Empire strikes out! Landmark honors the hated Eagles
First the Eagles beat the hometown Giants, and now this?
The Empire State Building shockingly lit up in green and white Sunday night for the locally despised Eagles after their win in the NFC Championship game.
“Fly Eagles Fly! We’re going Green and White in honor of the Eagles NFC Championship Victory,” tweeted an account for the historic Midtown Manhattan skyscraper.
The light scheme drew immediate howls from New Yorkers and other commenters.
“@NYCMayor I want to report a crime,” tweeted writer David Hill, tagging Mayor Adams’ account.
An Adams spokesman clarified that Hizzoner doesn’t control the iconic building’s light scheme.
“If you need help but can’t tweet, blink your lights twice,” another user chimed in, suggesting the offensive tweet only could have been published under duress.
The Twitter account for the Empire State Building — which once refused to light up in honor of Mother Teresa — only doubled down on its questionable loyalties.
When controversial Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy criticized the lighting scheme, the building quote-tweeted him with a vid of Portnoy himself fake-crying and saying “Life is so unfair.”
City agencies joined the social media scrum. “How are we going to explain this to all of the other buildings. They looked up to you,” the Department of Buildings account facetiously tweeted.
The Sanitation Department called the light scheme “treacherous, traitorous, and unforgivable.”
“Just pretend it’s green and white for #NewYorksStrongest. We take out the trash every day ... and next year, that’ll include the Eagles,” the digital san men tweeted.
The Eagles beat the 49ers on Sunday to advance to the team’s fourth Super Bowl.
“Maybe they had that color ready for the Jets and were tired of waiting,” tweeted ESPN’s social media director, Brett Edgerton.
The Eagles and Giants have been rivals in the NFC since 1933, with the Eagles holding a 93–88–2 record in the all-time season series. Philly won both of the teams’ regular-season matchups as well as their third meeting in the divisional round of the playoffs earlier this month.
“Did y’all lose a bet,” ESPN reporter Mina Kimes asked the Empire State Building.
It did not immediately answer a request for comment.