Ad Disclosure
49ers Fans Think the Head Ref for Sunday’s Game is an Eagles Fan Because He’s from Williamsport
Published:
San Francisco fans already crying about the officials, three days before the game starts:
Imagine thinking that Williamsport has anything to do with the Philadelphia region. It’s three hours away. You can drive from Williamsport to Buffalo, New York City, and Pittsburgh in almost the same time it would take to get to South Philly. It’s basically the same distance between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. Anything north of Allentown or west of Lancaster and it’s open season in terms of NFL fandom. You’ll find Steelers fans, Giants fans, Ravens fans, even some poser Niners fans in Pennsyltucky.
Second, there’s nothing out there supporting the claim that Alan Eck is a lifelong Eagles fan. The big aggregator accounts are spreading this, but reading through a half-dozen profile stories at various new outlets, the gist is that he graduated from Williamsport High School in 1987 and went to Bloomsburg for college, where he got an accounting degree. He reffed at the youth level and worked his way up to the NFL. That’s pretty much the story in ever writeup. There’s not a single quote or piece of hard evidence in these stories that he is or ever was an Eagles fan.
I guess this is speculation based partly on the fact that the Birds are 8-1 in his games (as a ref, not specifically as HEAD REF), while the Niners are 3-6. One of those games is the 2023 NFC title game, when Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson were both injured. That was a blowout, so the officiating really didn’t factor at all.
What’s most important for everyone to remember is that all of the refs have stunk this entire season. You can’t worry about the zebras at all. If the Eagles’ defense shows up and the offense is even slightly competent, the Birds will be fine.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com