The 8-1 Eagles are on their bye week this week, which means Sunday is going to be a perfect day to get those Christmas decorations up three weeks too early. It’s going to be 49 and partly cloudy, so grab your ladder and get the icicle lights up (flashing, preferably). That, or you could sit inside and watch the NFL RedZone channel like most Eagles fans will do. “Hey…I’m scouting the Cowboys! I’ll put the damn inflatable Frosty out next week!”
The Cowboys play in Atlanta at 4:25 p.m. by the way, so you have pretty much all day to do whatever things adult humans do on Sunday when they aren’t watching football. Or, perhaps there’s no better time to check in on the rest of the Philly sports landscape on the only Sunday the Birds will have off until maybe the Super Bowl.
It’s just … there’s nothing else going on this Sunday. Nothing.
UPDATE: There is one thing. (See below.)
The Sixers and Flyers both play Saturday, with the Flyers hosting the Minnesota Wild at 7 p.m. and the Sixers playing at Golden State at 8:30 p.m. ET. Neither team plays Sunday, but the Sixers play again Monday against the Clippers, while the Flyers travel to the Wild Tuesday.
Temple football plays tonight night at Cincinnati, while the Temple basketball team doesn’t start their season until next Thursday after an exhibition game last night.
Villanova kicks off their season tonight against Columbia — at Wells Fargo Center at 8:30 p.m. on Fox Sports 2 — while Drexel opens at home against Bowling Green.
The other three of the City 6 start this Saturday, as Saint Joe’s opens at Toledo, Penn opens at Fairfield and La Salle hosts Saint Peter’s.
There are a few big high school football games in the city this weekend between several ranked teams, but all those are also tonight or Saturday.
None of the local DI colleges have much of anything going on this Sunday. Saint Joe’s women’s basketball plays against Niagara, but that’s in Lewiston, N.Y. (you can watch it online here if you really want.) Drexel’s women’s hoops team plays at Penn State and you can listen to that game online if so inclined.
Temple, Villanova and La Salle have nothing at all on their athletics schedules, while Penn has seven fencers going to the Junior North America Cup in Kansas City this weekend and Penn is also hosting Drexel in squash.
This seems odd, considering the Eagles are off, that no team scheduled anything the day millions of local sports fans would not be tethered to their televisions or tailgating outside the Linc painted head to toe in Eagle green. Not even the local ABA team, the Philly Cannons, are playing Sunday. They’re on the road Saturday against the Reading Wizards, which — given the quality of talent in the ABA — might be a team of actual wizards.
The only other notable sporting event in the city Sunday is the Jefferson Rams — the combined team of students from Philadelphia University and Thomas Jefferson University playing under the name Jefferson — facing American International at Holy Family University at 12 p.m. just before those Holy Family Tigers host Merrimack College. I looked for at least 10 minutes to find tickets for this doubleheader and the Holy Family website doesn’t have that information for any event.
Their new redesigned website says the games are being played in the Campus Center, so pretty much drive to the Holy Family campus in the Northeast (or go on a Regional Rail adventure), find a spot to park and walk in. Tell them you’re an Eagles fan trying to get out of doing chores on an off week for the Birds and there is literally nothing else going on in the city. Who knows, they might let you sit on the bench.
It’s that or nothing this Sunday for Philly sports fans. Well, not nothing.
With a break in the action, Cindy and I traveled to NY today to see Bette Midler in Hello Dolly. Her energy level is amazing. A great day!
— Merrill Reese (@mreeseeagles) November 9, 2017
UPDATE: This Sunday, Lincoln Financial Field will be in use (hint: if you’re going to put a calendar on your facility website, you should actually update it.) The International Unity Cup finale is being held at the Linc this Sunday. It’s open to everyone, and Jamaica plays Puerto Rico at 3 p.m. in the third place game, while Sierra Leone takes on Liberia in the championship match at 6 p.m.
That definitely beats putting up lights.
