourth loss in 19 games. “Obviously we understand it’s a big series, and if we come in here and have a really good series, we can shake some things up a little bit, put ourselves in a really good spot.”
At minimum, these four games and three next weekend in Atlanta will gauge how the Phillies match up against the National League’s elite. And after one game, two familiar concerns arose:
Bullpen.
Defense.
Take the first one first. Cristopher Sánchez gave up three runs in the second inning but battened down the hatches and got through six. The Phillies cut into the Braves’ lead and were trailing, 3-2, in the eighth when Orion Kerkering ran in from the bullpen.
Three batters later, it was 5-2.
With one out, Kerkering got ahead of pinch-hitting Mike Yastrzemski but was unable to put him away. He walked him on six pitches, then hung a sweeper to Mauricio Dubón.
“Just a breaking ball that sat there,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “It looked like the first [pitch], he got him [for a called strike], then threw another one. Probably didn’t want it to be on that side of the plate.”
In the playoffs, it might’ve been Jonathan Bowlan on the mound in that situation. But Mattingly didn’t want to use Bowlan after the big righty pitched on back-to-back days this week in Arizona.
window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});
Besides, Kerkering remains among the high-leverage arms in the Phillies’ stable. They will need him next month, just as they did the last three postseasons.
There will be angst about Kerkering until there isn’t. As a rookie in 2023, he had a hand in the tide-turning bullpen meltdowns in back-to-back games in Arizona in the NL Championship Series. Last year, he made the ill-fated throwing error that ended the season at Dodger Stadium.
Mattingly wasn’t here for that. Even so, he has ridden the Kerkering coaster. Through two months, the righty scarcely allowed a run. He struggled to throw strikes after the All-Star break, but seemed to be back on track until allowing five runs in his last four appearances.
“I think his stuff’s good,” Mattingly said. “The biggest trouble for me has been a little bit of the walks and just not making the pitch when he needs it. But I like his stuff. He’s one of our better arms in almost any situation.”
Sánchez stumbled in the second inning, allowing a leadoff walk to Lane Thomas and a single to Dubón. But the Braves didn’t score until Bryce Harper overran Austin Riley’s soft one-out single through the right side.
Maybe the Braves would’ve broken through anyway. But instead of the bases being loaded with one out, Thomas scored on the play. Two more runs came in on a groundout and Ronald Acuña Jr.’s two-out single.
But there will be uneasiness about the Phillies’ defense until there isn’t.
In spite of it all, and amid the challenge of facing Sale, the Phillies had chances to tie the game.
They left a runner on third base in the fifth inning and Arraez on second after a leadoff double in the sixth. Bohm grounded out before Edmundo Sosa and Bryan De La Cruz — righty hitters who were in the lineup to offer a platoon advantage against Sale — struck out.
“He did what all the greats do and found his way out of it,” Bohm said. “Made pitches. Sometimes you’ve got to tip the cap. We did enough to get to him, but we didn’t get the big hit when we really needed it.”
Maybe next week in Atlanta. Or next month. This wasn’t the postseason yet. As Sánchez said through a team interpreter after the Phillies lost for only the third time in 17 games when he starts at home, “You feel it here when it’s a playoff game.”
window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});
It doesn’t feel like that. Not yet.
“We’re not in, not guaranteed anything,” Mattingly said, “so every game’s pressure at this point, pretty much the rest of the way.”
It won’t be a lost season for Aidan Miller, after all.
Miller, the Phillies’ top position player prospect, is scheduled to play five innings at shortstop Saturday for low-A Clearwater, a major league source said Friday night. The 22-year-old hasn’t played this season because of a low back condition.
The Phillies have been vague about Miller’s progress since his spinal procedure in early June. But minor league director Luke Murton signaled an impending return to the field in an appearance Friday on Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast.
“Things are progressing very well,” Murton said. “I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver, but there may be a surprise in the near future. I’ll say that.”
The Phillies hoped Miller would make his major league debut this season and even placed his spring training locker between Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto. But low back pain that cropped up late last season flared up in February. He didn’t resume swinging a bat until last month.
Miller tentatively is slated to make up for lost at-bats by playing in the Arizona Fall League, another source said Friday, but rosters have not been announced.
With Clearwater having qualified for the Florida State League playoffs, which begin next week, Miller could remain with the team beyond the weekend. There will be additional playing time available in double A or triple A, with those seasons not ending until Sept. 13 and Sept. 20, respectively.
Aidan Miller is among the top prospects in the Phillies’ farm system.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
When Miller’s back pain didn’t subside with rest, he saw multiple spine specialists and was diagnosed with discogenic pain and facet inflammation in the lumbar spine, according to the Phillies in June. He underwent a radiofrequency ablation of the facet joints, a procedure described by the Phillies as “minimally invasive.”
It’s unclear whether Miller will have to manage the condition throughout his career.
“As far as the long-term effects, positive, negative, I would let the [medical] experts speak to that,” Murton said. “But I feel pretty confident, [based on] what we’ve been seeing lately, that he’s on the right trajectory to be with us and be a good player for a long time.”
The Phillies’ season really turned three nights earlier.
It was April 25, a Friday in Atlanta, when Zack Wheeler returned to the mound several weeks earlier than most people expected. He allowed two runs in five innings, and, not coincidentally, the Phillies snapped a 10-game losing streak.
Wheeler’s recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome has been remarkable. Last September, he had surgery to remove a rib to relieve a compressed vein. Not only did he make it back, but he went 10-2 with a 2.16 ERA through his first 16 starts.
But Wheeler stumbled after the All-Star break, with a six-start stretch in which he posted an 8.51 ERA. The low point came last week in Seattle, when he gave up eight runs on four homers and five walks in four innings.
A dive into Wheeler’s biomechanics revealed that he was holding his glove two inches lower than usual, causing him to overrotate through his delivery and follow through toward the third-base on-deck circle rather than directly to the plate.
Zack Wheeler has a 7.12 ERA in seven starts since the All-Star Break.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
And although Wheeler pitched better last Sunday in Anaheim, Calif. — one run in six innings against the Angels — he hesitated to declare that his problems are solved.
“I’m still not out of it,” he said.
Many of the biggest starts of Wheeler’s career, including his major league debut in 2013, have come against his hometown Braves. He will have another big one Saturday night, if only to prove that he’s back on track after the midseason toe-stub.
Wheeler is 11-5 with a 3.31 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 130⅓ innings. If he’s back on track, it would round out a formidable top-of-the-rotation trio with lefties Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo.
“It felt like they found some little things that were going on,” Mattingly said of Wheeler’s adjustments before the Angels start. “None of us thought that he was way off or anything else. We knew it was going to be a small adjustment in there somewhere, and the pitching guys seemed to do a nice job of finding that.
“So, hopefully that was a confidence-builder from that standpoint, and then just we have building blocks to go through the rest of the way.”
Bryson Stott was a scratch for Friday’s game because of “a personal matter.”Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Stott scratched
The Phillies scratched third baseman Bryson Stott less than an hour before Friday night’s game because of “a personal matter,” according to the team.
Edmundo Sosa, slated to start in left field against Braves ace lefty Chris Sale, moved to third base. Bryan De La Cruz was inserted in left field, giving the Phillies another right-handed hitter against Sale.
In what amounts to wishful thinking given the looming labor unrest that threatens to delay the 2027 season, Major League Baseball released the schedule for spring training.
The Phillies would play their first exhibition game Feb. 19 against the Tigers in Lakeland, Fla., one day before facing the Blue Jays at home in Clearwater, Fla. Sixteen of the Phillies’ 30 Grapefruit League games would be played at BayCare Ballpark, including the annual St. Patrick’s Day game on March 17 against the Orioles.
After the spring finale on March 22, the Phillies would break camp and open the season three days later on the road in Washington. The home opener is scheduled for April 1.
Left unsaid: The owners are expected to lock out the players Dec. 1 once the collective bargaining agreement expires. The sides are at odds over several issues, notably the implementation of a salary cap, with the possibility of a prolonged work stoppage and missed games.
Five years ago, a new agreement was agreed upon after a 99-day lockout that left rosters frozen for most of the offseason. Spring training was delayed until March 13; the season started April 8, and teams squeezed in 162 games.
Phillies right fielder Adolis García tore the lat muscle beneath his right shoulder on a throw on June 10 in Toronto. Chris Young
Extra bases
Right fielder Adolis García rejoined the Phillies for the weekend and was on the field before the game. He had season-ending surgery in June on a torn lat muscle in his back, beneath his right shoulder. “The guys love him,” Mattingly said. “So, it’s good to have him around.” García, who signed a one-year contract for $10 million, batted .195 with seven homers and a .599 OPS in 67 games. … Phillies players, staff, coaches, and grounds crew wore purple T-shirts during batting practice to support Joe Torre’s Safe At Home Foundation, which raises awareness of domestic abuse and violence. … Wheeler will be opposed by Braves lefty Martín Pérez (8-8, 3.05 ERA) at 6:05 p.m. Saturday. The pitching matchups for the rest of the series: Sunday — Aaron Nola (6-10, 4.93) vs. righty Tyler Mahle (5-10, 4.25); Monday — Jesús Luzardo (13-5, 3.02) vs. righty Grant Holmes (9-5, 3.62).
Most surprise parties are reserved for birthdays, retirement, and other special occasions. Most people don’t throw surprise parties for football players who fail to make their team’s 53-man roster.
But that’s not the case for Dolan’s Bar in Ridley Park.
The bar organized a surprise party for Uar Bernard on Thursday night to show support from Eagles fans to the seventh-round draft pick, who is now a member of the Eagles’ practice squad.
Bernard’s connection to the community surrounding Dolan’s Bar goes back as far as his connection with the Eagles: the last day of the NFL draft on April 25.
Hungry Dawgs, a tailgate group that PJ Dolan, the owner of Dolan’s Bar, is involved with has an Eagles Autism Foundation section. Last year, Hungry Dawgs finished second in Eagles Autism fundraising for the year, finishing only behind Jason Kelce’s Team 62. As a result, Jamie Aldridge, who runs this section of Hungry Dawgs, and her two sons were invited to the draft in Pittsburgh.
It was there they first met Bernard, and Aldridge’s 6-year-old son, Damian, became amazed by Bernard and his home country of Nigeria. He began watching videos about the country on YouTube, and the two met again during training camp.
On Sunday, when the 53-man roster was announced, few took the news of Bernard’s cut harder than Damian. Bernard’s publicist, Adrian Fox, reached out to Aldridge and Damian to come out to the Jefferson Health Training Complex to lift Bernard’s spirits.
It was then that Dolan had the idea of a pep rally at the bar to show Bernard what he’s come to mean to the city.
#Eagles fans showing up and showing out for a surprise party for DT Uar Bernard on being a Philadelphia Eagle.
“This bar’s been in business for 73 years, and I have rarely seen so much hype over somebody who’s never played a sport before, let alone just any player,” Dolan said. “The physical anomaly that he is, how grateful and humble the young man is, all of it.”
Usually, Dolan would use social media to promote big events like this. But Fox told him Bernard is always on social media. Instead, the party had to be promoted the old-fashioned way: word of mouth.
With connections to the city’s prominent sports social media figures and a “finger on that pulse,” Dolan said he was able to get word out. The only social media post he shared was a vague video of him telling followers to “trust” him that they’d want to be at the bar on Thursday night, reminding them to bring their “Birds gear.”
“I’d say 90% [of the crowd] knew what was going on that night,” Dolan said. “But we just went over [to those who didn’t], like ‘Hey, this is the deal. This is his story, if you don’t know it. Let’s give this guy a round of applause and give him a pat on the back, and know that like we have his back and we think he’s going to go far in the league.’”
By the time Bernard arrived outside the bar, the inside was “absolutely mobbed,” there were no parking spots, and the temperature inside the building had risen several degrees.
Outside, Dolan, Aldridge, and her sons greeted Bernard, offering words of encouragement before the doors opened to a crowd decked out in Eagles gear, shirts Dolan had made up that said “Uar still flying,” and Nigerian flags.
Dolan said the 6-foot-4, 306-pound defensive tackle, who has already beaten the odds to come from the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, grew misty-eyed at the showing.
“He DMed me later that night and thanked me for it, expressing how grateful he is to be in this city, in this town, and to play for a team like this,” Dolan said. “It just goes to show you like the the quality of gentlemen that this team drafts, and the organization that that team, the product that they put out is just superb.”
The support shown to Bernard is at the core of who the Philly sports fans who come through Dolan’s bar are. And for Dolan, a third-generation owner of his family’s business, it’s part of a gratitude that extends back toward the players and organization.
“There’s been times where them being in the playoffs have kept the electricity on in my place,” Dolan said. “It’s to the bones how passionate we are in this town for our sports teams. It’s a part of everything.”
NBA superstar LeBron James may not have played in college himself, but the Akron, Ohio, native is locked in for the start of Ohio State’s football season.
James, who signed with the 76ers for two years and $8 million earlier this summer, voiced the Buckeyes’ preseason hype video ahead of Saturday’s opener vs. Ball State, themed around “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica. A Sixers reference? Who knows.
“In old Ohio, there’s a team, known throughout the land, whose name is met with reverence and understanding of one thing: the bell tolls,” James said in the trailer. “Every new beginning is born from another’s reckoning. A judgment of toughness, of fight. Nothing is given; everything is earned. Once these gates close, there’s no more options. Stand before us. Woe to the vanquished.”
James has been an Ohio State fan since childhood, having grown up in northeast Ohio. He attended Ohio State’s College Football Playoff national title game vs. Notre Dame in January 2025 — as did fellow Buckeyes fan Bryce Harper.
Cathy Engelbert was the Jalen Hurts of the WNBA, the subject of the same kind of questions about whether a prominent figure on a speeding ship was the captain or a passenger — except with her, the answers were more definitive and damning.
For these last few years, for the period in which the league has made its greatest gains in popularity, relevance, and quality of play, she was at best a nonfactor and at worst an impediment. The people behind those gains were the players, one in particular, and with the announcement Friday that Engelbert, a Collingswood native, was “retiring,” the WNBA has a better chance of accelerating its growth and calming the churning waters around it.
No one looks or will look at Engelbert’s tenure atop the WNBA and credit her for the league’s progress, and no one should. The rise of women’s sports in America, particularly of women’s basketball, already was a wind at her back when she became commissioner in 2019.
Title IX had been doing its good work on behalf of girls and young women for nearly two generations by then. Because the WNBA, founded in 1996, rarely has players to enter the league after leaving college early, women’s college basketball has been a fertile garden of talent and star power, feeding the league long before Engelbert oversaw it. UConn, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Baylor: These programs and others like them pumped out stars who had spent four years in school setting records and competing in Final Fours, whose names and games had become familiar before they’d ever signed their first professional contracts.
The WNBA’s biggest stars include Caitlin Clark (left), Aliyah Boston, A’Ja Wilson, Olivia Miles, and Jessica Shepard.Nam Y. Huh
That tide turned into a wave that has crested with Caitlin Clark, with the woman who can lay claim to the title of the most popular and important female athlete in the United States. The NBA lifted off in the early 1980s — once talent poured in after the league merged with the ABA, once Magic Johnson and Larry Bird brought their rivalry to the Lakers and the Celtics — and the WNBA should be on its way to telling a similar story. It has Clark. It has A’ja Wilson and Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles and Breanna Stewart. It has a depth and breadth of talent unmatched in its history. The games should matter more than they ever have. The games should matter most.
Except … they don’t. Who wants to hear that story now? Out of Engelbert’s lack of leadership, out of her inability and unwillingness to speak simple truths in plain language or take strong stands to benefit it, the WNBA has morphed into a cudgel in the culture war.
On one side are the sexists and misogynists who don’t watch women’s basketball — and wouldn’t dare confess to tuning in even if they did — but whittle away their days complaining about the sport and attacking its athletes on Twitter/X. On the other are the activist players, coaches, fans and compliant media members so defensive and discomfited over the slightest criticism or question — about the inevitable byproducts of a major pro sport going mainstream and gaining a new audience — that they seem to wish that only people like them were permitted to play and watch and cover it.
Engelbert let those sides squish her like a grape. It was bad enough for the league’s image, for its attempts to shake the perception that it was small-time in its operations and approach, that she botched the pronunciation of Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase’s last name when she presented Nakase (nuh-KAH-say) the WNBA Coach of the Year Award. That it took Clark’s presence and some timely social media posts before Engelbert stopped insisting teams fly commercial and instituted a charter flight program for the league. That her communication skills with the players were so poor that one, Napheesa Collier, felt emboldened enough to say that the league “had the worst leadership in the world.”
No, what has been worse is Engelbert’s cowing in the face of obvious problems with obvious solutions. The league should have started hunting for better, more qualified officials years ago, rather than waiting until May to … form a task force about the topic. Engelbert must have been living in a dream world when, according to Collier, she said that Clark and the WNBA’s other stars “should be on their knees” thanking the league for the prominence it has given them … when it’s actually the other way around.
But it’s the latest and silliest controversy — over the league’s policy, or lack thereof, on transgender athletes — that brought Engelbert’s weakness most clearly to bear.
Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom are clowns for their publicity campaign to declare themselves to be women so they can join the league. A commissioner with any spine would have swatted them away like gnats simply by pointing out what everyone can already see: Royce, you’re 6-foot-8. Enes, you’re 6-10. You guys played in the NBA! Do you have any idea how pathetic you are for begging to be in our league?
A commissioner with any spine would have pointed out that FIBA, the IOC, and the USOPC already have policies that only biological females can compete in women’s sports, that the WNBA’s players follow those guidelines when they compete internationally — as they are right now, in the FIBA World Cup — and that the league’s policy reflects those policies. Instead, Engelbert has stayed silent, allowing the issue to fester, allowing this sideshow to dominate conversation about the sport.
This is a critical moment for women’s athletics and for the WNBA. The league is expanding, adding three more franchises in the next four years, including one here in Philadelphia. It has an opportunity both to solidify its existing fan base and build upon it. It has an opportunity to climb to a level that, just a decade ago, few would have thought reachable. It will need a new commissioner who can be more than the one Cathy Engelbert was, more than someone sitting on the deck, doing nothing to avoid the swells and crashes, more than someone just along for the ride.
The WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks have plucked their new general manager from the 76ers front office.
The Sparks are hiring Blue Coats general manager Ariana Andonian for the role, a source confirmed.
Andonian came to the Sixers under former president of basketball operations Daryl Morey. Though she’s only 31 years old, she has had an extensive career working in college and the NBA, including stints under Morey with the Sixers and under Memphis Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman. She also consulted for Duke’s program while earning a graduate degree from the school, according to an Inquirer profile of Andonian from 2025.
The job will bring Andonian, a Los Angeles native who grew up a Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan, closer to home. Andonian first met Morey while in college at Southern Cal when she gave his daughter a tour of the USC campus and later joined the family for lunch.
After that meeting, Andonian earned an internship with the Houston Rockets when Morey was the general manager there. She began as a scout and was coordinating the team’s college scouting group by age 23. A 2017 story from Bleacher Report cited her as the league’s only female scout at the time.
Andonian’s career went from there to Duke, where she led the team’s high school scouting group while completing her MBA. She cites former coach Mike Krzyzewski and current coach Jon Scheyer as mentors.
“It was almost like I had to tell her when she had to stop watching video,” Morey told The Inquirer of Andonian in 2025. “ … She picked up things quick and fit into a group.”
The spotlight keeps growing on Cavan Sullivan, Neil Pierre, and the Union’s push for a playoff berth. But interim manager Ryan Richter remains steadfastly unmoved.
“I’m not just saying this when you guys ask,” he said heading into Saturday’s home game against CF Montréal (7:30 p.m., Apple TV). “The reality is, there’s too much work to do on a game-to-game basis to worry about the big-picture stuff, and where we’re at in the league, and what the next 10 games might look like. There’s too much to focus on today, and what we want to see out of training, and the environment that we want to create to get the best out of the guys — and I really mean that.”
Richter proved his sincerity when asked if the team would get a boost in spirits from rising above the playoff line. The Union enter the weekend in 12th place in the East (6-10-6, 24 points), but just one point back of ninth-place Orlando. Toronto and D.C. are also on 25 points, while eighth-place Red Bull New York is on 26, and seventh-place New York City FC is on 28.
The three teams beneath the Union — Atlanta, Montréal, and Columbus — are on 21, 21, and 20 respectively. And no one expects Columbus to remain in the basement, having just signed former NYCFC winger Santi Rodríguez.
Though the Union are on a seven-game unbeaten run in league play, Ryan Richter (left) knows there’s still a lot of work to do.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“It’s not important to me,” Richter said. “There’s no psychological bounce of being above that line. … There’s too much to focus on here that takes all the attention away from what-could-be types of things.”
An eight-point difference from seventh to 15th makes for a pretty big traffic jam. It probably won’t clear up any time soon, with 12 games still to play in the last two months of the season and a two-week FIFA international window in the middle. It’s so much congestion that there will be a full round of games during the first weekend of that FIFA window, a practice the league used to swear off.
That includes the Union’s quick turnarounds to their next two games: Wednesday at home vs. FC Cincinnati (7:30 p.m., FS1, Apple TV), then the longest road trip of the year to play San Diego next Sunday (9 p.m., Apple TV).
But a team can make its situation worse by not doing what it should. That certainly applies to Saturday’s game at Subaru Park. Not only is Montréal beneath the Union in the standings, but it played a Canadian Championship cup game in Vancouver on Wednesday. Another midweek game awaits next Wednesday, at home against Charlotte.
MLS’s schedule flip next year will fix much of this, because the league won’t have to jam games in places to make room for breaks during major tournaments. Until then, Richter offered sympathies to the visitors.
“It’s a tough week for them,” Richter said. “I don’t want to say it’s a break for us, but it makes it a tough week for them, playing in Vancouver. And sometimes you need these breaks in your schedule. But we know that doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy game.”
Nor might it be the easiest to scout from film. Montréal is still integrating its two big summer signings, former Colorado Rapids winger Dante Sealy and Chilean legend of many big European clubs Alexis Sánchez.
Though Sánchez has only played as a substitute so far, the 37-year-old is one of those players who could pull a rabbit out of his hat at any time.
Alexis Sánchez (right) has played for a slew of big clubs in his career, including Spain’s Barcelona, England’s Arsenal and Manchester United, and Italy’s Inter Milan.Graham Hughes
“For us, it’s a little unpredictable what kind of lineup they’ll go with,” Richter said. “We’ll see where Alexis Sánchez is exactly fitness-wise: if he’s ready to start a game, if he’s available for that. But they’ve added some quality pieces, so it’s a dangerous team.”
The Union have filled the role of technical director in their front office for the first time since Chris Albright’s departure.
Roberto Giménez, who was the club’s head of academy scouting from 2021-24, has returned to Chester and been hired for the new title. He spent the last two years as U.S. Soccer’s talent identification manager for the West Region.
“Roberto has a strong understanding of our club, our identity, and strategy, and our approach to identifying and developing talent,” Union sporting director Jon Scheer said in a statement. “His time with U.S. Soccer has broadened his perspective on best practices across the landscape, while allowing him to collaborate with club and federation leaders domestically and internationally. … We are excited to welcome him back, as he will play an important role in advancing our sporting strategy across every level of our professional player pathway — from the academy through Union II and into the first team.”
Union sporting director Jon Scheer.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
That work has been done by a range of people in recent years, especially Scheer before he was promoted to the top job. His previous title was head of academy and professional development.
Now the front office’s leaders are Scheer, Giménez, assistant sporting director Matt Ratajczak, and director of scouting Chris Zitterbart.
The standings
Since it’s September, it’s time to start looking at the Eastern Conference standings. Here’s how the bottom end stacks up heading into this weekend, with eight teams separated by eight points.
The first standings tiebreaker is total wins, then goal difference.
7. New York City FC: 7-8-7, 28 points, +5 goal difference
