PHILADELPHIA – Eagles fans gathered at parties and pubs and on streets and sidewalks Sunday, savoring their team’s return to the Super Bowl.
At the half, fans had plenty to be excited about, as the team held a 10-point lead. By late in the fourth, the game had shifted, with Kansas City holding a 35-27 margin and eventually taking a 38-35 win.
Here’s a look at the celebrations near and far:
Birds migration began by morning
As early as noon, a seeming half the people walking below the unofficial Real South Philly dividing line at Washington Avenue were already sporting Philadelphia Eagles gear.
On the corner outside an Acme supermarket on East Passyunk, this included a sheep dog mix dragging a helium-filled Eagles party balloon behind its collar, couples in Eagles beanies carrying cheese and cookie trays, and a poe-faced man whose faded green sweatshirt dryly declared, “This is my Eagles Sweatshirt.”
Clothing vendor Joe Hill was hawking Super Bowl sweatshirts to fans already wearing yet more Eagles gear. Business was merely “all right,” he said warily, for $20 black shirts bearing the Eagles’ official slogan of the game: “It’s a Philly Thing.” Other shirts offered up “Fly Eagles Fly.”
But “Go Birds” has been the not-so-secret password to fellow-feeling among fans. By Feb. 7, Philadelphia court administrators began accepting “Go Birds” in lieu of “present” at jury roll call. Outside a South Philly Target on Sunday morning, a heavy-bearded panhandler began shouting “Go Birds” to get the attention of passersby, who gamely responded with the same.
“Sorry, Andy, but it has to be this way!” he yelled, referencing Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, once himself part of the Iggles Army.
Pedestrians shouted “Go Birds!” at cars. Drivers yelled the same to bicyclists. Houses decorated for Valentine’s Day sported Eagles banners over glossy hearts. A man walking down the street in a Bengals cap defensively produced an Eagles keychain to show allegiance.
At South Philly’s “Cheesesteak Vegas” — the Passyunk Avenue corner home to both Geno’s and Pat’s King of Steaks — the line of Eagles jerseys already extended to the street by mid-afternoon.
Fan Michael Fehnel, sitting outside Pat’s with a wiz-loaded steak, had driven an hour from the Lehigh Valley for a big-game tradition that goes back to his high school days.
“My friends and I would get a cheesesteak at Pat’s and a cheesesteak at Geno’s and then decide which one’s better,” he said “It’s always been inconclusive, so we always have to come back.”
Today, he said, he’s passing down that tradition to his two sons before the Super Bowl. They’ll be at Geno’s next.
And then the three will drive an hour back home.
South Philly bars filled early with green shirts and blasting music — all except one.
Big Charlie’s, a Kansas City Chiefs bar in the heart of South Philly, was vacant and dark two hours before the game, its windows blacked out and front door shuttered with corrugated metal.
Its owners had decided to close during the Super Bowl as their team played, victim to too much demand for bar seats and worries about safety.
“I just don’t want nonsense,” owner Paul Staico told USA Today this month.
And so alone in noisy South Philly, Big Charlie’s stands silent.
Eagles faithful in the Holy Land
The international audience for the big game included a group of Delaware Valley Catholics visiting Israel.
Members of the group were expected to watch the game, with kickoff at 1:30 a.m. in Israel, from a conference room provided by a hotel.
“I can guarantee quite a few of us will be watching till the end, no matter the outcome,” Michael Walsh, a member of the group and a spokesman for the Diocese of Camden, said Saturday.
The pilgrimage of about 50 people – led by Camden Bishop Dennis Sullivan – is traveling in a bus with an Eagles logo.
They previously offered an Eagles chant and shouted “Go Birds!” during a stop in Nazareth.
Eagles, cats and dogs
In a parking lot for the Phillies stadium, the Eagles tailgate was in full force three hours before the Super Bowl.
As a revving white Ford F250 burned tires and blew white smoke onto a rainy parking lot, a man in a cowboy hat rode tall on the pickup bed to loud whoops from the gathering crowd.
A crew from South Jersey’s Rowan University rode in on a van called the Cougar Oober, where a crowd of about 60 danced to Fergalicious both atop the van and near a table full of increasingly rain-filled Solo cups.
But as the afternoon rain got more serious, the pickup cooled its engines. The dancers got off the van.
“It’s raining cats and dogs,” said Carson Metzger of Neumann University. “We’re going to a restaurant.”
But at Xfinity Live! Philadelphia sports bar across the street, the outdoor party continued undimmed.
In half of a puddly parking lot, hundreds of Eagles-jerseyed bodies rocked lightly to the sounds of DJ Pauly D of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” — an attention starved blender of Eurythmics club mixes and Taylor swift mash-ups. Pauly D was sporting a Jalen Hurts jersey for the occasion.
“Go Birds!” yelled Pauly D, and the crowd erupted.
Eating wings a little bit away from the fray, New Brunswick’s John Ejiafor said he’d driven into Philadelphia just for the game.
“The Eagles are in the Super Bowl,” he said. “You’ve gotta be in Philadelphia.”
His prediction: Birds 14, Chiefs 7. That score, though, had been reached, and passed, well before Rihanna performed the half-time show.
A traveling valve salesman named Noah McKinley, wearing not one but two Eagles beanies, had traveled even farther. He booked his flight to Philadelphia from Los Angeles during the regular season, banking that the Eagles would make the Super Bowl.
He now felt validated.
He was a “little bit of an Eagles fan” before this Super Bowl. “Now I’m all in,” he said. “Who could doubt me now?”
21-14, he predicted. Birds win. (That score, of course, was on the board when the second-quarter clock neared the two-minute warning.)
No love in Love Park
By halftime, Philadelphia police had restricted access to City Hall and sealed off Love Park in Center City.
Police also maintained a heavy presence along Chestnut and Walnut streets and in nearby public-transit stations.
Overall, however, the area was rather empty as rain kept falling.
Broad, Market and 15th streets were also blocked to vehicles, as was JFK Boulevard.
Waiting out the rain
Hiasen “Mac” McDaniel and David Green, both 21 of Philadelphia, waited out the second half in the shelter of a Temple University building across from City Hall.
Beat the Chiefs? Heck, yeah, declared McDaniel.
With the Eagles up 10 points at halftime. McDaniel saw a Philly victory.
“When (celebrating) pops off, I’m right down with them,” said McDaniel said. “I’m just in cover do I don’t get too soaked.”
“So, I can be right with everything.”
Jason Calhoun was cautiously optimistic as the Eagles’s narrowed to six points in the third quarter.
Calhoun, 37, said he wasn’t getting ahead of himself.
“I’ve seen more championship losses than wins,” Calhoun said. “But the Eagles are going to pull it out.”
Calhoun said he wouldn’t be partying, should the Eagles win, as he was heading to work on overnight shift at a local restaurant.
“It’s too wet to party anyway,” Calhoun said.
As the game’s final quarter began, the Chiefs had pulled ahead, 28-27.
And the rain kept falling.
BBQ during LVII
Some Eagles fans in Center City watched the game – and barbecue – at an impromptu eatery.
Kamal Rhodes manned a self-built barbecue trailer at 12th and Filbert streets.
Fans took a break from the game – but not the BBQ – to watch Rihanna perform in the halftime show at Super Bowl 57.
As the game clock ticked down with both teams tied, crowds began to build on Center City streets.
But after the Chiefs won on a last-second field goal, some football fans could be mistaken for mourners.
Heartbreaking defeat
A few blocks from Rittenhouse Square, Bethany McNamera and her boyfriend were wet and saddened.
“To lose on that last penalty was heartbreaking.” McNamera said while standing outside the Cheesecake Factory.
“I hate that we lost.,” McNamera said while standing outside the Cheesecake Factory. “But being a fan means you take the good with the bad,”
“But,” she continued, “this is pretty bad.”
Martin Flavors of Paoli was impressed with the turnout of Eagles fans in the downtown area, particularly given the weather and the game’s 6:30 p.m. start time.
“The game started a bit late and you see how cold and wet it is. I’m surprised people came out at all,” said Flavors, heading to 30th Street Station to catch at home-bound train.
“Also, maybe it had something to do with all the police out,” Flavors added. “And, lots of bars were closed. Hard to have a good time when everything is closed for the game.”
Some fans managed smiles as they gathered on Broad Street in Center City. That crowd included plenty of fans in Eagles garb and one person in an oversized Muppet head.
The Muppet’s smile, at least, never faltered.
USA Today Network reporters Matthew Korfhage, Damon Williams, Joseph Smith and Jim Walsh contributed to this report.
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