Philadelphia Eagles fans are under the national microscope after one of their own, Ryan Caldwellwas seen verbally assaulting a female Green Bay Packers fan in viral footage at a playoff game last Sunday.
But the history of the fan base Assault against women On the other hand, its history goes back much further.
Former Dallas Cowboys player DeMarcus Ware, who played a game in Philadelphia every year during his career in Dallas from 2005 to 2013, told Fox News Digital that he once had to witness Eagles fans throw dangerous projectiles at his mother, Brenda Ann Ware, during a game. Matches. His first year in 2005.
“My rookie season when my mom was in the stands, I told her not to wear my jersey, and she was in the front row, and she was over there in Philly, they were putting batteries in snowballs and throwing them and one of them hit my mom,” Ware said.
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Seeing his mother strapped to a battery covered in snow almost prompted Ware to abandon his football duties and run to the stands to start the fight.
“I turned around at that point, and I didn’t care about football anymore. I wanted to go get the guy who was in the stands. But I didn’t,” Weir said.
DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys sacks Donovan McNabb (5) of the Philadelphia Eagles during the Eagles’ 10-6 win over the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. (James D. Smith/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
The linebacker stepped back, allowing team security to take care of the fan who hurt his mother. But he let the memory of the incident fester in his mind, motivating him every time he took the field against the Eagles.
The Cowboys beat the Eagles 21-20 in a 2005 game in Philadelphia to sweep the season series.
In 17 career games against the Eagles, Ware has 16 total sacks. The Cowboys went 9-8 against their opponents in games Ware played.
Ware had his most vengeful stretch against the Eagles in 2011. In January of that year, he had three sacks at Philadelphia in the 2010 season finale to help seal a 14-13 win. The following season, in an October game at Philadelphia, he had four sacks, the most he had in a game against their archrival. He had two more sacks in the second meeting against the Eagles that year in December in Dallas.
But despite nearly a decade of animosity against Eagle fans for what they did to his mother, he still respects the will of the fan base. The franchise’s former home, Veterans Stadium, had an on-site court and jail cells to deal with fans in conflict with the law, something Weir doesn’t take lightly.
“Philadelphia Eagles fans are very strong-willed fans,” he said.
“When you have a prison down the field that day, when you’re able to go to prison because you’re behaving inappropriately, even from the point we’ve played every time, it’s been a competitive encounter whether it’s there or at home, and their fans travel well. “And they’re stubborn, that’s what they are.”
Caldwell’s video that recently went viral has reignited some fan base stereotypes as the team competes for a Super Bowl championship this season.
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January 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Eagles fans during a game against the Green Bay Packers in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. (Eric Hartline-Imagine Images)
The footage shows Caldwell calling nearby Packers fans vulgar and sexist names, while mocking the man accompanying her with explicit gestures.
Caldwell has since been fired from his job as a project manager at New Jersey-based BCT Partners. He has apologized but also defended himself by insisting that his actions “were not without provocation” and that the widely circulated video “does not show the full context” of what happened.
However, Caldwell’s abusive behavior is just the latest in a long history of unruly and sometimes illegal behavior by the fan base over the years.
In 1997, during a Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers, an unruly Eagles fan fired a flare gun into the stands filled with other fans, endangering the lives of several people.
After the shooting, several fistfights broke out around the field with most of the violence directed at 49ers fans by Eagles fans.
“There were a large number of altercations and acts of intimidation, many of them directed at fans wearing 49ers jerseys,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time.
After the game, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie was forced to condemn his fans.
“Although we feel we have made great strides in recent years regarding fan behavior at Veterans Stadium, what we witnessed last Monday was undoubtedly a step backwards,” Lowry told reporters at the time.
In 2018, an Eagles fan was arrested during an NFC playoff game against the Falcons for punching a Philadelphia police officer’s horse.
According to a police report at the time, a man was fired because he “was drunk and didn’t have a ticket.” After being ejected from Lincoln Stadium, the man walked up to a police officer on horseback and “began punching the horse in the face, neck and shoulder area.”
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Philadelphia Eagles fans climb poles after taking to the streets. (Fox News Digital)
After the Eagles won the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots that year, multiple violent riots broke out throughout the city. Looting and destruction were reported at several convenience stores and a local Macy’s store. Cars were overturned, traffic lights and lamp posts were destroyed, and there were unconfirmed reports of explosions.
One of the most famous examples of unruly Eagles fan behavior occurred in 1968, when a man dressed as Santa Claus walked onto the field. He was booed relentlessly by fans upset at the disappointing season, and like Weir’s mother, he was hit with snowballs.
But it didn’t stop at snowballs, as he was also beaten with beer cans and even sandwiches.
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