{"id":549861,"date":"2026-04-10T22:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549861\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T22:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T22:54:20","slug":"flyers-fans-link-teams-winning-streak-to-gifting-pope-leo-a-custom-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/549861\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers fans link team&#8217;s winning streak to gifting Pope Leo a custom jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDO IT. WE STILL HAVE SOME LEFT OVER. IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE ONE. YEAH, I LIKE THAT A LOT. YEAH. ALL RIGHT. WELL, KEEPING THINGS A BIT HOLY THIS EVENING, A FAMILY OF PHILADELPHIA FLIERS FANS SAYS THEIR TEAM\u2019S RECENT HOT STREAK MAY BE BECAUSE THEY GAVE POPE LEO A BLACK AND ORANGE C1  C1 WHEN THEY WEREABLE TO CATCH THE POPE\u2019S ATTENTION. YOU SAW C1 THAT WOULD PUT THEM C1  C1 LIKE, I CAN\u2019T BELIEVE C1 AND THEN WE HAD C1 AWAY C1 HAVE C1 THIS C1 COINCIDENCES? I GUESS, C1 CHICAGO WHITE SOX. SO WHY WOULD HE POINT OUT A FLIERS JERSEY? WELL, OF COURSE, HE HAS TIES TO PHILLY. HE ATTENDED VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, WHERE HE RECEIVED A BACHELOR\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Flyers fans link team&#8217;s winning streak to gifting Pope Leo a custom jersey<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768961368_554_wgal.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"WGAL logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 6:45 PM EDT Apr 10, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wgal.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA family of Philadelphia Flyers fans believes their team&#8217;s recent hot streak may be connected to a custom jersey they gifted Pope Leo during a visit to the Vatican.  Valerie Giacobbe and Jesse Gennett, from Media in Delaware County, were visiting family in Italy when they caught the pope&#8217;s attention. His team accepted the black and orange number 14 sweater they had made for him, featuring &#8220;Pope Leo&#8221; on the back.  Flyers go on a runThat same night, March 18, the Flyers won their game, kicking off a three-game winning streak that brought their record to 9-3 over a stretch and moved them into an Eastern Conference playoff spot.  Vatican moment draws attention&#8221;I mean, right when we did it, we were just kind of like in disbelief. We just kept rewatching the videos like can&#8217;t believe that happened. We&#8217;re like, nobody&#8217;s going to believe us. And then we like had clips of it. And then it was just weird. And I believe, like, right away, they, kind of went on, like, they won like three games,&#8221; Giacobbe said.  &#8220;It&#8217;s crazy, the momentum that the Flyers have gained since giving him this jersey. It&#8217;s, it&#8217;s like, I said, it&#8217;s just surreal,&#8221; Gennett said. &#8220;Like, if you believe in coincidences, I guess, you know, this is the biggest one.&#8221;  Pope\u2019s sports tiesPope Leo, the first American pope, is known to be a big sports fan, particularly of the Chicago White Sox.His connection to the Flyers may stem from his ties to the Philadelphia area, as he attended Villanova University near Philadelphia, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A family of Philadelphia Flyers fans believes their team&#8217;s recent hot streak may be connected to a custom jersey they gifted Pope Leo during a visit to the Vatican.  <\/p>\n<p>Valerie Giacobbe and Jesse Gennett, from Media in Delaware County, were visiting family in Italy when they caught the pope&#8217;s attention. His team accepted the black and orange number 14 sweater they had made for him, featuring &#8220;Pope Leo&#8221; on the back.  <\/p>\n<p>Flyers go on a run<\/p>\n<p>That same night, March 18, the Flyers won their game, kicking off a three-game winning streak that brought their record to 9-3 over a stretch and moved them into an Eastern Conference playoff spot.  <\/p>\n<p>Vatican moment draws attention<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I mean, right when we did it, we were just kind of like in disbelief. We just kept rewatching the videos like can&#8217;t believe that happened. We&#8217;re like, nobody&#8217;s going to believe us. And then we like had clips of it. And then it was just weird. And I believe, like, right away, they, kind of went on, like, they won like three games,&#8221; Giacobbe said.  <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s crazy, the momentum that the Flyers have gained since giving him this jersey. It&#8217;s, it&#8217;s like, I said, it&#8217;s just surreal,&#8221; Gennett said. &#8220;Like, if you believe in coincidences, I guess, you know, this is the biggest one.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>Pope\u2019s sports ties<\/p>\n<p>Pope Leo, the first American pope, is known to be a big sports fan, particularly of the Chicago White Sox.<\/p>\n<p>His connection to the Flyers may stem from his ties to the Philadelphia area, as he attended Villanova University near Philadelphia, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DO IT. WE STILL HAVE SOME LEFT OVER. IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE ONE. YEAH, I LIKE THAT A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[62434,29143,1468,5,62406,3830,4,1467,56,5205,62404,62433,62435],"class_list":{"0":"post-549861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-custom-jersey","9":"tag-delaware-county","10":"tag-flyers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jesse-gennett","13":"tag-media","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","17":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","18":"tag-pope-leo","19":"tag-valerie-giacobbe","20":"tag-visit-to-the-vatican"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116382877622484450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}