PHILADELPHIA FANS
Philadelphia fans at the NFC championship game at Lincoln Financial stadium crossed the line! This past week I had the chance to sit down and visit with Tate Streich of Madison. Tate is a member of the elite Vikings World Order organization. These are fanatic Vikings fans that have amazing Viking outfits and cheer on the Vikings. Tate said they have about 300 people in the group. You have to be voted in to be able to be part of the Vikings World Order. Tate was voted in during the season opener with New Orleans.
Tate was in Philadelphia for the game. What happened before, during and after the Vikings and Eagles championship game is almost impossible to describe. I have seen the television news stories and read in newspapers and on social media how bad the Eagles fans were. Until you visit with someone that was directly involved, it is hard to believe that so many people can act like that.
The story is about how bad Eagle fans treated Minnesota Viking fans in the parking lot, in the stadium and outside the stadium after the game. If you were wearing Viking purple apparel, you were viciously attacked, both verbally and physically. It wasn’t just a isolated incident, or a few people. According to Tate, the assaults came from hundreds of Eagle fans, with police and security ignoring the physical and verbal onslaught. He was hit in the head with beer cans. Eagle fans were urinating on Viking fans, spitting, throwing food, and vulgar language! Disgusting!
I know that every NFL team have a few fans that are totally drunk and cause problems at stadiums. The Vikings have fans like that, but what happened in Philadelphia was that the Eagle fans were said to be numbered in the thousands that were causing havoc on Vikings fans.
I need to find another word for “fan”. These people are not Philadelphia “fans”. I am struggling for a word to describe them. Thugs comes to mind. I think I will go with that word. Thugs! Philadelphia thugs! I am upset about this.
I have attended away Gopher football games. I have been to Michigan, Iowa and Nebraska. I wore my maroon and gold Gopher apparel with pride. Sure I did receive some verbal abuse and booing at times while walking to the stadiums. But it was all in fun! Nothing that made me fear for my life like Tate experienced in Philadelphia. In fact, at Nebraska I took my seat just under the goal post wearing my Gopher pull over. An older gentleman sitting next to me welcomed me to Nebraska with a handshake. I was the only person wearing maroon and gold in that whole section of red Cornhusker apparel!
I think Philadelphia thugs should take lessons from Nebraska fans on how to conduct themselves at games.