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Philly wakes up to snow, Eagles take on Saints in New Orleans | Morning Newsletter

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Eagles fan, Art Violi brushes the snow from his eagle wood carving during a snow winter day in Springfield, Pa. Sunday, January 13, 2019.  JOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer
Eagles fan, Art Violi brushes the snow from his eagle wood carving during a snow winter day in Springfield, Pa. Sunday, January 13, 2019. JOSE F. MORENO / Staff PhotographerRead moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

    The Morning Newsletter

    Start your day with the Philly news you need and the stories you want all in one easy-to-read newsletter

Happy Sunday everyone. Hope you enjoyed waking up to snow this morning. It may be cold here in Philly, but it’ll be a pleasant temperature inside the Superdome down in New Orleans, where the Eagles have a chance to avenge an embarrassing loss to the Saints this afternoon as they make another surprising run for the Super Bowl.

Ray Boyd and Tauhid Chappell (morningnewsletter@philly.com)

The week ahead

  1. We’re getting this week started with yet another Eagles playoff tilt. Today at 4:40 p.m., the underdogs will be in The Big Easy for a very difficult match-up with Drew Brees and the Saints. Three of our four beat writers are in agreement about how this one will play out.

  2. A winter weather advisory is still in place for parts of our region until Monday morning, with forecasts predicting another few inches in some spots. Be careful if you plan to head outside today. 

  3. Philadelphia Narcotics Bureau supervisors Inspector Raymond Evers and Chief Inspector Anthony Boyle have been accused of encouraging narcotics cops to falsify paperwork of low-level suspects to turn them into confidential informants and hide the information from the District Attorney’s Office, according to an Internal Affairs report. Hundreds of arrests made during and after Evers' yearlong tenure in leadership at Narcotics could be tainted.

  4. Saturday marked the 22nd day of the government shutdown, making it the longest in U.S. history. Based on President Trump’s remarks last week, this shutdown could continue for quite some time and many federal workers are trying to figure out life without their regular pay.

  5. The murder trial of Joshua Hupperterz, accused of killing Temple student Jenna Burleigh, is expected to continue this week. Last week, Hupperterz’s former roommate testified that he was not involved in the murder of the 22-year-old woman. 

This week’s most popular stories

Behind the story with Jeff McLane

Each week we go behind the scenes with one of our reporters or editors to discuss their work and the challenges they face along the way. We caught up with Eagles beat writer Jeff McLane as he traveled to New Orleans to cover the Birds' NFC divisional round showdown with the Saints. McLane delves into the ups and downs of following the defending Super Bowl champs and shares his key to victory.

How would you describe covering the Eagles of the last two seasons compared to seasons before? Super Bowl win aside, is there something vastly different about this bunch?

I was just thinking about how I hadn’t covered an Eagles playoff victory in my first eight seasons on the beat, but over the last two years they’ve now won at least four. There’s always a lot of work, particularly from the start of training camp to the final game, but the playoffs only add to the load, and you never know when the ride will end.

As for any differences about the team, I’d say there are far less primma donnas on the Eagles roster than there have been previously, which typically makes for a good locker room and more media-friendly players.

What’s the biggest challenge in covering a professional football team? What’s your favorite thing about the job?

Every job has its hassles, but there isn’t much for me to gripe about. I get to watch and write about football, after all. And there’s always someone to read because of the great local interest in the Eagles, win or lose. But there is intense competition for scoops, exclusives and even a nugget to add to a story. There is competition among more than a dozen local reporters assigned to cover the team daily, other print reporters and columnists, radio hosts and television broadcasters, and many national reporters who cover the NFL. There is even competition — however healthy — within our staff. The playoffs only amp up the race.

I enjoy uncovering a story that’s unknown, whether it’s something that reflects well on an individual, the team or a subject, or something outside forces have tried to suppress. Many assume that reporters are fans of the teams they cover. If you consider yourself a journalist first, then your only rooting interest should be for the best story. I cover the Eagles as if I were assigned to cover the White House. How could anyone trust what I wrote if I took sides?

Is there a moment from this past season that you would say best sums up the spirit of this team?

I’ve been around losing teams and this one smelled like a loser after the 48-7 loss in New Orleans. The schedule was favorable the rest of the way, so I never counted the Eagles out, but their situation was dire. Still, they kept winning, and even after falling in Dallas, I thought they would play hard throughout the remainder of the season, even if they fell short of the playoffs. So that would be my moment: battling the Cowboys and taking them into overtime even though so much had previously gone against them in that game.

Headed into today’s match-up with the Saints, what’s the most important factor that would lead to an Eagles win?

Pressuring Drew Brees. But the Eagles must accomplish a few goals if they are to get to one of the NFL’s most difficult quarterbacks to move off his spot. They must limit the Saints on the ground and force third and longs. They must tackle well on short passes. They must mix up their coverages to keep Brees off balance when he does drop to throw. They must throw in a few blitzes. And the secondary must give the four-man line more than 2.5 seconds to get to Brees before he throws.

Contact Jeff McLane at jmclane@phillynews.com or on Twitter @Jeff_McLane. You can also listen to Jeff McLane and fellow beat writer Zach Berman on the Birds' Eye View podcast.

Through Your Eyes | #OurPhilly

Let them know, @bhalda. To be the champs, you got to beat the champs. 🦅

Tag your Instagram posts or tweets with #OurPhilly and we’ll pick our favorite each day to feature in this newsletter and give you a shout out!

#CuriousPhilly: Have a question about our community? Ask us!

Since Curious Philly launched in 2018, we’ve answered more than a dozen questions from the community, from how street signs are repaired to why recycling is actually costing Philadelphia money. These questions couldn’t have been answered without our readers, so thank you for helping us help you! Something on your mind? No question is too big or too small, so feel free to ask us.

Our readers' latest question: Why have the 39 cast-bronze bells found along the Avenue of the Arts stopped chiming? Will they ever ring again?

The answer: The bells, which were made in the Netherlands and marked the completion of a $15 million South Broad Street renovation, won’t be ringing anytime soon.

What we’re...

  1. Eating: Hand-painted bonbons from Aurora Grace, a new confection shop and bakery that just opened up in Society Hill.

  2. Drinking: Rival Bros. loose-leaf tea which can now be brewed at home, much to the delight of their customers. 

  3. Watching: Surviving R. Kelly, the six-hour Lifetime docu-series that’s a troubling but necessary look at the famed R&B singer’s history of alleged sexual abuse. 

  4. Traveling to: Patagonia, Chile, after reading about our colleague Bethany Ao’s transformational journey while hiking more than 50 miles along the stunning Torres del Paine.

Comment of the week

“The conversations of keeping Foles and trading Carson need to start. Not emotionally, they have already begun. But logically. We clearly have a winner in Foles. A Wentz trade would return significant future draft picks.. AND, when the time comes, what better QB on earth to mentor and nurture an understudy than Foles.” — 809308, on the stellar play of Nick Foles and what that should mean for Carson Wentz’s future in Philly.

Your Daily Dose of | Failure

Most academics love to brag about their accomplishments. Temple University’s Doug Webber instead focuses on showing his students how his failures helped lead him to success.