Eagles get hero’s welcome after winning first Super Bowl title
— Fresh off their first Super Bowl title, the Philadelphia Eagles arrived home to a hero’s welcome Monday afternoon, hours after overjoyed fans mobbed the streets in a sometimes unruly victory celebration nearly 60 years in the making.
Hundreds of fans greeted the team’s plane at Philadelphia International Airport, cheering wildly and singing “Fly Eagles Fly” as Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie emerged with the Lombardi Trophy.
After getting off the plane, Lurie, Coach Doug Pederson and stars like tight end Zach Ertz and running back LeGarrette Blount approached the chain-link fence separating the team from the fans, smiling, pumping their arms and shooting video with their phones. Fans stood on cars and news trucks to catch a glimpse.
“It’s been a long journey to redemption,” said John Hall, 49, who works at Philadelphia’s public transit agency. “We don’t have to hear the negative anymore, that we don’t have a ring. It’s official now.”
Dan Mazzoli, 53, a disabled construction worker and diehard fan from New Jersey, shared the moment with his 12-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.
“We’ve been waiting for this all our lives,” he said.
Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles, the unassuming backup quarterback who took over for injured star Carson Wentz and played brilliantly throughout the playoffs, wasn’t on the team plane. Foles headed — where else? — to Disney World, riding a float at the Orlando resort and fist-bumping Mickey Mouse amid a shower of green confetti.
“It’s all right to yell,” he told the cheering crowd. “We’re world champs! We did it! We did it!”
The underdog Eagles won their first NFL championship since 1960 on Sunday night with a surprise 41-33 victory over the New England Patriots, ending a drought that had long tormented the city’s football-crazed fans. Philly was the only team in the Northeast Corridor to have never won a Super Bowl.
The city scheduled a victory parade for Thursday along a 5-mile route that will stretch from the Eagles stadium complex to the steps of the Philadelphia art museum, whose steps Sylvester Stallone ran up during “Rocky.” It’s a fitting ending point for a team that Stallone had cheered on throughout the playoffs.
Revelers along the parade route will be able to indulge in free Bud Light at two dozen bars, thanks to a promise the beer maker made to Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson before the season.
Philly had some cleaning up to do Monday after pockets of Eagles fans turned unruly overnight, with rowdies smashing department store windows, looting a gas station convenience store and toppling a number of the city’s famously greased light poles. The police commissioner said he and other officers were hit with bottles.
The vast majority of revelers celebrated peacefully, and police made only three arrests, said Ajeenah Amir, a spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Kenney.
“Tens of thousands came out and celebrated this amazing victory, and but for a handful of bad actors, the celebration was peaceful and jubilant,” Amir said. She lauded police for “their assistance in getting the crowds dispersed and people home safely.”
Just as Foles and the Eagles clinched victory in Minneapolis, the scene more than 1,000 miles away in Philly was one of jubilation and pandemonium.
Revelers shot off fireworks, drivers beeped their horns and Philadelphians young and old descended on Broad Street, the main thoroughfare that last hosted a major championship parade in 2008 for the Phillies’ World Series win.
“The city deserved it,” said 66-year-old Lou Potel, who threw a party at his home just off Broad before joining a much bigger party outside. “It’s a great city, and now we have a Super Bowl to go along with it.”
Fans clambered atop the awning at the swanky Ritz Carlton Hotel near City Hall, jumping off into the crowd in what one Twitter post called “Ritz Carlton Skydiving.” The awning later collapsed with a large group of people on top of it. It wasn’t clear if anyone was injured.
Nearby, windows were smashed at a Macy’s department store and at an Old Navy clothing store.
And apparently no amount of grease in the world can keep some drunken Eagles fans from climbing poles in celebration. A few managed to shimmy up traffic lights and street sign poles.
Amir said there were reports of some injuries from falls near light poles but precise numbers weren’t available.
Vandals were seen having an apparent food fight inside a gas station’s convenience store, yelling “Everything is free!” and overturning a car outside a hotel. After 1 a.m., the only people allowed inside the 24-hour Wawa convenience store near City Hall were police officers.
Eagles fans ready to revel in parade PHILADELPHIA
— Kevin Hart fessed up he was tipsy when he tried to crash the Super Bowl stage and celebrate with his hometown Philadelphia Eagles when they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. The pint-sized funnyman ran into a no-nonsense security guard who refused to allow Hart, wearing an Eagles letterman’s jacket, access to the stage that was set up on the field.
Unlike the Eagles, Hart’s Super Bowl celebration would have to be held elsewhere.
“To all the kids out there, I just want to say don’t drink. When alcohol is in your system, you do dumb stuff,” he later said on an Instagram video.
Hart, the Grammy-nominated star, would have fit in fine in Philly.
Unruly Eagles fans climbed light poles, took trust falls off a hotel canopy, flipped cars, busted store windows and even streaked down city streets shortly after their team won the Super Bowl. It was time to party. Eagles fans are just getting started.
The city announced that the Super Bowl parade will be Thursday, starting at 11 a.m. at Broad Street near the stadiums. It will move north along the city’s main thoroughfare, past City Hall and finish at the art museum’s “Rocky Steps.” The National Weather Service says Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of 34 degrees. Rain and snow are expected in the city Wednesday.
Beer bashes and drunken revelry are in the forecast for the parade.
Eagles fans had suffered through five decades — through Buddy, Reggie and T.O. — without a Super Bowl championship and they want this celebration to go down as one to remember.
That is, if they can remember, in the wake of an alcohol-fueled stupor.
Revelers along the parade route will be able to indulge in free Bud Light at two dozen bars, thanks to a promise the beer maker made to Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson before the season.
Revelers shot off fireworks, drivers beeped their horns and Philadelphians young and old descended Sunday night on Broad Street, the main thoroughfare that last hosted a major championship parade in 2008
Eagles fans are expected to stuff city streets in record numbers. The Flyers have long claimed more than 2 million fans went wild down Broad each year for the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup winning teams. Sixers fans mobbed the streets for Dr. J and the 1983 NBA champion 76ers.
And Phillies star outfielder Pat Burrell led a championship procession in 2008, riding a horse-drawn carriage and pumping his fists down Broad. Next came eight flatbed trucks filled with waving players and other members of the Phillies organization, including the Phanatic.
Throngs in Phillies gear packed downtown sidewalks, making them almost impassable. Fans climbed trees, hung out of windows, watched from balconies, carried stepladders and stood on roofs to get a better view. The Phillies then greeted tens of thousands of fans who had watched the parade on big screens at the city’s baseball and football stadiums. The team first stopped at Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles play.
Now, the Linc isn’t just the site of another team’s rally — it’s the home of the Super Bowl champs.
The Super Bowl, though, was about an overzealous excuse for irresponsible behavior.
The Eagles are perhaps the city’s greatest passion, and the outpouring of support came in more forms than simply pouring one out. Grown men cried and hugged their fathers. Families bundled up and hit the streets to bang pots and pans and share the championship together. Some fans carried signs with names of loved ones no longer here in tribute for those who never got to cherish a Super Bowl title before death.
— Associated Press writers Kristen De Groot in Philadelphia, Michael Rubinkam in northeastern Pennsylvania and Dan Gelston contributed to this report.