Eagles fans came to State Farm Stadium with smiles and left in anger
“I can’t even look at it,” one Eagles fan said after confetti for the Kansas City Chiefs fell in State Farm Stadium.
Philadelphia Eagles fans react to the Philadelphia Eagles losing Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs at State Farm Stadium on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, AZ.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
GLENDALE, Ariz. — They came early, happily standing in line five hours before kickoff, and some stayed until the last pieces of confetti fluttered down from the rigging high above State Farm Stadium.
Red and yellow confetti.
Advertisement
“I can’t,” said Gail McFadden, 76, of Northeast Philly. “I can’t even look at it.”
Some Eagles fans filed up the stairs into the concourse before Harrison Butker’s game-winning field goal. McFadden’s son, Mike, said he needed to get a drink, to wash away the disappointment.
“We didn’t want it,” he said. “We didn’t want it bad enough.”
As soon as the gates opened Sunday afternoon, fans poured in, making the atmosphere almost feel like a home game at Lincoln Financial Field.
“We’re here to see an Eagles win,” Rob Tierno, 58, of Glassboro, said. “We are diehard.”
Tierno and his son, Robbie, were among the first Eagles fans to get in, standing in line at 11:30 a.m.
Fans came from Spokane and Downingtown and Fresno: fathers, sons, daughters and longtime friends. They brought green garden gnomes for good luck, and propped little Eagles in their hair. One fan came to win Bradley Cooper’s heart: “I figure he’s sick of the supermodels.” They burst into E-A-G-L-E-S! chants in the bustling concourse, easily outnumbering Kansas City fans.
Before the game, some sat alone, taking it in like a solemn Sunday.
“I can feel it,” said Frank Budd Jr., whose father was a wide receiver for the Eagles in 1962. “All those ghosts of our past. They’re coming here to lift us up.”
Mark Trible, a freelance sports reporter from Fishtown, debated whether to fly to Arizona for the game. He looked at a photo of himself, in Eagles gear as a kid in the 1990s, and decided he had to get a ticket.
“If that little kid back then knew that I would have an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl, he wouldn’t believe it,” Trible said at a pregame tailgate in Glendale. “I’m doing this for him.”
19th District police Capt. Lawrence Nuble tells people to "disperse, disperse, disperse" at Broad and Walnut streets in Philadelphia early Monday morning.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Eagles fans from South Philadelphia hug at Broad and Walnut streets in Philadelphia on Sunday.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
(Left) Malcolm Evans of Bowie, Md. (originally Willingboro) and Makell Gaskins of Williamstown (right) react to an Eagles play while watching from Chickie's & Pete's in South Philadelphia.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Philadelphia Police officers leave the intersection of Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair after crowds never gathered following the Philadelphia Eagles loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Eagles fans at Reale’s Sports Bar and Grill at Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair react, as Philadelphia loses to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Luke Shevlin, 23, of West Chester, Pa., sits sad in the middle of South Broad Street after the Eagles lose.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Police lined up along the south side of City Hall as people fill the streets in Philadelphia.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Nicole Nethaniel of Philly (left) and Thelexi Lotus of Miami (but formerly Philly) watch the last seconds of the game at Broad and Sansom streets in Philadelphia.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Iman Moosa, 24, of Manhattan, N.Y., is held by her friend Wasseem Kheir, 24, of Philadelphia, as the Eagles lose against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Philadelphia Eagles fans stream out of the State Farm Stadium after the Philadelphia Eagles lost Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs.Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Eagles fans at Reale’s Sports Bar and Grill at Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair react, as Philadelphia loses to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Philadelphia Police officers are at ease at Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair after crowds never gathered following the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Matt Jones, of Altamont, NY, is disappointed with the Eagles loss in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
Eagles fan Priscilla Walker watches at Reale’s Sports Bar and Grill at Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair after Philadelphia loses to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Eagles fans at Reale’s Sports Bar and Grill at Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair react, as Philadelphia loses to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Philadelphia Eagles fans react to the Philadelphia Eagles losing Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs at State Farm Stadium.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
A SEPTA bus passes through the intersection of Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair on a rainy night as Philadelphia loses to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
The intersection of Frankford and Cottman in Mayfair is mostly empty in the rain during the second half of Super Bowl LVII, as Philadelphia faced the Kansas City Chiefs.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Fans were feeling confident early, after Jalen Hurts punched one in in the first quarter.
“It’s simple,” said James Schnaedter, 30, of Chicago. “They don’t have what it takes to stop us.”
But minutes later, Kansas City tied the game, and the remainder of the first half was the ballgame everyone suspected it would be: back and forth with highs and lows for both teams.
At the end, hours after they waited in line, full of hope, Rob and Robbie Tierno stood quietly in the concourse, dejected.
“I’m tired,” Robbie, 19, said. “We don’t want to see any of this.”
