Philadelphia Eagles fans are under a national microscope after one of their own, Ryan Caldwellwas seen verbally attacking a female Green Bay Packers fan in viral footage during a playoff game last Sunday.
But the history of the fan base of abuse against women on the other hand, it 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 witnessed Eagles fans throwing dangerous projectiles at his mother during a game , Brenda Ann Ware, threw. his rookie year in 2005.
“My rookie season, when my mom was sitting in the stands, I told her not to wear my jersey, and she was sitting in the front row, and up there in Philly, they put batteries in snowballs and threw them and one of them hit my mother,” Ware said.
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Seeing his mother trapped by a snow-covered battery nearly drove Ware to abandon his football duties and run into the stands to start a fight.
“I turned around then and I didn’t care about football anymore. I wanted to go get the guy who was in the stands. But I didn’t,” Ware said.
DeMarcus Ware of the Dallas Cowboys sacks Donovan McNabb (5) of the Philadelphia Eagles during the Eagles’ 10-6 victory over the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. (James D. Smith/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
The linebacker held back, allowing team security to tend to the fan who had hurt his mother. But he let the memory of the incident stick in his mind and motivate him every time he took the field against the Eagles.
The Cowboys defeated the Eagles 21-20 in the 2005 game in Philadelphia to win the season series.
In 17 career games against the Eagles, Ware totaled 16 sacks. The Cowboys went 9-8 against their rivals in the games Ware played.
Ware had his most vengeful stint against the Eagles in 2011. In January of that year, he had three sacks in Philadelphia in the 2010 season finale to help seal a 14-13 win. The following season, during a game in Philadelphia in October, he had four sacks, the most he ever had in a game against the 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 toward the Eagle fans for what they did to his mother, he still respects the will of the fanbase. The franchise’s former home, Veterans Stadium, had a judicial court and jail cells on site to deal with law-breaking fans, something Ware does not take lightly.
“The Philadelphia Eagles fans are very, very strong-willed fans,” he said.
“Before, when you have a prison at the bottom of the stadium, when you can go to prison for behaving, even from the moment we played every time, it was a confrontation between the rivalry and the battle.” it was there or at home. And their fans travel well, they’re just tenacious, and that’s just who they are.
Caldwell’s recent viral video has reignited certain stereotypes from the fanbase as the team competes for a Super Bowl 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-Imagn images)
The footage shows Caldwell calling nearby Packers fans vulgar and sexist names while taunting the man accompanying her with explicit gestures.
Caldwell has since been fired as a project manager at NJ-based firm BCT Partners. He has apologized but has also defended himself, insisting that his actions “were not without provocation” and that the viral video “does not show the full context” of what happened.
Yet Caldwell’s offensive 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, a mischievous Eagles fan fired a flare gun into the stands full of other fans, endangering several lives.
After the flare was shot, several fistfights broke out around the stadium as most of the violence was directed by Eagles fans against 49ers fans.
“There were a large number of fights and intimidations, many of which were directed at fans in 49ers jerseys,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time.
After the game, Eagles owner Jeffrie Lurie had to condemn his own fans.
“Despite the fact that we feel we have made significant progress in recent years regarding fan behavior at Veterans Stadium, what we witnessed last Monday was undoubtedly a step backward,” Lurie told reporters at the time.
In 2018, an Eagles fan was arrested during the NFC divisional playoff game against the Falcons for punching a Philadelphia police officer’s horse.
According to a police report at the time, a man was ejected because “he was drunk and didn’t have a ticket.” After being kicked out of Lincoln Stadium, the man walked up to a police officer riding a horse and “began punching the horse in the face, neck and shoulder.”
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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, several violent riots broke out in the city. Looting and destruction were reported at several convenience stores and a local Macy’s department store. Cars were turned around, traffic lights and lampposts were torn down and there were even unconfirmed reports of explosions.
One of the most legendary examples of unruly Eagles fan behavior occurred in 1968, when a man dressed as Santa Claus walked onto the field. He was booed mercilessly by fans angry about a disappointing season and, like Ware’s mother, was even hit by snowballs.
But it didn’t stop at snowballs, as he was also hit with beer cans and even sandwiches.
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