Eagles

Crossing Broad Investigation: Eagles Fans Do the Wave While a Player is Down with a Neck Injury

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 18th, 2023 · 9:15 AM EDT

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Brutal Eagles game on Thursday. Marcus Mariota couldn’t hit an open target, throwing the diametric opposite of Donovan McNabb worm burners all night long, the Birds allowed a safety, and the game finished 18-18 after two Eagles, Tyrie Cleveland and Moro Ojomo, had to be carted off the field with neck injuries.

Thankfully, the Eagles confirmed that both players had movement in their extremities.

During the Cleveland injury, however, media in the press box noted that fans were doing the wave:

So a cart is coming out on the field for Tyrie Cleveland who is being taken off on a stretcher. Being stabilized. And Eagles fans are doing the wave?! Not the time folks. I love you. I do. But not the time. pic.twitter.com/djrOHi4Bw8

— Jamie Apody (@JamieApody) August 18, 2023

Cart coming out with a back stabilizer and these morons are doing the wave. pic.twitter.com/dwIBmN6K5k

— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) August 18, 2023

Reading those Tweet replies, excuse me, “X” replies, it would seem as though the wave began before the injury took place and some fans were not aware of what was going on. The incident (an attempted catch) took place close to the sideline, so it looks as though it was difficult for fans to see that part of the field from various sightlines. Additionally, fans in the stadium only have the public address and not the television broadcast, so it’s plausible that they were only half-paying attention to an atrocious preseason game and didn’t know the seriousness of the situation.

Now to the counterpoint –

In Jimmy’s video, it’s very easy to spot the cart coming out on the field, so you’d think people with functioning eyeballs paying even quarter-attention could pick up on what was happening, right? Some fans noted that they sat down when they became of aware of what was happening, though in other pieces of video, you can clearly see that the players are taking a knee on the field while the wave continues around the lower bowl:

I don’t think a single person realized what was going on. pic.twitter.com/FhOTO8hmMj

— Braeden Gilpin (@Bgilp_) August 18, 2023

It does appear as though Cleveland got a standing O while being carted off, when the entirety of the crowd understood what was going on.

So yeah, seems like a combination of genuine ignorance and disengagement with some clown behavior mixed in as well, a portion of jabronies who were totally oblivious and made their fellow fans look bad. No true Eagles fan would fuck around doing the wave while a Bird is down injured (or an opposing player), and maybe that’s the sticking point here, because a preseason crowd is so much different than a regular season crowd anyway. These games feature a lot of casual fans on free tickets, and they’re just sort of dicking around and not exactly locked into a meaningful game.

separate column idea – who the fuck does the wave anyway?