No one knows the sports fans of Philadelphia any better than Angelo Cataldi. Cataldi has listened to Philly fans ever since he left his hometown of Providence and a job writing sports for The Providence Journal to join the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1983. He jumped to morning drive at WIP in 1988 and quickly realized that the city’s reputation for diehard fans who aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy was deserved.
No one knows the sports fans of Philadelphia any better than Angelo Cataldi.
Cataldi is a hero to the locals, the man they’ve listened to every morning on WIP sports radio for the last 28 years. He helps feed the beast that is Philly sports, an insanely intense fan base that lives, breathes, fights and dies for their Eagles.
“This is, and always will be, an Eagles town,” Cataldi, 66, said. “They love sports and football as much as humanly possible.”
Cataldi has listened to Philly fans ever since he left his hometown of Providence and a job writing sports for The Providence Journal to join the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1983. He jumped to morning drive at WIP in 1988 and quickly realized that the city’s reputation for diehard fans who aren’t exactly warm and fuzzy was deserved. “There is a lot on our dossier,” Cataldi admits.
The legend began when Eagles fans infamously pelted Santa Claus with snowballs during a game back in 1968 but over the years things haven’t changed much. Before last Sunday’s NFC Championship Game even kicked off a Philly fan was arrested for punching a police horse. City police prepared for mayhem, win or lose, by spreading Crisco on light poles around Center City to discourage Tarzan-inspired fans from getting out of hand.
“I was shocked they came up with that strategy,” said Eric Rowe, the Patriots defensive back who began his career with the Eagles. “But I knew that city was going to go into a riot. Their fans knock everything over that they can.”
Who knows what Philadelphians will do if their beloved Eagles pull off the impossible and finally win a Super Bowl. It’s the Holy Grail for a fandom that eats, drinks and drinks some more whenever the Eagles are playing. Cataldi says the feeling in town right now is the closest thing he’s seen to the hopeful desperation Red Sox fans felt entering the 2004 World Series.
Like Sox fans who celebrated the end of their curse and a Series win for the first time in 86 years, Eagles fanatics are ready.
“We took a poll and 90 percent of our listeners don’t want to be at the game,” Cataldi said. “No one wants to miss the party that’s about to happen.”
Cataldi says Philly fans — and Eagle fanatics — are actually misunderstood. He appreciates the red-hot temperature of his callers and says “the last week was the most exciting we’ve ever had, in 28 years.” He senses the urgent desperation to win a Super Bowl in a city than loves its Eagles more than life itself.
“It’s insanely intense,” he says, “and I love these people. They don’t want to kill anyone. They just want to win one damn time.”
Cataldi laughs when he hears Philly sports fans compared with those from the two other Northeast hotbeds of Boston or New York. His people own much more bite than anyone else.
“In Boston with the Red Sox there was always a lot of hero worship,” he said. “In Philly, if their teams lose, they go on the attack. They’ve trained me well. I attack early.”
Like most Eagles fans, Cataldi thought the Eagles season was finished when star quarterback Carson Wentz tore up his knee in a Week 13 game in Los Angeles. He says the city had fallen head over heels for Wentz but when Cataldi and over 100 fans were flying back home, “it was like a funeral. They thought it was over,” he said.
Thanks to a strong defense and the magic of backup quarterback Nick Foles, the dream is still very much alive. “Foles has been unbelievable, so they’ve concluded that this is the miracle season,” Cataldi says.
That the Eagles will see the Patriots in Super Bowl LII is sweet justice to their fans. They feel their last trip to the big game — a 24-21 loss to the Pats in 2005 — was tainted. They insist the Pats and evil genius coach Bill Belichick must have videotaped their coach’s signals, a theory that became more believable two years later when the Patriots were fined by the NFL for videotaping opponents’ calls in the Spygate crisis.
“They waited so long to win and really think Belichick stole one from us,” Cataldi said. “You can’t dislike Tom Brady. He’s such a competitor and the greatest quarterback ever. But Belichick is a miserable guy and we think he cheated us.”
Patriot fans who crossed paths with Eagles followers in Jacksonville in '05 know trouble is always lurking around the next bar stool with this crew. Similar confrontations are bound to unfold in the frigid streets of Minneapolis. Wait until security guards at the Mall of America get a look at Eagles fans and their underdog masks.
But like Red Sox fans in 2004, Eagles fans are counting the days to what they dream is the end of a long, painful football nightmare.
“We want to see see Belichick’s face on the TV when the final seconds tick off the clock,” Cataldi said. “For Eagles fans, it can’t get any better than that.”