Eagles special teams coach Michael Clay doesn’t think Jake Elliott fell out of love with football, but he did see a kicker last season whose body language was that of a player who was being hard on himself.
It is an isolating position. The snap and hold need to go well, sure, but so much rests on the swing of an NFL kicker’s leg, and the precision with which his foot hits the ball, that any decrease of their confidence level can lead to poor results.
Elliott, the team’s primary kicker since 2017, had one of his worst seasons in 2025. He went 20-for-27 on field goal attempts. That 74.1% conversion rate was his second-worst season-long performance, barely edging out his 73.7% (14-for-19) effort in 2020. Elliott converted 93.8% of his field goals in 2023, which included a 7-for-8 mark on kicks of 50-plus yards. But the two seasons that followed have not been particularly good. Elliott is 48-for-63 over his last two regular seasons, and that 76.2% clip rates as one of the worst marks for a primary kicker in the league.
Elliott may have lost confidence in himself, according to Clay, but the Eagles maintained confidence in their kicker. Elliott, 31, is the only kicker in camp and, barring an injury or the unforeseen, will enter his 10th season as the team’s kicker.
Asked Monday his reaction to the team sticking by him, Elliott said he loves playing for the Eagles and is happy to still be in Philadelphia, but …
“You’re always competing,” he said. “There’s 32 of these jobs in the world, so you’re always competing with everybody.”
Jake Elliott (right) is trying to shake off a 2025 season that was below his usual standard. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The competition is mostly with himself. Elliott said he took his normal approach to the offseason despite coming off one of his worst seasons. He looked back at what happened in 2025 — “We played in a lot of really windy games last year,” he said — and tried to learn from it.
He spent his offseason here. The deep dive into 2025 results found issues with kicking in the wind, so Elliott would do his best to replicate the wind whenever he could. Lincoln Financial Field presents winds that tend to blow into the kicker and left to right, Elliott said, so if he could find that wind, he would. He kicked on high school fields that were particularly open and susceptible to higher winds. He kicked at Penn’s Franklin Field, where the wind swirls.
Elliott showed up at training camp feeling good, and Clay said he noticed.
“You never want to see them kind of get out of sorts in terms of their body language,” Clay said last week. “So, for me and him to have our own personal talks, I think he’s done a really good job since then in terms of his body language, being better and not necessarily getting down on himself on things he can’t control. Control what you can control. If you’re able to be on top of that, there’s going to be things in life you can’t control. You’re not going to be able to control mother nature. You’re not going to be able to control the distance we put you out there.”
Jake Elliott remarked on the impact of windy conditions on his 2025 season, but also missed kicks in better weather like in Los Angeles. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Elliott didn’t lose his love for football, he said Monday. It was a fair question considering Clay remarked in May that Elliott had to “fall in love with the game again,” but the crux of the coach’s comments were about Elliott finding his confidence again.
“A confident kicker is a dangerous kicker,” Clay said in May.
Said Elliott: “I’ve always loved the game. I always will love the game. I don’t think that’s necessarily in question. It’s just, how can you be better?”
That’s what the offseason was about, refining his contact and dialing in on his ball flight.
The result?
“I’m extremely confident in myself right now,” Elliott said. “I feel like I’ve had a great offseason, I’m putting together a good camp, I feel like I’m striking it best I have in a while. Every day is a new day. Just trying to build on it.”
A labor strike in Northeast Philadelphia stretched into its fourth day Sunday after a food distributor failed to meet truck drivers’ demands for a pension plan.
Members with Teamsters Local 500 have been picketing around-the-clock at Quaker Valley Foods’ warehouse since Wednesday night, according to union officials.
The union represents about 70 Quaker Valley employees, including roughly 35 truck drivers whose contract expired Aug. 1. They have said they will not return to work until the food distributor agrees to administer a pension plan as part of a new five-year contract.
In an emailed statement, Quaker Valley Foods said it “cares deeply about its employees and their welfare and remains committed to reaching an agreement with the union.” The company said it presented a “generous contract settlement” with “significant and unprecedented wage increases and provides enhanced retirement benefits for our workers and their families.”
On Sunday afternoon, about a dozen unionmembers werestationed outside Quaker Valley’s Red Lion Road facility, braving blistering heat and humidity as passersby honked car horns in solidarity.
According to labor leaders, the drivers’ union has been vying for a pension in recent contract negotiations, which they believe would provide more security than the company’s 401(k) retirement plan. However, management earlier this week issued a steadfast refusal, Local 500 president Doug Edwards said.
Picketers walk outside the Quaker Valley Foods warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. Teamsters Local 500 members are on strike demanding the food plant administer a pension plan.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
“These are hardworking guys, and many of them have been here for a long time,” Edwards said, noting that many of the workers drove food deliveries into New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic without personal protective equipment.
“These guys risked everything to get food out to people, and now it’s time that the company should give us guarantees in our retirement,” he said.
Edwards said members rejected a prior contractdeal that did not include a pension plan; as of Sunday afternoon, he said the union had not heard from the company.
Quaker Valley distributes meat, deli, and specialty foods along the East Coast. The company said it had “implemented contingency plans across the business during this time and will continue working to meet the high standards our customers and vendors have come to expect.”
Doug Edwards (right), president of Teamsters Local 500, and Juan Lafuente (left), a Quaker Valley driver for 12 years and shop steward, join the picket line outside the Quaker Valley Foods warehouse in Northeast Philadelphia Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. Union members are on strike demanding the food plant administer a pension plan.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Shop steward Juan Lafuente, who has worked for Quaker Valley Foods for 12 years, said the union is striking for its future security. At 40, he’s worried about the state of Social Security and whether traditional retirement funds will sustain him for a lifetime.
“We want to retire here,” he said, “we’re not trying to grab money and run — we’re trying to stay. You got a whole bunch of guys who are going to commit the rest of their lives to this company and make it grow.
The University Avenue Bridge will soon receive structural repairs, and some of its architectural details will be secured from further vandalism, but a full-scale restoration of the historic span isn’t happening anytime soon.
PennDot is slated to begin work on the drawbridge Aug. 17, the agency announced Monday. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic will be partially impeded for the duration of the job.
A routine inspection in March of the Paul Philippe Cret-designed structure turned up deterioration in some of the steel members, said PennDot assistant district executive for assets Kerri Cutright, “and we were a little concerned, and so that’s why we’ve initiated these repairs.”
The goal is to move the drawbridge from “poor” to “fair” condition, said Cutright.
In addition, plans call for the installation of 8-foot-tall chain-link fencing in front of the two operator’s houses on the east side of the bridge to deter vandals.
Work is expected to continue through Dec. 15.
Broken windows and vandalism are visible inside one of the operator’s houses on the University Avenue Bridge on July 23.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The project, estimated to cost about $2 million, leaves unaddressed the needs of some major features of the bridge, which was built around 1930. It will not bring back the bridge’s ability to raise its leaves, though the work won’t prevent restoration of that function in the future. The 10 elaborately detailed lighting fixtures will not be returned to working order as part of the job.
Graffiti has marred the bridge in several places, most noticeably on the Center City-facing sides of the operator’s houses, but there is no immediate plan to clean up the scrawls.
“At this time, graffiti removal is not in the scope, but it is being explored in the near future,” said PennDot spokesperson Brad Rudolph.
Graffiti on the University Avenue Bridge, seen from the Schuylkill River Trail, on May 21.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Vandalism and deterioration on the bridge linking West Philadelphia and Grays Ferry have attracted sporadic public attention for decades. The Inquirer highlighted the conditions last September, with another article in June, and other news outlets have called for the bridge’s stabilization and restoration. A recent change.org petition advocating that it be protected from further damage collected hundreds of signatures.
“Without intervention, these unique design elements risk permanent loss,” the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia wrote in its magazine, which lists the bridge as one of the city’s places to save.
“We welcome PennDot’s attention to the University Avenue Bridge and the planned work to address some of its most urgent deficiencies. This is a positive first step, especially after years of visible deterioration, but it should not be the end of the effort,” said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. “The bridge is one of Philadelphia’s most distinctive historic spans, and it deserves a broader rehabilitation plan that addresses its historic features, long-term condition and role as a public gateway between neighborhoods.”
The repairs at hand will address the structural elements beneath the bridge’s deck. The bridge uses a girder floor beam stringer system to carry the load, said Cutright, and the deterioration will be addressed with plating, cleaning, and repainting, and some steel members may be replaced.
Vandalism and the elements have damaged the two operator’s houses on the Center City-facing side of the bridge. They will be cleaned out and sealed, and a chain-link fence will be installed in front of the two structures to deter trespassers.
Lane closures will reduce vehicular access to one lane in each direction during construction. Two of the bridge’s four lanes will be closed all day every day, with two lanes left open (one in each direction) through mid-December. The work will begin with closing the two lanes closest to the operator’s houses, and moving all traffic to the other side. Then, in a couple of months, the closure pattern will flip.
The bridge carries more than 36,000 vehicles per day, according to PennDot, and the agency expects significant backups during construction. Pedestrian access will be permitted on the side of the bridge opposite from where work is being conducted.
A fish and other details adorn the operator’s houses on the University Avenue Bridge.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Cutright said that while PennDot would like to restore the bridge, the cost is estimated around $50 million, and no funding is currently lined up for an effort on that scale.
Even if funding were in place now, a major rehabilitation would be a long way off. Planning and construction would take five years or more, she said.
“It’s a beautiful bridge, and I would imagine that if we were to do a major project that we would want to restore it to its former glory.”
A Lancaster County man pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding investors in his ATM businesses out of more than $400 million, a long-running scam that federal authorities have characterized as a Ponzi scheme.
Daryl Heller, 56, of Lititz, was indicted last year after prosecutors said he deceived thousands of people who had invested in several businesses he owned that he used to buy and operate ATMs.
As he sought to raise money for his firms, prosecutors said, Heller promised investors guaranteed monthly returns, which he said would be the result of operating the ATMs. And he also courted investors by using forged or fraudulent financial documents to inflate the purported health of his businesses, prosecutors said.
Once Heller got cash infusions, prosecutors said, he used them to pay back old investors. He also spent some of the money on personal expenses or business debts.
The scheme began to fall apart in 2023, when one of his companies, Paramount Management Group, began struggling to raise new money. Several months later, prosecutors said, Paramount stopped making payments to its older investors.
Heller later filed for bankruptcy protection — which remains pending — and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia indicted him last August.
In all, prosecutors said, Heller raised about $770 million from 2,700 people between 2017 and 2024, causing his investors to lose about $400 million. (Heller’s attorneys said Monday that they don’t agree with that number and plan to dispute it in court before he is sentenced.)
Heller said little in court beyond responding to routine legal questions while pleading guilty to a securities fraud charge. He declined to comment after the hearing.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Henry is scheduled to sentence Heller in December. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The Flyers announced on Monday that they loaned forward Jack Berglund to Färjestad BK of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) for the duration of Färjestad BK’s 2026-27 season.
A second-round pick in 2024 and one of the Flyers’ top center prospects, Berglund played 40 games with Färjestad BK last season, netting seven goals and adding five assists.
The 6-foot-4, 217-pound left-hander also captained Sweden’s World Juniors team in January, leading to a gold medal while scoring 10 points in seven games, three of which were goals.
The 20-year-old forward signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Flyers on April 9, making his AHL debut with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms two days later.
Berglund scored one goal in his five games in the AHL.
“It was a great experience,” Berglund said about his AHL experience during the Flyers Development Camp in June. “It’s a different type of game with the small rink, for example, and different type of systems, and all of that… So I think it was, it was fun to like to get to play those games and get to know how it is over here.”
Berglund will continue his development overseas with the Färjestad BK season slated to start on September 19, while the Flyers will be in the midst of their training camp.
Flyers rookie camp will begin Sept. 11, with main camp beginning Sept. 17.
The top four teams from the MLS after three Liga MX vs. MLS matches will go on to the knockouts alongside the top four Liga MX performers.
Sitting on three points after two matches, the Union are not mathematically eliminated from advancing, but they would need a lot of help to jump from tied for 10th to inside the top four on the final match day.
Next is the Union’s assumed Cup finale against Santos Laguna at Subaru Park on Thursday (7 p.m., Apple TV). If the Union aren’t going to advance or hoist a trophy from their Leagues Cup run, what can they bring back with them into the MLS schedule?
The most obvious answer is rest. While interim head coach Ryan Richter said the team plays to win, the selection for Sunday’s match allowed for some rotation.
With qualification to the knockout stage already a long shot, Milan Iloski was able to sit with the substitutes for the second time this season before playing the final 30 minutes.
Frankie Westfield did the same, coming off the bench for the third time this season.
If the Union are mathematically eliminated by Thursday’s match against Santos Laguna, Richter could use that game as an opportunity to dig into his expanded 30-man Leagues Cup roster and rest some key players.
Union’s Kai Wagner kicks the soccer ball against Necaxa during a Leagues Cup group stage game on Sunday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The top candidates for a night off includes Kai Wagner, who’s played 420 of a possible 450 minutes since returning from Birmingham City in July, Danley Jean Jacques, Jovan Lukić, and Nathan Harriel.
“We probably will know exactly where we’re at by [Thursday],” Richter said after Sunday’s match. “You have to take your decision on how to approach the game. And it will be a little different. That’s the reality of it.”
Richter will also hope to have gathered more information about his personnel and how it fits together by the time the Leagues Cup ends.
With the Union on a solid stretch since their return from the FIFA World Cup, it would be easy to forget that Richter has only coached five matches at the professional level.
The Leagues Cup has allowed Richter to see how his players perform in competitive, physical matches.
“We can try different things,” Richter said. “Try some players that you might not use in a league game to see exactly where they’re at, and see if they have a role that they can play in the first team.”
The Cup has allowed Richter to continue to tinker with his tactics, too. When the Union were in need of a goal late against Cruz Azul, Richter shifted his team to the same formation that sparked its three-goal comeback against Atlanta United in MLS play.
“Even though we didn’t get the goal, I think it was a tactic we could use again if we’re chasing a goal at the end of the game,” Richter said. “It’s trying some new things. I don’t know the team [perfectly].
“I don’t know the players, everything about them yet, so it’s still trying to learn a little bit about what the best fit is, in what moment of a game, and who you can rely on for a role, and what role guys can carve out for themselves.”
Union interim head coach Ryan Richter greets player Cavan Sullivan during a second half substitution on Sunday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
If the Union are lucky, their performances might hold up once they get back to league play. While the goal never came, Richter’s squad played an impressive second half against Cruz Azul.
The Union never looked back after jumping out to an early lead over Necaxa, something the club has struggled to do for much of the first half of the season.
It’s also a good sign that three different Union players other than Iloski scored. Sunday’s win was the Union’s eighth outing with three or more goals scored, and the third without Iloski on the scoresheet.
Cavan Sullivan and Bruno Damiani both broke scoreless streaks, with the latter punching in his second goal of the season.
As the team tries to pull itself back into the playoff picture, Damiani is hoping that the club’s Leagues Cup run will give it a boost once it returns to league play.
“We need to focus now on the Leagues Cup, but then when it’s over, let’s go back to MLS and let’s go back to the things we did well,” Damiani said. “Most of the principles are the same. It changed the competition, but not us.”
Former Phillies left fielder Gary Matthews will be part of the Class of 2026 inductees into the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum’s Hall of Game.
Matthews, 76, will be joined by Ralph Garr, Reggie Smith, and Andre Thornton in the Class of 2026, which will be inducted in a ceremony on Sept. 26 at the Gem Theater in Kansas City.
Matthews played 16 major league seasons, including three with the Phillies, from 1981-83.
Matthews was the National League Championship Series MVP in 1983, after helping the Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers with a .429 batting average, three home runs, and eight RBIs in the series. In his more than 400 games with the Phillies, Matthews had a .279 batting average (.281 for his career).
Nicknamed “Sarge,” Matthews was a first-round draft pick in 1968 by the San Francisco Giants. He also played for the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, and Seattle Mariners. He won National League Rookie of the Year in 1973.
Matthews served as a color analyst for the Phillies broadcast team from 2007 to 2013, alongside Harry Kalas and Chris Wheeler during some of his career.
His son, Del Matthews, who works as the Senior Vice President of Baseball Development for MLB, said his family made the trip to Kansas City to see his father’s best friend, Dusty Baker, receive the honor, which was an “unforgettable experience.” Now, to see his father enshrined alongside Baker and Jerry Manuel, Cito Gaston, and Willie Randolph, Del Matthews said is “profoundly meaningful to [their] entire family.”
“My father loved this game, but more than that, he believed in opening doors for those who came after him,” Del Matthews said. “We are forever grateful to [President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum] Bob Kendrick, who has worked with us at Major League Baseball to teach our young development players about the legacy, grace, and history of the Negro Leagues. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum ensures that the sacrifices, brilliance, and stories of these men continue to inspire generations to come.”
Garr played 13 seasons with the Braves, Chicago White Sox and California Angels. Smith played 17 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers and Giants. Thornton had a 14-season career with the Cubs, Montreal Expos and Cleveland.
The second annual JL Wilkinson “Innovator” Award is being presented to longtime sports journalist Rob Parker.
The Hall of Game, established by the museum in 2014, honors former major league greats who embodied the spirit and signature style of the Negro Leagues.
The Las Vegas Aces are owned by Mark Davis and Tom Brady, who also own the Las Vegas Raiders, where pass rusher Maxx Crosby twice hit quarterback Kirk Cousins during plays at a training camp practice Saturday, which led to a fight between them, which led to them being suspended from Sunday’s practice … which was the second-dumbest thing that happened involving a Davis-Brady team this weekend.
On Thursday night, “Point Gawd” Chelsea Gray hit buzzer-beater 3-pointers at the end of regulation and at the end of overtime to upset Caitlin Clark in Indiana.
On Saturday afternoon, the Aces went cold after the first quarter and lost to the Lynx in Minnesota. Three-time league MVP A’ja Wilson looked flat.
This all happened while I was on vacation, but I know this because my family watches the WNBA like Donald Trump watches the stock market.
So imagine, then, our dismay when, on Sunday, we tuned in to the afternoon game between the Aces and the New York Liberty — a game we considered attending — and discovered that Wilson, Gray, and five-time All-Star Jackie Young would not play. At. All.
This would be like the Bulls showing up to face the Knicks in 1995 and sitting Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman because they’d played in Dallas three days prior and in Houston the night before.
You might recall the Bulls’ stars suiting up for marquee games. NUCCIO DINUZZO / MCT
This was fraud. This was theft. This was a Becky Hammon tantrum, and fans in the arena and around the country suffered for it.
The outrageous nature of this clear act of rebellion cannot be overstated.
But I will try.
This was a nationally televised Sunday afternoon game that led off the eighth of ABC/ESPN’s nine “Women’s Sports Sundays.” It also was the “Legends Weekend” game for the Liberty, where they recognized former stars. This was a must-see game as the season enters its homestretch, with both rivals squarely in the playoff hunt.
Imagine, then, the dismay of the 17,082 fans who paid about $150 to watch Dana Evans, bless her heart, start her second game in two years with the Aces, and score two points, and turn the ball over three times.
The Aces never led, trailed by 23 after the third quarter, and lost by 40.
It should not be surprising that Hammon employed this disingenuous line of reasoning. After all, these shenanigans were pioneered by her NBA mentor, Gregg Popovich, on whose Spurs staff she learned a lot more about pro basketball than just the high screen-and-roll.
From pitch counts to minute restrictions to scheduled losses, load management has become a distasteful aspect of professional sports. This was far more than load management.
This more likely was Hammon — a spunky sort who in 2023 dissed Jalen Brunson and whose handling of a player’s pregnancy got her suspended for two games in the same year— making a statement of defiance at the league’s challenging scheduling of Aces games during this stretch.
Why was it more than load management? Simple.
Because Hammon didn’t have to sit all three players for the same game. She could have sat Wilson on Saturday, then sat the other two Sunday. Or vice versa. Or, more logically, she could have sat all three Saturday, against the Lynx, the league’s top team in a lower-profile game, then played all three Sunday with more of the world watching.
Instead, she sat three of the league’s better players against a rival that plays in the league’s biggest media market.
Unlike the NBA, the WNBA does not have a player participation policy with guidelines and mandates regarding not playing star players. Clearly, it needs one.
We already knew what Phillies president Dave Dombrowski was about, and what he wasn’t. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Phillies complaints are silly
Maybe it’s the malaise of the dog days of summer, but it’s become tiresome hearing complaints that a team knowingly built to be deficient defensively, with scant resources given to the bullpen, keeps losing games because it can’t catch the ball and it can’t pitch past the sixth inning.
In 2022 and 2023, Phillies president Dave Dombrowski told anyone who would listen that, when he added Trea Turner to a team that already had Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, and Alec Bohm, said team would not steal games with leather; rather, they would win them with wood. The Phillies are, by most metrics, a mediocre defensive team. By observation, after their defensive realignment as a result of the trade for Luis Arraez, they are easily bottom-five.
Further, Dombrowski’s consistent legacy in Florida, Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia, where he combined to win five pennants and two World Series, included his haphazard construction and maintenance of bullpen talent. The Phillies’ bullpen, plagued by both injury and ineptness, is second-worst in baseball.
They are as advertised.
Deal with it.
LIV stud consigned to obscurity?
The peculiar path of Joaquin Niemann, the best golfer in the history of Chile, proves both the overall weakness and the hidden strength of LIV Golf’s existence.
Niemann joined LIV in August 2022 for a reported $100 million. He’s won nearly $80 million more, including a total of $4.3 million when he won his ninth LIV event Sunday at Trump Bedminster. That’s not only the most wins in the league’s brief history, it’s as many as Bryson DeChambeau’s five wins and Jon Rahm’s four wins combined. DeChambeau is tied for second with Brooks Koepka, but Koepka won’t win on LIV again since, like a rat aboard a sinking ship, he abandoned LIV in December to return to the PGA Tour.
Earlier this year Koepka, DeChambeau, Rahm, and Cameron Smith were courted by PGA Tour czar Brian Rolapp to return.
Each had won a major title, and, from DeChambeau’s social media superstardom to Smith’s magnificent mullet, each has created an international brand that would enhance a PGA Tour that utterly lacks charisma.
Cameron Smith, who wears a magnificent mullet, tees off at hole 2 during the final round of the 2026 PGA Championship at Aronimink.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Only Koepka accepted the offer, but, with LIV foundering, there will be other offers. Rolapp should court Niemann, too.
He is, without question, not only the most successful golfer in the history of Chile, but also the most successful golfer in the history of LIV. Considering he has competed against fields that included Pat Perez, Yubin Jang, and Frederik Kjettrup, this is a dead, cold fish of a compliment, but Niemann has made that bed for himself.
As accomplished as he has been on LIV, no one can sanely argue that Niemann has been as good a player as DeChambeau, Rahm, or Koepka. In the 16 majors since the beginning of the 2023 season, Niemann has just three top-20s and two top-10s. Koepka, meanwhile, has five top-20s, two top-10s, and a win; Rahm has eight top-20s, seven top-10s, and a win; and DeChambeau has nine top-20s, seven top-10s, and a win.
However, one can reasonably argue that no golfer sabotaged his legacy more than Niemann by going to LIV. I believed this would be the case when he left, and I believe that’s how it has played out.
When he defected, Niemann had just won nearly $1 million by tying for ninth at the Tour Championship, the capstone event on the PGA Tour. He had won the Genesis Invitational and had spent most of the year ranked inside the top 20 in the world, peaking at No. 15.
Niemann left the Tour at the top of his game. He was tracking to become the next … Collin Morikawa? Matt Fitzpatrick? Justin Thomas?
We may never know.
Or maybe we will.
Joaquin Niemann stunted his growth by defecting to LIV. George Walker IV
Niemann won on the DP World Tour in 2023 but had fallen to 182nd this past March. Now, LIV’s product and personnel generally stinks, but Niemann hasn’t really been the 182nd best golfer on the planet since he was a teenager. He quickly proved that when LIV this year began awarding ranking points for top-10 finishes.
Niemann has won twice on LIV and he’s earned seven total top-10 finishes worldwide, one of them a tie for seventh at the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. He also tied for 18th at the PGA Championship at Aronimink.
Rolapp can invite anyone back any way he likes. Niemann has said he would return to the PGA Tour if LIV collapses, but, unlike Koepka and Patrick Reed, who returns later this month, Niemann doesn’t seem particularly eager.
Maybe he likes beating up on the Harold Varners of the world. Maybe he’d rather compete on mediocre courses in member-guest condition. Maybe he just prefers playing in shorts.
At any rate, it is unfortunate. Niemann’s absence is the golf world’s loss.
There is time.
Niemann turns 28 in November. That’s how old Arnold Palmer was when he won the first of his seven majors and is just one year older than Koepka was when he won the first of his five.
But just imagine what Niemann might have accomplished in the last four seasons during partial absences of Koepka, Rahm, and DeChambeau.
Just consider what Scottie Scheffler has done in the absence of the big LIV quartet. Does that sound far-fetched? Well then, consider also that, like Niemann, at one point in 2022, Scottie was ranked No. 15 in the world.
The ultracompetitive race to replace Philadelphia City Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. is officially underway.
With nine months until next year’s primary election, two candidates are already taking steps to challenge the first-term incumbent Council member from North Philly — and more may be to come.
“We’ve spent the last two years meeting with different community organizations, speaking with different ward leaders, and community groups, and just everyday people,” Alexander said in an interview. “This is going to be a people-powered campaign that really is grassroots.”
And on Friday, Curtis Wilkerson, who was the chief of staff to former City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, announced that he’s forming an “advisory committee” to evaluate a prospective run for the seat. The group will host community roundtables and neighborhood listening sessions to collect policy ideas and feedback from residents.
Wilkerson, who campaigned for the seat four years ago but did not make it onto the ballot, said he’ll likely decide whether to launch an official campaign by September.
A third potential candidate, Democratic political operative Kellan White, has been having conversations with party officials and labor leaders about running. White is a former deputy city controller who has managed and advised campaigns, including physician Ala Stanford’s recent unsuccessful run for Congress.
At least two others have said they are considering launching campaigns for Young’s seat: Dustin Dove, the president of the Fairmount Civic Association, and Max Tuttleman, a philanthropist who in 2023 unsuccessfully ran for seat on Council representing the city at-large.
The recent moves by several prospective candidates are the latest sign that the 5th District is likely to be the most crowded Council race this spring, when all 17 members of Council will be up for reelection and are expected to seek another term. The 5th District, which includes parts of Center City, North Philadelphia, and Fishtown, is overwhelmingly Democratic, meaning whoever prevails in the May primary is all but certain to win the seat in the general election.
Fifth District Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr., during the Barber’s Hall community legacy celebration, a daylong celebration of music, history, and community in North Philadelphia on Aug. 1.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Young’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview last month, he said he intends to run for reelection and sees facing challengers as a normal part of the process.
“People have a right to do what they want in a democracy,” he said. “But I’m focused on myself and what we can do as a leader of the 5th Council District and get the constituents to understand that every decision that we make is to improve their life.”
The freshman lawmaker is seen as Council’s most vulnerable member in the upcoming election, in large part because of how he got into office.
In 2023, several other candidates — including Wilkerson, who was Clarke’s preferred successor — were kicked off the ballot amid a series of legal challenges questioning the validity of their nominating petitions. Young ended up being the only Democrat on the ballot.
Since January 2024 when he was sworn in, Young’s tenure has been tumultuous. He has championed legislation that at times has sought to slow or halt housing construction in parts of the district, drawing the ire of developers. Constituent groups have loudly opposed Young, specifically over his controversial plans for a popular library branch in North Philly.
And he has publicly clashed with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration, including in 2024, when he took the rare step of introducing legislation to authorize Council to subpoena the mayor.
Jalon Alexander greets supporters and community members as he kicks-off his bid in the 5th Council District seat, at a campaign event in Fairmount on Saturday.Bastiaan Slabbers / For The Inquirer
Young, 40, an attorney by trade, has something of an independent streak. He has at times aligned with different political factions, and he does not fit neatly onto the Democratic ideological spectrum.
Neither do some of his opponents. Alexander, 33, said he has progressive views on workers’ rights and keeping homes affordable, and he has built relationships with some leaders of the city’s progressive political organizations.
But the tenor of Alexander’s campaign is pro-growth. He said he wants to cut the city’s business taxes with the goal of eventually eliminating the business, income, and receipts tax. And he said he’s committed to facilitating more development in the district, including through the city’s Turn the Key program that provides mortgage support to some first-time homeowners.
Alexander has been particularly critical of Young’s use of councilmanic prerogative, the unwritten rule that gives district Council members an extraordinary level of control over land-use decisions and construction projects in their district.
Young has used prerogative to attempt to obstruct projects he opposes, such as the redevelopment of the former Hahnemann University Hospital. He introduced legislation to ban residential housing development in the area, a move he said was to preserve the area’s job-generating capacity, but he did not advance the bill amid opposition from interest groups and Parker’s administration.
Alexander — who was born and raised in Strawberry Mansion and still lives in the neighborhood — said his campaign is targeting Democrats “all over the tent.”
“There’s room for progressives. There’s room for people who are loyal Democrats but feel let down by the establishment,” he said. “We’ve got one goal: We’re fully committed to removing and replacing Jeffery Young.”
Since it’s noontime on the first Thursday of the month, eight residents of Wesley Enhanced Living at Pennypack Park are chatting at the long table in the middle of the main dining room at Kelly’s Seafood in Northeast Philadelphia.
Back in the kitchen, twin brothers Brian and Brett Kelly and Brian’s son Tommy are knocking out the lunch orders. Crab cakes sizzle in sauté pans. Snapper soup bubbles in the kettles.
For the Wesley residents, this is the end of a longtime ritual.
Kelly’s Seafood, whose history stretches back 68 years, will close Aug. 31.
“When they leave today, we’ll all be crying,” said server Chris Brown, who has worked at Kelly’s since 1988. The Kelly brothers’ sister, Denise Barreras, nodded.
A few minutes later, their checks paid, the residents rose from the table.
The crew at Kelly’s (from left) Tom Kelly, siblings Brian Kelly, Denise Barreras, and Brett Kelly, server Chris Brown, and bartender Cathy Sims.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
And just as Brown had called it: tears and hugs.
Where will September’s first-Thursday lunch be? They’re not sure.
Kelly’s, one of the last of the Northeast fish houses, has been the setting for countless rituals like theirs, a place where people who came as children later brought their own children.
“People my age are saying they’ve been coming here since they were 10 years old,” said Brian Kelly, 62, who has been reading customers’ recollections since the closing was announced. “They’re talking about christenings, baptisms, graduations. It really makes you realize how many people have come through these doors over the years.”
The Kellys had hoped to make it to 70 years. Instead, the family has reached the point where keeping the restaurant going would require more than they are willing — or able — to give it.
Brett Kelly working the stove at Kelly’s.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Brian and Brett’s father, Ron, died in July 2023 at age 87. Of his nine grandchildren, only Brian’s son Tommy now works at the restaurant. An illness has sharply limited how much Brian can work, leaving Brett to pull double shifts since October.
The family announced on March 1 that Kelly’s was on the market, hoping to give employees and customers plenty of warning. In late July, with the restaurant still unsold, they decided that they needed to set an end date.
Kelly’s Seafood history
The story began in 1958, when Ron Kelly and his father, William T. Kelly, opened Kelly’s Grille, a luncheonette in a shopping center a few blocks from the current restaurant.
Founders William (left) and Ron Kelly, in a photo hanging at Kelly’s Seafood.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
William had worked on a milk wagon. Ron, newly out of military service, wanted to get into the restaurant business, and his father went along with him.
In 1964, they moved Kelly’s to 9362 Old Bustleton Ave., just off Bustleton Avenue and Welsh Road, and Kelly’s Seafood took shape. (It is unrelated to the long-ago Kelly’s on Mole Street in Center City.)
The family and restaurant became difficult to separate.
William lived in the apartment above Kelly’s and cleaned the bathrooms every morning. Ron and Jean Kelly’s four children — Denise, Tim, Brian, and Brett — all grew up working there.
Kelly’s Seafood lines its walls with memorabilia.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Brian and Brett walked over after school and spent Wednesdays and Thursdays in the basement, which they called “the dungeon,” breading shrimp and other seafood.
“We were about 12 years old,” Brian said. “Today they’d probably shut us down for child labor. Back then it was just part of growing up in the family business.”
Their brother Tim, now 63 and living in Florida, also started young, walking over after school to help. Eventually, all nine of Ron and Jean’s grandchildren worked at Kelly’s in some capacity.
The restaurant itself looks as if it has been accruing memories for nearly seven decades.
Seashells hang from netting at Kelly’s.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
The decorating scheme includes a decades-long accumulation of Shore-life artifacts — wood paneling, striped booths, fish prints, shells, ship models, string lights, and enough nautical memorabilia to outfit a small maritime museum.
The accumulation includes people.
Bartender Cathy Sims first came to Kelly’s as a customer, bringing her daughters here after their ring Mass at St. Hubert’s High. After she graduated from bartending school, Barreras hired her in 1997.
She never left.
“I love them,” Sims said. “They’re my best friends. And then I’ve got all my people who have been coming in for 20 years.”
Brown started waiting tables in June 1988 after a former Dunkin’ Donuts coworker told her that Kelly’s was hiring. “I came over, and the rest is history,” she said.
When the Kellys gathered the 25 employees in March to say the restaurant was for sale, they told them they would understand if anyone wanted to find another job.
Nobody left.
“They all said they’d stay through the end,” Brian said.
Preparing for the finale
The family wanted customers to have the same notice.
“A lot of restaurants close and all of a sudden there’s a note on the door, and sometimes even the staff doesn’t know about it,” Brett said.
The Kellys also wanted customers to have time to use their gift certificates. Brian said they have honored certificates dating to the mid-1990s and will reimburse anyone left with one after the closing.
But the March announcement caused confusion. Some customers thought Kelly’s had already closed.
Once the family set Aug. 31 as the final day, business surged again. One recent Wednesday was the busiest Wednesday Kelly’s had seen in three months.
“A lot of people are saying, ‘We’ve got to get the family out there one last time,’” Brett said.
And some are stocking up, especially on snapper soup.
Customers have been calling Brett to ask whether they can buy it by the quart and freeze it. He tried freezing a bucket during the pandemic and found that, aside from some crystallization, it held up well enough.
Now he is dispensing freezer advice along with soup.
One day last week, he thought he had made enough to get through the following day. That night, customers bought 10 quarts and nine pints. The Wesley group took six quarts. “They were lucky because I just made it,” he said.
Moving on
What Kelly’s cannot stockpile is another generation willing to take over the way the previous ones did.
Brett’s children worked here as teenagers, bussing tables, washing dishes, and doing whatever else was needed, but neither wanted the restaurant business.
“All the nieces and nephews worked here one way or another,” Brett said. “They all did their part here. But nobody wants to basically do what Brian and I did — be hands-on with it. So we knew it would probably end with us.”
Tommy works in the kitchen with his father and uncle, but he can’t run it alone. “Managing the business is a different world,” Brett said. “And we don’t have enough family coming in behind him to back him up.”
Brett has watched what the restaurant demanded of his own generation. “I think the best move for him is to go try something else and maybe enjoy life more than we did,” he said. “Now we’re going to enjoy life more.”
Brian’s illness hastened the decision. “I’m used to working all those hours, and I just can’t anymore,” Brian said. “I come in and help my brother when I can, but it’s not the same.”
The restaurant, meanwhile, keeps demanding attention, even now.
A month ago, an oven the Kellys had used for about 30 years died. It was too old to repair.
“I’m thinking, ‘Geez, I’ve got to get a new oven for, like, three months?’” Brett said.
They bought the oven.
The approximately 7,300-square-foot building — including its liquor license, equipment, furnishings, and attached apartment — is listed for $2 million. The Kellys say there are prospective buyers, though no deal has been completed, and they don’t know whether the next owner will operate it as a restaurant.
Nor do Brian and Brett know exactly what they will do after taking a well-earned break. They have kicked around the idea of someday opening something much smaller, perhaps selling Kelly’s staples such as snapper soup and crab cakes, or even operating a food truck.
Brown expects to find another job eventually. First, she plans to take some time off.
“I need to wrap my head around it,” she said.
After 38 years, she isn’t angry with the Kellys for their decision.
“I’m glad for them,” Brown said. “They deserve it. They deserve it.”
