I was scrolling through my Twitter feed earlier tonight when I came across this unusual tweet from FOX 29’s Dave Schratwieser:

Initially, I thought to myself, “This is probably much ado about nothing. I mean, what? An Eagles fan punched a horse!? In the face? Come on!” But when I saw two more subsequent tweets teasing the story for Monday night’s 10 O’Clock News, I figured I better tune in and check it out. And, uh, wouldn’t you know, according to police, that is exactly what happened. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I am.

The report:


Ah yes, the classic man versus police horse story—a tale as old as time. According to the report, 22-year-old Eagles fan Taylor Hendricks faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and taunting a police horse after allegedly punching a PPD horse in the face several times before striking an officer. Thankfully, both the horse and officer are fine.

Look, most of us out there have had one, or two, or eight too many, only to then do something stupid. I totally get it, but if this story is true, then I’m struggling to grasp where this guy was coming from. One minute he’s drunk, dodging stadium security to sneak into a playoff game without a ticket, the next, he’s ejected and assaulting a police horse? Those things are majestic. I could see getting hammered and attempting to feed it. Cuddle it. Hell, even ride it. But punching an innocent horse? That’s bullshit. There would be no excuse.

And you know what else? This now has the potential to become a civic problem. Regardless of what actually happened, you know we’re going to have to eat shit for this. Every city has a faction of unruly fans, but this is Philadelphia. We’re an easy target. The one guy interviewed in the piece is absolutely right. With a high-profile game looming, this story now has the potential to be mentioned in the same breath as “Snowballs at Santa” every time somebody wants to take a shot at Philly sports fans. This is the last thing we need right now.

“You have 65,000 people, 64,999 are fine and one punches a horse. You know, these things happen anywhere.”

Imagine fans in any other city outside of Philly having to explain that someone repeatedly punching a horse in the face “does not reflect the fans or what we’re about.”

Fair or not, it doesn’t matter. Just add it to the list: Snowballs, cheering Michael Irvin’s injury, booing Donovan McNabb at the draft, and…horse assault.

Great.