Monday, January 22, 2018

Lessons Learned About Sports Experiences In Philadelphia

Philadelphia is a die-hard sports town and they were definitely excited about their Eagles beating the Vikings in an NFC Championship game to go to the Super Bowl to try to beat the Patriots. As a result of the win, Philadelphia celebrated just like Philadelphians do: They climb flag poles, they drive Jeeps up the famous Rocky steps, and they hurt themselves on subway poles.

Yes, that's what went down in Philadelphia after the Eagles won, and the city tried so hard to prepare for the eventuality. It was still no effect. To give you a couple of examples, here's some Twitter clips of the chaos:





So, as you can see, Eagles fans being regular Philadelphia people. After a win, they go completely insane and try to wreck their own town, even in the name of a big win to the Super Bowl.

However, this is natural for this city and when you're a visiting fans like some Vikings fans were, you have to expect that you're going to be completely demolished mentally by the Eagles fans. Here are some ways that Vikings fans were disgusted by the behavior of Eagles fans:

-Vikings hats being stolen and used as urinals
-Random acts of violence, including Eagles fan pushing a Vikings fan onto the ground and punching him in the face.

A few Vikings fans did manage to make it back to Minnesota where, by the way, the Super Bowl will be and they told a local radio station, "It's a damper on everything, yes. Not interested in going to the Super Bowl anymore."

The fans say that the Eagles fans are going to prevent them from going, but it's also fair to say that Vikings fans should've seen this coming when their team was being obliterated by the Eagles for much of the game.

I am no way defending what these Eagles fans did, not only to the Vikings fans, but to their city. But let's understand something about the NFL, and it's something we all know too well: The NFL is not a place of calm behavior. It's a place where alcohol and fights can roam freely. It's not just limited to Eagles games. I've seen them many times, like in Raiders-Chargers games when I sometimes frequent. They happen there. It's everywhere. It's not just limited to Eagles fans.

This is a big lesson that everyone needs to learn, especially those who cover football, and those who go to sports: Fights happen, behavior like this happen, and there's nothing we can really do to stop it, no matter how hard we try. This is the nature of sports, and especially in football. Now look, Philadelphia has had trouble with this kind of rowdy behavior. It's happened at Phillies games a couple of times, especially when they won the World Series. But it's not unique. Every team and every sport has this. It doesn't mean that we need to make a big story out of it, even though I kind of am doing one right here.

So the Vikings fans, though I feel for them and I'm sorry they had to go through this, you have to understand the risks you get by going to Philadelphia. It's not a place where their fans will treat you nice when they win. This is Philadelphia sports. This is what sports is. There's no safe haven sports. It does have this, and in Philadelphia football, it always happens.

Some of the stuff that happened after the win was Friday, especially the buggy driving up the Rocky steps. However, it's all unacceptable behavior and a lot of people got arrested that night. It's still a learning experience, and I hope these Vikings fans learned a valuable lesson from all this.
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