When CNN anchor Jake Tapper isn’t doing his nightly news show or moderating presidential debates or writing spy novels, he is a rabid Philadelphia sports fan.
Tapper joined The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on Wednesday to talk sports and politics and ripped off a chef’s-kiss top-five Philadelphia athletes of all time list that somehow included two Eagles quarterbacks from the past five years.
https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/1704591323754283156
Tapper jumped easily to the no-brainers off the top:
Hall of Famer and three-time MVP Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt.
Hall of Famer and four-time MVP Sixers forward Julius Erving.
Hall of Famer and two-time Hart trophy-winning Flyers center Bobby Clarke.
Then, he got to the Birds.
Tapper was born in 1969, meaning outside the 1980 Super Bowl, he suffered through a lot of mediocre-to-bad Eagles seasons until this century. But instead of Donovan McNabb or DeSean Jackson or even Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, Tapper decided there’s no time like the present.
Jalen Hurts got the fourth nod. Fine. Underdog story in college. Second in MVP voting last year plus a Super Bowl appearance. Great future ahead of him at age 25.
But the real whopper came next when Tapper went back to the Birds and selected Nick Foles.
“The season’s starting and I’m trying to get excited,” Tapper explained.
To be fair, Tapper was coerced by Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, who had Foles on his list, as well as the fictional Rocky Balboa at No. 1. But deep down you can see Tapper wanted Foles in. Like so many Philadelphia fans, they want to champion the true greats that have passed through their city, but really they just love Foles.
At least Tapper can admit it.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.