PHILADELPHIA — Dawn Staley was talking about the balance of management and expectations when Nick Sirianni joined his team’s most high-profile players in the room. The decorated coach of the South Carolina women’s basketball team, who’d begun her Hall of Fame playing career at Dobbins Tech High in North Philadelphia, had spoken with Sirianni while attending a 76ers-Knicks playoff game and agreed to visit the NovaCare Complex in June.

Staley met with players who belonged to the Philadelphia Eagles’ leadership council. Among them: Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley. They talked about the team’s desire to win. They talked about motivating teammates, how praising others aloud in the locker room can inspire others to also step up. They talked about how it’s really the little things that produce winning in a high-stakes environment.

It was “a very engaging session” that lasted about two hours, Staley told The Athletic. She left encouraged — both by the discussion and that one had happened at all. Others might have considered it “ludicrous” to speak with a woman in relation to “such a rough and tough sport,” Staley said. But they’d understood “success is relatable.”

Sirianni, too. He’d equated their teams. Their athletes. Their…

The recently retired Jason Kelce is headed to ESPN to be part of its “Monday Night Football” pregame show, sources briefed on the move told The Athletic.

Kelce, who just retired after what is considered a Hall of Fame career with the Philadelphia Eagles, was sought after by multiple networks, but is slated to land on ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown.”

ESPN declined to comment.

Kelce and his brother, Travis, have a popular podcast called “New Heights.” Jason, 36, has been interested in media and drew interest from NBC, CBS and Amazon, among others. He and his wife, Kylie, already had a pre-existing relationship with Amazon as they did a documentary series called, “Kelce,” which followed him around during his final season. Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night set is already pretty packed. NBC and CBS were both interested in adding Kelce to their Sunday desks.

The Disney upfronts are two weeks away and Kelce is likely to be a part of it. ESPN also has picked up Bill Belichick, the other biggest NFL media free agent of this offseason. Belichick will appear weekly on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Mondays during the NFL season. McAfee…

NFL team owners collect millions in revenue. They wield outsized power over their organizations and in their communities. They point to the bottom line, wins and losses, when firing coaches and executives, sometimes without giving them much time. But their own won-lost records appear nowhere.

Even people who follow the NFL closely might not know whether Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross owns a better record than New York Giants owner John Mara (he does).

They might not know whether female owners account for two of the five highest winning percentages since taking over their teams (they do).

They might not know that the only team without a traditional owner could lose 200 games overnight without dipping below .500 (the Green Bay Packers could).

They might not know that five of the last six owners to buy (rather than inherit) a team make up the bottom five in win percentage (they do — the lone exception is the Buffalo Bills’ Terry Pegula).

Some of these ownership situations are difficult to evaluate for reasons such as owners allowing their offspring to operate their teams. I’ve used simple criteria in ranking owners from worst to best win rates below. For our purposes, wins and losses are counted for owners after the NFL has approved their purchases; after an owner…

Kelee Ringo answered a phone call from Eagles general manager Howie Roseman a few minutes into Day 3 of the draft. His belated wait to enter the NFL had ended. Sitting next to him, directly to his left with a smile stretched across her face, was his mother, Tralee Hale.

The significance of sitting next to each other shouldn’t have been lost on the mother and son during this phone call. They remember the calls three years earlier.

“There were certain situations that we didn’t know if we would overcome, and she was able to figure out a way,” Ringo said in an interview with The Athletic this week, days before Mother’s Day.

Ringo left for Georgia on June 3, 2020, and his mother wondered if the year could become any worse. This was during the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. She had been laid off from her job as her son enrolled in college across the country, leaving her as an empty nester.

She decided she would finally make herself a priority. She needed her eyes checked. A visit to the dentist awaited. Both paled compared to something else.

“I’m embarrassed and humbled to say that I actually had a palpable mass located at 10 o’clock on my left breast that I had actually been ignoring for nine months,” Hale told The Athletic. “Just being a single mother and…

The Eagles and Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay have reached an agreement on a two-year extension, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Thursday. NFL Network first reported the news. Here’s what you need to know:

• Slay, 32, earned his fifth Pro Bowl spot during the 2022 season with three interceptions and 14 pass defenses.
• The Eagles acquired Slay in a trade with the Lions in March 2020.
•  The cornerback has 26 career interceptions and 133 pass breakups during his 10 seasons with Philadelphia and Detroit.

GO DEEPER

NFL free agency 2023 best available players: Lamar Jackson, C.J. Gardner-Johnson lead our list

Backstory

The Eagles initially planned to release Slay, and he shared a tweet Wednesday morning indicating he would be leaving Philadelphia to join a different team.

Nothing but love Philly!! Lets see where we heading next..

— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) March 15, 2023

However, the Eagles’ decision on the cornerback changed. Later Wednesday, the Eagles were working to retain Slay, a league source told The Athletic. Slay tweeted Wednesday night declaring his return to Philadelphia, as did his wife Jennifer.

Back like I never left!!! Run it back

— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) March 16, 2023

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Why Slay’s return makes…

PHOENIX — Nick Sirianni vacationed with his family in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in January 2021 while the Eagles were one week into their coaching search. He didn’t pack a suit because he didn’t expect the vacation to include a job interview. No other franchise had requested Sirianni for its vacancy.

The Eagles interviewed coaches about 50 miles north at owner Jeffrey Lurie’s home in Palm Beach and asked Sirianni to visit. For someone who wasn’t necessarily the hot name on the list of prospective coaching candidates, this wasn’t like showing up to the first date in style.

Sirianni compared his first interview with the Eagles to the first date with his wife — which he confirmed went well.

“The interview went for about eight hours and they asked me to come back the next day,” Sirianni said. “You just have that feeling like, ‘Hey, this is good back and forth. We see things similar.’ I’m really able to articulate what I want to do with the team, offensively maybe, what is important position-wise, the culture.”

The Eagles hired him, and it could be forgiven if the general sentiment was, Nick who? No other franchise interviewed Sirianni to become a head coach.

Then again, Andy Reid was in the same position 22 years earlier. He was a quarterbacks coach in Green…

Follow Chiefs vs Eagles live at the Super Bowl.

Darius Slay is never more popular in the Philadelphia Eagles’ locker room than he is on Fridays. That’s when Slay walks around with his arms stretched by a box filled with individual cups of banana pudding, handing them to teammates who spend the week hankering for their fix.

The pudding is a specialty of Jenn Slay, Slay’s wife. She started making small batches on occasion for Slay’s teammates, and they’ve grown in popularity ever since. The dessert is now a weekly ritual — as Slay is often reminded.

“I literally talk to him every day about bringing that banana pudding,” said defensive tackle Javon Hargrave.

When a team makes the Super Bowl, there’s often a search for the secret sauce. With the Eagles, that might be the pudding.

“This s— is good!” Slay said.

“Best I ever had in my life,” safety K’Von Wallace said.

“Any time she makes the banana pudding for the group,” said safety Marcus Epps, “it makes my day.”

The story behind the pudding originates in Detroit, where Slay spent the first seven years of his career. Jenn learned the recipe from Elise Tate, the wife of former NFL wide receiver Golden Tate. Jenn made a batch for Slay’s teammates, and he came home and told her they wanted more.

“So…

PHILADELPHIA — One Sunday back in late October, Steve Spagnuolo made a pilgrimage to one of his favorite bars, a corner spot at the corner of 11th Street and McKean in the heart of South Philadelphia. Big Charlie’s Saloon — a two-room dive with a brick facade — has been in the neighborhood since the ’70s, and it has all the makings of a South Philly joint: Weathered wood paneling, jukebox in the corner, cold beer on the menu and the owner Paulie posted up on a stool at the bar.

What makes Big Charlie’s different from every other corner bar, however, is its almost spiritual obsession with the Kansas City Chiefs, an out-of-town football team that plays its home games 1,100 miles away.

The strange football allegiance is what piqued the interest of Spagnuolo, a long-time Philly resident who became the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator in 2019. So he made a visit with his wife Maria, a Philly native, and then … they kept coming back. Spagnuolo popped in after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2020. Maria bonded with the staff and became an honorary bartender, pulling a 15-hour shift for charity. In October, with the Chiefs on a bye week, Spagnuolo returned again, fulfilling a promise to bring his Super Bowl ring. 

“It’s a unique group,” Spagnuolo said. “Right…