Just some random observations from the Eagles' 56-21 rout of the Detroit Lions, and not really about the game itself…
Plenty of tailgaters were taking up multiple spaces in the parking lot. Prior to the home opener a week ago the Philadelphia Daily News reported on new parking regulations banning taking up more than one parking space to set up tables, tents, etc. At first the Eagles said that they, city officials and Comcast-Spectacor (owner of the lots around the Wachovia Center) developed the new regulations together. After the news broke the Eagles said that the changes were forced upon them by the city and Comcast. Comcast said that the Eagles agreed to the changes and that the team had plenty of say in the process. The city said the rules weren’t even finalized — even though fliers were distributed to drivers arriving at the first home game. Tailgaters so far have done what they usually do, and no one is enforcing the new rules.
Just some random observations from the Eagles' 56-21 rout of the Detroit Lions, and not really about the game itself…
Plenty of tailgaters were taking up multiple spaces in the parking lot. Prior to the home opener a week ago the Philadelphia Daily News reported on new parking regulations banning taking up more than one parking space to set up tables, tents, etc. At first the Eagles said that they, city officials and Comcast-Spectacor (owner of the lots around the Wachovia Center) developed the new regulations together. After the news broke the Eagles said that the changes were forced upon them by the city and Comcast. Comcast said that the Eagles agreed to the changes and that the team had plenty of say in the process. The city said the rules weren’t even finalized — even though fliers were distributed to drivers arriving at the first home game. Tailgaters so far have done what they usually do, and no one is enforcing the new rules.
The security search prior to entering consisted of checking inside my bag, then asking me to raise my arms and remove my baseball cap. Riiiiiiiiiiight, because if you’re going to carry in a weapon naturally you’re going to balance it on your head underneath a cap. Then there was a pat-down that didn’t even go below my shoulders. I didn’t even notice any hand-held metal detector.
As I entered HeadHouse Plaza (just inside the gates) a band was performing cover songs. Their selections seemed a bit odd: two songs by Blink-182, one by Sublime and one by…Madonna.
Pre-game introductions: the Lions were introduced as a team, as “What’s New, Pussycat?” was piped through the loudspeakers. The Eagles introduced their starting offense. Thus, Donovan McNabb was greeted with a decent amount of boos before cheers finally drowned them out. You’d think that after his controversial HBO interview and the uproar that followed the Eagles wouldn’t have introduced the offense individually.
The scoreboards that normally show out-of-town scores had nothing for most of the first half. When they finally got it going, they showed only the scores, not what quarter each game was in. Then the scores were gone again. Later in the third quarter they resumed, with the quarter and time remaining shown, but they kept repeating half of the games over and over (including games that hadn't started yet). It wasn’t until the game was nearly over that the scoreboard finally flashed scores for every game. I assume that was the result of technical problems, but I also have to note that individual and team statistics were almost nonexistent. I would’ve liked to know at the time how many yards Brian Westbrook and Kevin Curtis had, but no stats were forthcoming.
At home games the crowd sings the Eagles fight song (one of Cyd’s favorites) after touchdowns. On Sunday there was, needless to say, a lot of singing.
After the game I took my time leaving to let the crowd thin out before I went to the subway. That resulted in my subway car being half empty, which allowed some nut who was raising cheers to run down to my end of the car and interrupt my reading with: “High-five, old man!” Old man! Bastard. — Joe Guckin
