Cheese steaks for the Jaguars!

Alexandria Mansfield, Florida Times-Union

Tue, December 20, 2022, 6:42 PM EST·2 min read

Philly's Finest owner Jeff Harris (left to right) and employees Gamseng Hkangma and Matt Mccrone pose Monday with the cheesesteaks to be delivered to Coach Doug Pederson and the Jacksonville Jaguars on behalf of the Philadelphia Eagles after Sunday's win against the Dallas Cowboys. (Photo: Submitted photo

The Jaguars gave the Eagles an early Christmas gift on Sunday when the team beat the Dallas Cowboys, and Philadelphia returned the favor Monday.

Jeff Harris, owner of Jacksonville restaurant Philly’s Finest, got the call for 35 cheesesteaks and 25 large fries to be delivered to Jaguars Coach Doug Pederson at TIAA Bank Field on Monday.

He said he was initially worried it was a customer who was just saying it was the Eagles ordering the food, but someone from the organization reached out to Harris and confirmed it was the real deal. Although orders of this size aren’t unusual for the restaurant, he said, it was unexpected to have someone from Philadelphia placing the order.

“Someone called in food and I made food, and the courier picked it up and brought it to the stadium,” Harris said.

A Jaguars spokesperson confirmed the cheesesteaks arrived at the office and “were promptly eaten.”

With the Cowboys' defeat to the Jaguars, NFC East division rivals Eagles can clinch the NFC’s No. 1 seed and a first-round playoff bye by winning just one of their three final games. Already in the playoffs, the Cowboys need to win their remaining games and the Eagles lose their remaining games for Dallas to win the division.

Philly’s Finest has been a staple of the community for almost 23 years and sees a “massive Eagles fan club” of about 200-250 people come in for every game with nearly every seat filled by 11:30 a.m. most Sundays.

A few months ago, the restaurant sold its one-millionth cheesesteak.

“We have a lot of Philly transplants,” Harris said. “So it wasn’t that crazy, but it was definitely unexpected to get a call from the Eagles.”

The reaction to the Jaguars win “was kind of crazy,” he added, because the Eagles game had just ended and Harris was in the process of switching to the next game when one TV in the back caught the end of the Jaguars game“The back of the restaurant started exploding, and when the [rest of the] TVs switched over, the whole place went crazy,” he said. “It was a double win — it was a triple win, really. Eagles won, Jaguars won, and Cowboys lost. It was great.