Philly Front Office

As you get older, friends move away and you see them less and less.  Sure, there are bachelor parties and weddings and you have some more great times but they become fewer and fewer. You need a reason to get together. That’s one of the best things about having the Eagles.

As you may have guessed, the above is no hypothetical. For a few years now, my oldest Eagles friends and I pick a game and have an instant excuse to make a reunion weekend out of it. This year, it was (queue ominous music) the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to see our Birds battle the Packers. When we booked the trip we didn’t know it would be the return of Brandon Graham and our first game with newest Eagles force Jaelan Phillips. We did, however, know we were going for some Tush Push comeuppance. Screw those Packers fans for taking OUR signature play so personally. We had special shirts and were ready for some bullshit.

Eagles at Packers: Getting to Know Reggie White

Almost immediately it hit us…there wasn’t going to be any of that predicted bullshit. Instead, we were greeted by jarring cordiality, and I do mean jarring. The 4 of us on the trip are all from South Jersey in an area that is divided in half by sports alliance. I’m sorry to admit, half my friends are Giants fans. With that comes the constant assault from the enemy. Any bad Eagles moment is ruthlessly chastised; the good is denigrated and dismissed. We give the same right back. Very little can be simply enjoyed. This left us woefully unprepared for the midwestern courtesy of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Everywhere we went decked out in proper green and ready for another EAGLES chant, they met us with hand shakes, congratulations, and stories of old memories they have with football and their families. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE was the most wholesome person you’ve ever met. Their biggest concern about us Eagles fans wasn’t our reputations or even winning the game, it was if we were having a good time.

After growing up in New Jersey, I moved to Miami, another friend moved to Tampa. Like us, most of the people we meet aren’t from Miami and Tampa, so it’s pretty normal for both of us to ask people we meet, “where are you from?” All weekend this was met with the same one-word answer, “here.” If it wasn’t “here,” it was nearby Appleton with an occasional Milwaukee. If you are from Green Bay, you tend to stay there I guess. In an ironic twist, as we were leaving the stadium, we met a Green Bay fan yelling general Packers negativity at no one in particular. He was completely out of place. I decided to give him the ol’ “where you from?” “Delaware.” Of course.

Now Packers fans aren’t all Packer-Positive, all the time types. Unlike delusional Cowboys fans who stick with Dak Prescott and Jerry Jones regardless of reality, these fans had things to say. Most that we talked to were skeptical of Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love. They weren’t shouting expletives or demanding they be fired, just giving honest criticism of their ability to lead the team to a Super Bowl. Most are convinced that this year’s team is good, but not a true contender. That makes them slightly disappointed, but no less happy that it’s football season. There’s ZERO doom and gloom in this town.

We went into the game about an hour early to walk around. We were pretty pumped about the showing of Eagles fans. With about 30 minutes to go before kickoff, it was probably 65/35 in terms of Packers to Eagles. Pretty good. Then the locals started showing up in droves. I should have realized we’d be the ones filling in early, after all this was our bucket list, not theirs. By kickoff, it was clearly 85/15 or more. Packers fans came correct. We did our best to show up for the Eagles, but there were only a few faint E-A-G-L-E-S chants during the game but none got any real traction. The only time we really popped as a fanbase was after the DeVonta Smith TD when we were able to muster a solid Fly Eagles Fly. That may have irked the locals a little, but it was probably just because of the score.¹

The niceties extended into the game too. As the fans poured in around us, they all shook our hands and wished us luck. The woman next to me apologized for the low score at half time saying that she wished I had come to a better game for my first trip to Lambeau. They were so nice that after that Smith TD when we wanted to rag on someone, we remembered a Rams fan right above us who had been talking junk earlier. “WHERE ARE YOU RAMS? COME ON OUT RAMS!” He was literally the only guy in the stadium we felt we could talk shit to. Never in my life would I think it ok to do that with any of these kind people. When the game was over, it was another round of handshakes and a few requests to beat the Lions next week. Unbelievable.

As for Eagles fans, it looked like all of us crushed it all weekend. From the Cream Cheese Heads, to the Reggie White jerseys², everyone seemed to be really savoring the whole Green Bay experience rather than get into any trouble. We had our chants, but it was never to taunt the locals, more just for the Philly camaraderie. There was a lot of that. Everyone just wanted to share old stories and talk about Eagles games they were lucky enough to attend. The best though was a guy in his mid 20’s that came over to garner some sympathy about the old man who just cut in on the ladies he was trying to talk to. It wasn’t just any old man, it was his dad! We started cheering and hollering at him, shocking the kid. Little did he know that we were just looking around and talking about how we can’t wait to do this with our kids when they get a little older. I’ll be doing the same thing to my boys when I get the chance.

So Green Bay, thank you for living up to your sterling reputation. The Tush Push thing, I’m willing to let you off the hook. Afterall, since you are the only team without a billionaire owner, you are probably just the figurehead for the league’s agenda anyway. Best of luck, and we will see you again in about 15 years. Just in time for my current ten-year-old to get shown how it’s done by his old man.

1. I did get a sideways glance from someone when they showed the Lombardi trophy and I yelled out, “why are they showing OUR trophy?” ↩︎
2. I had my Doug Pederson jersey on who conveniently played in Green Bay too ↩︎