Fond farewell to colleague who answered challenges with a smile
Before throwing cold water on the unrealistic expectations some fans have for the Eagles this year, here’s a tribute to the ultimate everyday teammate.
Several years ago, my life starting to unravel, or so I thought, I bumped into a colleague from work at the Jersey Shore. Joe Hart asked me how I was doing. I told him I’ve been better, which is not the thing you normally hear from someone coming off a vacation. He asked where I was staying. Always the victim, I told him nowhere.
Out of the goodness of his heart, no pun intended, Joe told me I was welcome to stay with him and his friend Patti at this little Rte. 47 motel about 45 minutes from the beaches. Joe was younger than me, the woman a couple years older.
It was an evening I’ll never forget as we all spoke for hours at several places and the conversations were so meaningful I pumped the brakes and listened. Insurmountable issues, I learned, were merely everyday challenges.
That night was about connecting, and Joe Hart, the Delaware County Daily Times editor who passed away Tuesday from a stroke, could almost instantly do that and bond like no one
I’ve known. He’s the guy that always picked up the phone when you called, answered the email promptly and above all, greeted you with a smile or a laugh so disarming you looked forward to receiving it. Joe was the guy you trusted unconditionally, and it chokes me up he’s gone.
Reading the testimonials, Joe was there for so many people in just his 40 years at the paper he couldn’t have had much time for himself. He was just 60 years old when he passed, a shame for anyone with so much to offer.
The Rte. 47 motel where we spoke is closed, the building sporting a for sale sign for years. Each time I pass, those memories return because like a lot of people who knew him, I’m truly fortunate enough to have a Joe Hart story.
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Now, about those Eagles expectations …
Obviously, the Eagles are more talented on paper than the team that finished 9-8 last season and was thumped in the playoffs by the Bucs.
Receiver A.J. Brown alone would have gotten them to 10 wins last year. But let’s not forget what a struggle it was for the Eagles to squeeze into the postseason.
In the four-game win streak that clinched a playoff berth, the Eagles beat Washington and COVID-replacement quarterback Garrett Gilbert, the Giants and COVID-replacement quarterbacks Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm, and Washington with backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke by four points on a Rodney McLeod interception in the end zone with 24 ticks left. Gardner Minshew destroyed the Jets in the other win.
The additions of pass rusher Haason Reddick and defensive tackle Jordan Davis obviously will help the defense. The rest of the imports are low-risk signees that other teams didn’t want.
Cornerback James Bradberry is nowhere near as talented as Darius Slay, although you’d never know it from fanboys and aggregators raving about the Birds having their best set of starting cornerbacks since Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown (please, not even close).
The Eagles still are enormously reliant on quarterback Jalen Hurts, who hasn’t flashed the pure passing skills Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford and Jimmy Garoppolo did on the way to winning playoff games last year.
Brown will help and DeVonta Smith is the most talented player on the Eagles, bar none. If Hurts can exponentially improve his 61.3 percent completion accuracy (53.5 in the playoffs) and cut his total of nine interceptions almost in half, the Eagles will be a force.
If Hurts doesn’t you can almost count on clashes of egos among Brown, Smith and tight
end Dallas Goedert, all of whom are playmakers worthy of the football.
That said, it will be an interesting season for an Eagles team that once again has limited the rugged offseason work to keep players healthy for the marathon season.
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Last but not least, a heartfelt thanks to Ridley Park resident Zack Hill, the Senior Director of Communications with the Flyers who is retiring July 1.
Now in his 30th year with the Flyers, Hill made life covering the team, and prior to that the 76ers, more compelling by doing his skilled best to accommodate the players and the media. He appreciated the strong Delaware County interest in the Flyers, who have always had a caring fan base in Delaware County.
Hill got the job done by showing a sense of humor through good times and bad. You never knew when you’d get a text from Hill, awaiting a key player at a news conference or such, inquiring about the hole in the knee of your designer jeans or your lack of socks at the frigid WFC.
That put life in perspective and pretty much shattered the needless time spent worrying about making deadline. So did the horrible accident years ago Hill survived helping another motorist with a flat tire on the Girard Point Bridge.
From one old-timer to another not so old-timer, “is it me, Zack, is it me?”