arrowhead
February-5th-2005, 09:57 AM
As if we need a reminder of Iggle fans and their deplorable behavior, one more story to add to the book.
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/barnett/story/2091503p-8470331c.html
By NED BARNETT, Staff Writer
This time of year, it's a common question: Who do you like in the Super Bowl?
Jason Forehand of Raleigh received it like it was the strangest thing he ever heard.
"Do you have to ask?" he said.
No, actually. Forehand isn't rooting for anybody, but he's rooting like mad against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"I hope it's 148 to negative two," he said.
Forehand, 23, was featured in this space last year after the Carolina Panthers beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC title game.
A 6-foot-4, 300-pound former East Carolina lineman, Forehand thought he was big enough -- and Eagles fans were tolerant enough -- that he could show up at the Eagles' Lincoln Financial Field wearing a Panthers jersey.
He and his three friends survived for a while, but once the Panthers started winning, Eagles fans started losing it.
Beer and debris rained on Forehand's group. Security guards escorted them out of the stands but couldn't find them other seats. While they waited, a young woman accused Forehand of hitting her. He denied it but was arrested and spent the night in a Philadelphia jail, where police joked about the Panthers in their cage.
This is the rest of the story.
The Panthers learned of Forehand's experience and provided him and his friends with Super Bowl tickets at face value. They had a good time at the big game despite the Panthers losing.
Meanwhile, long after football season, Forehand returned to Philadelphia for a court hearing in April. He wanted to go to trial, but his lawyer persuaded him to take another option: admit nothing but agree to stay out of trouble for six months and the record of the incident would be expunged.
The record is now gone. Forehand's anger isn't. He accepts no fault for wearing a Panthers jersey in front of people who were seeing their Eagles lose their third consecutive NFC title game.
"Why should I have to go to a game and not support my team? That's ridiculous," he said.
If he was at the Panthers' Bank of America Stadium and threw stuff at an Eagles fan, Forehand said, "I would be the one thrown out. In Philadelphia, for some reason, it's backwards. They throw the victims out."
Eagles fans are a potent mix of enthusiasm, antagonism and masochism. They haven't won the NFL championship since 1960, but still they cheer, taunt and come back for more.
The motto of eaglesfanclub.com is "Where the fans are tougher than the players." Some Eagles backers have taken second mortgages on their homes to pay for the cost of a Super Bowl trip to Jacksonville, Fla.
Will the Eagles reaching the Super Bowl for the first time since 1981 mellow the fans, take their edge off, even make them more tolerant of a Carolina interloper?
Forehand regards this as a series of "Do-you-have-to-ask?" questions. "Winning won't help," he said.
Forehand doesn't indict all Philadelphia backers, just half of them.
"It's not everybody, but if I had to put a percentage on it, I'd say 50 percent," he said.
Some Eagles fans regret Forehand's experience, but they're not surprised that some folks in green and white made their feelings clear.
"There are people that are that way. I wouldn't say it's the majority," said Keith Czaban, 28, of Philadelphia, who operates the phillytailgate.com Web site. "You deal with so many highs and lows that you get frustrated."
A win Sunday won't change Eagles fans, Czaban said.
"I don't think it will mellow anybody for the sheer fact that the people I grew up with want to win it every year. They want to be the Yankees," he said. "It will remove some of the frustration, but [Philadelphia] won't be an easier place to come into. It will probably just drive the ticket prices higher."
Steve Hearon, 35, an Eagles fan from Downingtown, Pa., said Forehand did what he wouldn't. He recalled how friends who are Atlanta Falcons fans challenged him to a bet. If he lost, he would have to wear a Michael Vick jersey into the Eagles stadium.
"I chickened out," Hearon said. "There was just no way I was going to put myself in a position where I was wearing a Falcons jersey. I wouldn't feel safe. What that says about Eagles fans, let's just say they're intense. When I say I wouldn't feel safe, I don't mean I'd get beat up, but it wouldn't be pleasant."
Now traveling Eagles fans may give Forehand one more unpleasant experience -- watching them celebrate a Super Bowl victory.
Forehand says that would be the ultimate injustice.
"They don't deserve to win," he said. "They don't deserve a team. I'd like to see [the Eagles] move to L.A."
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/barnett/story/2091503p-8470331c.html
By NED BARNETT, Staff Writer
This time of year, it's a common question: Who do you like in the Super Bowl?
Jason Forehand of Raleigh received it like it was the strangest thing he ever heard.
"Do you have to ask?" he said.
No, actually. Forehand isn't rooting for anybody, but he's rooting like mad against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"I hope it's 148 to negative two," he said.
Forehand, 23, was featured in this space last year after the Carolina Panthers beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC title game.
A 6-foot-4, 300-pound former East Carolina lineman, Forehand thought he was big enough -- and Eagles fans were tolerant enough -- that he could show up at the Eagles' Lincoln Financial Field wearing a Panthers jersey.
He and his three friends survived for a while, but once the Panthers started winning, Eagles fans started losing it.
Beer and debris rained on Forehand's group. Security guards escorted them out of the stands but couldn't find them other seats. While they waited, a young woman accused Forehand of hitting her. He denied it but was arrested and spent the night in a Philadelphia jail, where police joked about the Panthers in their cage.
This is the rest of the story.
The Panthers learned of Forehand's experience and provided him and his friends with Super Bowl tickets at face value. They had a good time at the big game despite the Panthers losing.
Meanwhile, long after football season, Forehand returned to Philadelphia for a court hearing in April. He wanted to go to trial, but his lawyer persuaded him to take another option: admit nothing but agree to stay out of trouble for six months and the record of the incident would be expunged.
The record is now gone. Forehand's anger isn't. He accepts no fault for wearing a Panthers jersey in front of people who were seeing their Eagles lose their third consecutive NFC title game.
"Why should I have to go to a game and not support my team? That's ridiculous," he said.
If he was at the Panthers' Bank of America Stadium and threw stuff at an Eagles fan, Forehand said, "I would be the one thrown out. In Philadelphia, for some reason, it's backwards. They throw the victims out."
Eagles fans are a potent mix of enthusiasm, antagonism and masochism. They haven't won the NFL championship since 1960, but still they cheer, taunt and come back for more.
The motto of eaglesfanclub.com is "Where the fans are tougher than the players." Some Eagles backers have taken second mortgages on their homes to pay for the cost of a Super Bowl trip to Jacksonville, Fla.
Will the Eagles reaching the Super Bowl for the first time since 1981 mellow the fans, take their edge off, even make them more tolerant of a Carolina interloper?
Forehand regards this as a series of "Do-you-have-to-ask?" questions. "Winning won't help," he said.
Forehand doesn't indict all Philadelphia backers, just half of them.
"It's not everybody, but if I had to put a percentage on it, I'd say 50 percent," he said.
Some Eagles fans regret Forehand's experience, but they're not surprised that some folks in green and white made their feelings clear.
"There are people that are that way. I wouldn't say it's the majority," said Keith Czaban, 28, of Philadelphia, who operates the phillytailgate.com Web site. "You deal with so many highs and lows that you get frustrated."
A win Sunday won't change Eagles fans, Czaban said.
"I don't think it will mellow anybody for the sheer fact that the people I grew up with want to win it every year. They want to be the Yankees," he said. "It will remove some of the frustration, but [Philadelphia] won't be an easier place to come into. It will probably just drive the ticket prices higher."
Steve Hearon, 35, an Eagles fan from Downingtown, Pa., said Forehand did what he wouldn't. He recalled how friends who are Atlanta Falcons fans challenged him to a bet. If he lost, he would have to wear a Michael Vick jersey into the Eagles stadium.
"I chickened out," Hearon said. "There was just no way I was going to put myself in a position where I was wearing a Falcons jersey. I wouldn't feel safe. What that says about Eagles fans, let's just say they're intense. When I say I wouldn't feel safe, I don't mean I'd get beat up, but it wouldn't be pleasant."
Now traveling Eagles fans may give Forehand one more unpleasant experience -- watching them celebrate a Super Bowl victory.
Forehand says that would be the ultimate injustice.
"They don't deserve to win," he said. "They don't deserve a team. I'd like to see [the Eagles] move to L.A."