We spend a lot of time on this site pushing back on the national media stereotype that Philadelphia sports fans are violent morons. This is a fan ecosystem where players now get standing ovations when they’re playing like shit. Most of the fighting takes place in California and Dallas these days. So here we are, making some progress, then this idiot has to go and punch a couple of Leafs fans:

There doesn’t seem to be any video showing the escalation. If you were at the Wells Fargo Center and saw it, give us a shout and we’ll add it to the story. It looks like a couple of Leafs fans are waving goodbye after winning 3-2 in Philly, just a typical “see ya” type of taunt, which is dumb. Just take the W and go home.

So the guy with the backwards Eagles hat climbs over a few seats to throw some cheap shots. That’s weak enough, then you throw in the fact that he’s got the high ground, does basically no damage, and the Leafs fans eat the punches without fighting back. Backwards hat walks up the steps and the video ends.

This incident in a vacuum is not that bad, when you consider that 49ers fans are stabbing each other at fast food restaurants, but it makes us look stupid. It’s ammunition for the national dipshits who can’t wait to run with the “Philly is the worst” stereotype, even though we know these types of things don’t happen very often now. And inevitably, you will hear “no one likes us, we don’t care,” which everyone knows is false.

EDIT – Alright, we have some witness accounts.


I will paraphrase:

  • witness 1: Leafs fans were being “pretty obnoxious all night,” they would bang on the glass, security would tell them to stop, then they stood up in the third period and taunted fans for a good minute or two. After the final buzzer, one of them was “jawing with fans and someone threw a napkin or sandwich wrapper in his general direction… He responded by throwing a semi-full beer (beer came out mid-air) back at the person (who I think was a drunk girl) which is what set the guy in the video off. His buddy tried to hold him back for a good 2 or 3 minutes but the leafs fans kept taunting the crowd so tensions stayed high until the guy who threw the punches got free from his buddy, jumped down the 10 rows or so and that’s where the video picks up.”
  • witness 2: Leafs fans were “talking shit” the whole time, then afterward threw a beer towards (the puncher) and he went down to confront them, Leafs fans were reportedly acting like dickheads

Witness 1 estimates that there were a dozen or so people recording, and thinks we’ll get more video showing what happened in the lead up. From what it sounds like, the item thrown at the Leafs fans didn’t reach his row, but the return beer hit some of the people above them.

When asked for his side of the story, one of the Leafs fans involved said he was “not going to comment at this time but out of respect of everyone involved.” If you were there and have more video, just give us a shout.