There's never any love lost between NFC East rivals so this Monday's much-anticipated contest between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins is sure to bring plenty of chatter to go along with some exciting football.
Philly's reputation often precedes it and there was some new fuel added to that fire on Wednesday when Washington running back Chris Thompson said some inflammatory -- or complimentary, depending how you look at it -- things about our city's thoughtful fans.
Thompson was a guest on ESPN 980 this morning and said he's anxious to play the Eagles in Philly because they're one of the best teams in the NFL. But also for other reasons.
From the Washington Post:
"Philly fans are some of the meanest fans I've ever experienced, too," he said, "so I'm excited about that as well."
Host Bram Weinstein then asked for any favorite tales, and Thompson obliged.
"You see a lot of the players pregame when we run out of the tunnel, guys just go pray or whatever in the end zone," Thompson said. "And [two years ago] I went and prayed in the end zone, and one of the [fans] told me, he was like ‘God's not gonna help you today.' And I was like oh, shoot. I heard it while I was praying. I was like dang, all right, that's a little harsh."
Harsh. But fair!
On a serious note, Thompson also said he's not planning on bringing his family to Philly for the game.
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"I heard that's the one stadium you keep your family from going to," Thompson told Weintstein. "My family will be here this week, and they were like ‘I want to come to the Philly game.' I said absolutely not, you're gonna have to wait until Dallas comes around. Because my step dad, he's a big guy. And if he starts fighting, It'll be real bad out there. I was told that right away my rookie year: keep your family away."
Now, I can't say I disagree entirely. But not just with Eagles games in Philly. NFL games in general are most certainly not a family friendly environment. Every other week there's a video of an incident from Carolina or San Francisco or any other stadium around the country of fans acting in ways that are incredibly unfriendly to a family environment.
I took my now wife to her first Eagles game three seasons ago. We sat in the club level where I joked (kinda) that she wouldn't see any of the infamous rowdy behavior. That was before one of the largest brawls I've ever seen broke out with guys tumbling down row after row. And that was Eagles-fan-on-Eagles-fan violence.
