Counting down | Sports Daily Newsletter

Almost there.

The countdown is on to the big game. The Super Bowl is all the bigger this year because the beloved Birds are in it.

Although the adage in sports is “May the best team win,” sometimes, individual players are able to influence the game in outsize ways.

David Murphy breaks down the three best players for the Chiefs and investigates how they might turn the big game on its head.

But who knows, perhaps Jalen Hurts has grown weary of hearing who is supposedly the best quarterback in the Super Bowl. Perhaps tight end Dallas Goedert will be inspired to keep up with or surpass Travis Kelce. And speaking of the Kelce brothers, Travis beat Jason the last time the Eagles and Chiefs played in 2021. The elder Kelce should be especially motivated to even the score for sibling bragging rights in the game that matters most.

So maybe everything adds up to Super Birds on Sunday.

Only six days away.

— Andrea Canales, Inquirer Sports Staff, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

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Trey Burton threw one of the most memorable passes in Eagles history, but the tight end found that it was not easy to move on from the “Philly Special” in 2018. The next season, Burton had some anxious moments when the Chicago Bears asked him to run a similar play.

Two lifelong Eagles fans relocated long ago to Kansas City, where both are a big deal in that other form of football.

Temple great Joe Klecko has a chance at making the Pro Football Hall of Fame this week for his time with the New York Jets. Klecko is already a Hall of Famer at telling tales from his days in Chester and at Temple.

Next: The Eagles play the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. (Fox29).

With the NBA trade deadline on the horizon, 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey has vowed to “turn over every rock” and ensure he explores every option to improve his team before 3 p.m. on Thursday, when teams can no longer make deals this season. He explained his team’s intent and much more in a one-on-one discussion with The Inquirer’s Gina Mizell.

Joel Embiid lost not only a game, but his perfect record against the New York Knicks.

Next: The Sixers visit the Boston Celtics at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN).

The 2021-22 season couldn’t have gone worse for Kevin Hayes. The Flyers forward lost his brother Jimmy right before the start of the season and then struggled through a nagging injury and three separate surgeries during the campaign.

A year later and Hayes is in a much better spot. The 30-year is having a career season (45 points in 50 games) and was named an All-Star for the first time in his career. Giana Han and Olivia Reiner caught up with Hayes at All-Star weekend to discuss his up-and-down last two years and why being an All-Star was extra special for his family and his late brother.

Next: The Flyers host the New York Islanders at 7 p.m. Monday (NBCSP).

Not this time: The Temple Owls fell short in their bid to upset Houston again. The No. 3 Cougars cruised to an 81-65 win.

La Salle tops St. Joe’s: Josh Nickelberry scored 16 points in a 73-65 Explorers win.

In 1997 the statistically best game by the Flyers’ legendary line known as the Legion of Doom was produced against the Montreal Canadiens in a 9-5 victory.

The line set a team record with 16 points. John LeClair scored four goals and added two assists. Mikael Renberg had one goal and four assists. Eric Lindros had one goal and four assists.

The Legion of Doom led the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final that year, where they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in a four-game sweep.

I grew up in Pasadena, California in a time when the PAC-8 (now PAC-12) was dominated mostly by USC and the conference owned the Big 10. Although Jimmy Jones predated him as a Black PAC-8 quarterback, it was Warren Moon who was really on my radar. I think I just expected USC to win stuff so Jones didn’t make much of an impression, but when Warren Moon took Washington to the Rose Bowl championship, it made me sit up and take notice even though I was no longer living in California at that point. (Maybe it helped that my grad school roommate was a UW graduate.) I was totally flummoxed that the NFL wasn’t going to give a Black man a chance to play his position, and I cheered him on as he took his talents to Canada and watched from afar as he tore up the CFL. When he finally returned to the NFL, I was delighted to see him succeed so spectacularly. — Carlisle L.

We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Jonathan Tannenwald, David Murphy, Giana Han, Olivia Reiner, Aaron Tully, Cayden Steele, Keith Pompey, Gina Mizell, Matt Breen and Mike Jensen.