Eagles to face the Chiefs in Super Bowl rematch; Birds fans celebrate, climb poles; man stabbed outside the Linc

Philly's celebration of the Eagles' NFC championship win has a bookish side.

At least a few copies of Inner Excellence have been thrown around — one literally — during Sunday's revelry. Released in 2020, the book, written by former Chicago Cubs minor league outfielder Jim Murphy, encourages athletes to perform with “a clear mind and unburdened heart,” the author previously told the Inquirer.

Inner Excellence entered the halls of Eagles lore earlier this month after A.J. Brown was caught on camera reading a copy of the book during the Eagles-Packers NFC playoff game. The book, Brown told the Inquirer, "gives me a sense of peace."

Commanders fans took over the Hard Rock Cafe before the NFC championship game. But it was awfully quiet on Sunday night.

Eagles fans celebrated outside the building. One man sitting on top of a truck stopped to pour champagne into a bystander’s mouth.

Another group started doing shots outside of the Hard Rock, while taking a selfie.

Zak Parsons makes stickers and signs for a living, so he thought long and hard how to capture his feelings toward Josh Harris, the managing parent of the Washington Commanders and the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 35-year-old who lives in Passyunk printed signs saying: “Josh Harris eats cheesesteaks with bell peppers.”

Harris, Parsons explains, is just like restaurants outside of Philly that try to seem authentic and fail.

Nina Cabral marched up Broad Street toward City Hall, waving an Eagles flag, a toddler strapped to her back.

She spent the day tailgating with her husband, Andrew. But the South Philly couple picked up the kids from their grandparents for the Broad Street celebration.

When the Eagles won the Super Bowl in 2018, Cabral was pregnant with her older child.

The last time Ashley Marcial was on Broad Street for an Eagles celebration, she fell off a bus stop shelter.

She said she “got lit” and fell 12 feet.

The famous fan was back on Broad Street to celebrate the Eagles NFC championship win against the Washington Commanders, armed with experience from last time.

Well, at least they apologized this time.

Once again, the Empire State Building lit up green and white following the Eagles' NFC championship victory. The New York City landmark shared it's change on social media with a simple message.

"I'm sorry I have to do this," the account said, sharing alongside its apology a video of the building lit up for the Birds' win.

The Eagles are heading to the Super Bowl!

For the second time in the last three seasons, the Birds have punched their ticket to the big game, Super Bowl LIX, in New Orleans on Feb. 9.

The Birds dominated the division-rival Commanders in the NFC championship game at the Linc, with three rushing touchdowns each from Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts. The Eagles defense also forced four turnovers to secure the 55-23 win.

Minutes before the conclusion of the NFC Championship, Philadelphia officials began closing roads in Center City around City Hall in anticipation of the Eagles' win.

Roads from 13th Street to 15th Street between Arch and Lombard Streets have been closed temporarily, the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management said on social media. Vehicles will not be allowed inside perimeter streets, the office added.

PennDot and the Pennsylvania State Police also closed off-ramps from I-676 to Broad Street in both directions.

As Washington fans made their way to the parking lot in the fourth half, the stands at the Linc officially became a party. And fans are ready to board flights to New Orleans.

“I’m going to the Super Bowl!,” said Rodney Bailey from Southwest Philadelphia.

Pat Skotarczak went with her daughter, Stephanie, to see the Eagles play in the Super Bowl in Minnesota in 2018 and in Arizona in 2023.

You don’t see that every day.

After Saquon Barkley got the Eagles down to the one, Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu committed two consecutive encroaching penalties, flinging himself over the Eagles’ offensive line, pushing the Eagles a few more inches toward the end zone. If that wasn’t enough, Commanders defensive end Jonathan Allen committed an encroachment penalty of his own right after.

“Washington has been advised that at some point, the referee can award a score if this type of behavior happens again,” the ref said after the third consecutive penalty.

When you look good, you play good.

Jalen Hurts is thriving on the field, combining for three touchdowns so far against the Commanders and looking like one of the best players on the field.Is that all due to Hurts’ incredible walk-in outfit?

Anyone would play well after Derek Guy, known on X as the menswear guy, complimented their outfit. Guy is a longtime menswear hobbyist who’s built a massive platform sharing his opinions on menswear – and his endorsement is a hard one to get.

Mary Aspell and Kelly Rementer have been standing outside Center City bar McGillin's Old Ale House long enough to have already made friends in line. They are among hundreds of fans dressed in Eagles gear waiting outside bars on Chestnut Street chanting “Fly, Eagles, fly,” (properly) spelling the team’s name, and jumping around to stay warm.

For Aspell, nothing compares to Philly, so standing in line for two hours to watch the game at a bar feels more than worth it.

As the pair waited, a man rand down Drury Street screaming “Go Eagles,” inciting cheers, screams, and loud claps from the waiting crowd.

The Eagles looked like they might run away and make the NFC championship game a laugher early before Washington struck back.

Now? Might be time to get the buses warmed up.

The Eagles have a 27-15 lead at halftime and will get the ball after the break. They led 14-3 late in the first quarter and needed an A.J. Brown touchdown late in the second quarter to bump their lead back to two scores, 27-12.

Eagles fans got quiet after the Washington Commanders scored their first touchdown of the game, but the crowd volume at the Linc wasn’t low for long.

A red zone completion by A.J. Brown on a fourth down made fans erupt.

Noise at the stands behind the end zone reached 107 decibels, the equivalent to a subway passing by, according to the app Decibel X. 

The Eagles just keep forcing turnovers.

On the Commanders’ second drive of the game, Zach Baun punched out Commanders receiver Dyami Brown’s catch and Reed Blankenship jumped on the ball near midfield.

The fumble was the Eagles’ seventh forced turnover of the playoffs, after recovering two fumbles against the Rams, one against the Packers, and picking off Packers quarterback Jordan Love three times.

Well, that didn’t take long.

On the Eagles’ first offensive play from scrimmage, Saquon Barkley did what he’s done all year – rip off a massive touchdown run, this one a 60-yarder, to put the Eagles on the board.

After the Commanders’ seven-minute drive stalled in the red zone and ended in a field goal, Barkley broke through multiple tackles and cut across the field to start the Birds with a bang.

E-A-G-L-E-S chants broke on SEPTA trains heading to South Philadelphia’s stadium complex hours before kickoff at the NFC Championship.

Catherine Joyce, 53, soaked it all on her way to game around noon. The Pottsville native came down from her Connecticut home to see the Eagles take on the Washington Commanders in a fight for a spot in Super Bowl LIX.

“It’s exhilarating,” she said.

In a sea of Eagles green, a cluster of burgundy and gold could be seen shining through in both M and N lots. 

Washington Commanders fans filled lot N 10 ahead of Sunday’s game listening to Washington themed remixes of iconic songs such “It’s all about the Benjamins” — replacing Benjamins with Washington — and engaging in friendly trash talk with Eagles fans as they walked by. Among those fans was Tailgate Ted.

“I’m not missing this,” Ted said. “We haven’t had this in 33 years. I wanted a place where all of our fans could come together and be safe behind enemy lines. I would have done this myself but honest to God there’s a target on my back because of what I do.“

After going through a warmup session on the field, Eagles center Cam Jurgens is officially active, but he may not start. A source told The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane that Jurgens wasn’t expected to play.

The Eagles left Jurgens off their list of inactive players, which was due 90 minutes before kickoff in the NFC championship game.

Jurgens, who only practiced Friday in a limited capacity, went through a few different drills on the field. General manager Howie Roseman was watching closely toward the end of Jurgens’ warmup, and then gave Tyler Steen a pat on the leg as Roseman walked off the field.

Some Washington Commanders fans were really proud of themselves for making reservations at the Hard Rock Cafe in Center City Saturday night. 

"We took over this place," a Commanders fan known as Tailgate Ted proudly told he fellow fans in a video shared on social media. "The entire restaurant, we took this place over."

The video was widely shared on X, where it was quickly mocked by Eagles fans.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said center Cam Jurgens (back) is a game-time decision ahead of the NFC championship game.

"We'll work him out, see how he's feeling," Sirianni told ESPN analyst and former Eagles star Jason Kelce Sunday afternoon.

If Jurgens can't play, the Eagles plan to move Landon Dickerson to center and Tyler Steen to left guard, according to the Inquirer's Jeff McLane.

Sorry, Eagles fans. There won't be a repeat performance of Vanya Sax's saxophone national anthem Sunday at the Linc.

Instead, Broadway star and Philly native Mary Kate “MK” Morrissey will sing the national anthem ahead of the NFC championship game against the Washington Commanders.

Morrissey will have the day off from her main gig on Broadway, where she plays Elphaba in the hit musical Wicked. But the Bishop Shanahan High School grad will be right at home at the Linc after growing up in a die-hard Eagles family.

All thermal comfort being relative, for tailgaters, for the players, for whoever all those people are on the sidelines, and the 67,000 or so crammed into Lincoln Financial Field Sunday for the NFC championship game, Sunday may feel like a spring break.

Temperatures during the Eagles-Washington Commanders game, which begins at 3 p.m., are forecast to be in the upper 30s to near 40.

While that actually may be a tick below the normal for a Jan. 25, “Compared to what it’s been like, it’s going to feel warmer,” said Joe DeSilva, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.

Jayden Daniels is the Commanders’ X factor. Heck, he might be the most pivotal player on the field in the NFC championship because he alone can offset the Eagles’ overall advantage. The rookie quarterback has been playing at that kind of level during a seven-game winning steak that included two road upsets in the playoffs. Can Daniels do it again in the rubber match against a divisional rival? It’s possible, but the Eagles are likely going to have to make some uncharacteristic mistakes for it to happen.

Daniels and the Commanders have been essentially the only offensive unit to burn Vic Fangio’s defense since the bye, and they did it despite five turnovers. The Eagles’ performance in that game last month needs to be graded on a curve because Jalen Hurts had been knocked out of it with a concussion. But it showed where the defense has deficiencies and why Fangio is unlikely to dial up as many blitzes on Sunday. He normally doesn’t like to send extra rushers and blitzed Daniels only 12.8 percent of the time vs. Washington in November. The quarterback was less than 100 percent after rushing back from a rib injury, but the Eagles held him to his lowest number of combined yards — 191 passing and only 17 rushing — in that victory.

A month later, Fangio blitzed at a rate of 43.5 percent and Daniels burned the Eagles for 178 yards and three touchdowns. He scrambled only once, but his legs are always a weapon. He has an innate sense of when to take off and when to get down. Daniels can be just as dangerous in offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury’s “gun-run” game which allows for designed quarterback runs. No offense in the NFL is in the shotgun as much as the Commanders, but it doesn’t make them predictable because Kingsbury has so much variance out of those sets.

Parking restrictions have been announced for traditional celebration areas such as South Broad Street and Cottman and Frankford Avenues in case the Eagles win the NFC championship game on Sunday.

There will also be a ban on drone use over celebrating crowds.

Officials on Thursday outlined steps the city is taking in preparation for the big game, and the huge masses of fans who will spill out into the streets if the Birds are victorious over the Washington Commanders. The game starts at 3 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Eagles will host the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, where there will be a familiar voice in the booth.

Seven-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady will call his first NFC championship game for Fox, part of the lucrative 10-year, $375 million deal he signed with the network after retiring. Joining him in the booth will be play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt, who grew up an Eagles fan in Giants country in North Jersey.

Brady has called three Eagles game this season, including the Birds’ wild-card win against the Green Bay Packers. The future Hall of Famer had no prior play-calling experience before being tossed in Fox’s No. 1 NFL booth, but unlike Tony Romo at CBS, Brady got mixed reviews out of the gate before settling more into his role as the season progressed. He was sharp calling last week’s divisional-round game between the Commanders and Lions, noticing before everyone else Detroit had 12 players on the field during a pivotal fourth-quarter play.

The Eagles will host the Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game Sunday, with the winner punching their ticket to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX.

Over in the AFC championship game, Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills will face off in the playoffs against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs for the fourth time in five seasons. Can the Bills finally get a win?

Here’s the remaining NFL playoff TV schedule (all times are Eastern):