Philadelphia Eagles fans are under the national microscope after one of their, Ryan Caldwellhe was seen verbally attacking a female Green Bay Packers fan in viral footage at a playoff game last Sunday.
But the history of the fan base of violence against women on the contrary it is much later than that.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback DeMarcus Ware, who played in Philadelphia every year during his Dallas career from 2005 to 2013, told Fox News Digital that he once had to see fans The Eagles threw objects at his mother, Brenda Ann Ware, during the game. his rookie year in 2005.
“My rookie season when my mom was standing, I told her not to wear my jersey, and she was in the front, and she was up there in Philly, they were they put batteries in snowballs and threw them and one of them hit my mom,” Ware said.
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Seeing his mother being held by a snow-covered batter nearly inspired Ware to quit his football career and run to the stands to start a fight.
“I turned around then, and I didn't care about football anymore. I wanted to go find 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 win over the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. (James D. Smith/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
The linebacker blocked, allowing the team's defense to take care of the fan who hurt his mother. But he let the memory of that event grow in his mind, and it motivated him every time he took the field against the Eagles.
The Cowboys beat the Eagles 21-20 in that 2005 game in Philadelphia to sweep the season series.
In 17 career games against the Eagles, Ware had 16 total sacks. The Cowboys went 9-8 against their opponents in games that Ware played.
Ware had his biggest revenge 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 victory 14-13. The following season, in an October game at Philadelphia, he had four sacks, the most he had ever had in a game against an opponent. He had two more sacks in the second game against the Eagles that year in December in Dallas.
But despite nearly ten years of hostility against Eagle's fans for what they did to his mother, he still respects the will of his fans. The franchise's former home, Veterans Stadium, had a courthouse and jail cells to deal with law-breaking fans, not something Ware took lightly.
“Philadelphia Eagles fans, they're really strong fans,” he said.
“When you had a jail at the bottom of the stadium back then, when you could go to jail because you were working, and from every point we played, it was a battle of the competition if it was up or at home, and their fans, they go well, they are solid, and that's who they are.
Caldwell's latest viral video has clarified some of the fan's feelings as the team fights for the Super Bowl this season.
January 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Eagles fans during the game against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Stadium. (Photos by Eric Hartline-Imagn)
The footage shows Caldwell calling nearby Packers fans vulgar and sexual names, while taunting a man walking with him in an obvious gesture.
Caldwell has since been fired from his job as a project manager at NJ-based firm BCT Partners. He apologized but also defended himself by insisting his actions “were not out of spite” and that the viral video “doesn't show the full meaning” of what happened.
However, Caldwell's abusive behavior is just the latest in a long history of unruly and sometimes illegal behavior by fans over the years.
In 1997, during a Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers, an unruly Eagles fan fired a gun into the stadium filled with other fans, putting many lives at risk.
After the fire was set, several fistfights broke out around the stadium as most of the violence was directed at 49ers fans by Eagles fans.
“There were many fights and threats, many directed at fans wearing 49ers jerseys,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time.
After the game, Eagles owner Jeffrie Lurie was forced to criticize his fans.
“While we feel like we've made a lot of progress in recent years in terms of fan behavior at Veterans Stadium, what we saw last Monday was a step backwards,” Lurie told reporters at the time. .
In 2018, an Eagles fan was arrested during an NFC playoff game against the Falcons, for hitting a Philadelphia police horse.
According to a police report at the time, one man was pulled over because he was “intoxicated and did not have a ticket.” After being ejected from Lincoln Stadium, the man approached a policeman on horseback and “started hitting the horse in the face, neck and shoulders.”
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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 around the city. Theft and destruction were reported at several convenience stores and a local Macy's store. Cars were overturned, traffic lights and lampposts were toppled, and there were unconfirmed reports of explosions.
One of the most famous examples of unruly behavior by Eagles fans happened back in 1968, when a man dressed as Santa Claus walked off the field. He was booed relentlessly by fans who were upset at the disappointing season, and like Ware's mother, he was even hit with snowballs.
But it didn't stop at snowballs, as he was also hit with beer cans and even sandwiches.
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