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Philadelphia is Teaching the World the Unifying, Healing Power of Tailgating
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Full disclosure: I’m not sure I fully understand FIFA’s stance on tailgating. After reading up on it, it sounds like FIFA doesn’t like tailgating for two main reasons. 1) It’s a North American phenomenon that most countries don’t even know about, and 2) FIFA would rather fans party at their sponsored fan fests. Reading between the lines, my read is that FIFA just wants to be the one profiting from fans drinking and eating and having fun, and they wouldn’t be able to if everyone grilled their own food and drank from their own coolers in parking lots.
In any case, the result is that there’s way less tailgating for World Cup games than there normally would be for American sports events this huge. FIFA says they haven’t banned tailgating, but (probably because of pressure put on by FIFA, is my guess), stadiums have made it pretty much impossible to do, with expansive security measures and parking restrictions for fans who don’t have tickets.
That is, every stadium except one: Philadelphia Stadium. Tailgates are in full swing down in K Lot, same as always, and it looks like international World Cup fans are adapting to the culture nicely:
This is what’s up. Look at these guys. Ivory Coast and Ecuador fans coming to bond over a wonderful game of flip cup. Look at how happy they are. Look at the crowd cheer. Look at that first guy who went on the Ivory Coast team. Look at how bad he is at flip cup. He could not get that flip to happen. The lights were too bright. The nerves got to him. He was sinking. He absolutely rocketed his first flip, then he over-adjusted and barely touched the cup on the second flip. This is textbook. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there personally many times…
It took him six tries to get the flip right. Six. I counted. At one point he set up his cup upside down. He was cracking under the pressure. Ecuador was already on their last drinker and he was still flipping his cup. Awful feeling. We’ve all been there. I’ve been there personally many times…
But once he finally got the flip down, his teammates picked him up. It ended up being a close game. It came down to the last player on each team. They were neck and neck…
Before Ecuador pulled away for the win.
And it was all in good fun. Both teams were happy in the end. What a nice thing: Two groups of opposing fans came together and broke bread over their love of football, drinking, and flip cup (the beautiful game…).
It’s a shame that tailgating isn’t happening at a more frequent level for this World Cup. It’s likely denied us tens of thousands of wholesome videos just like this one. Maybe millions…
But at least Philadelphia has its priorities straight. Philly knows the profound, healing power of the tailgate, and thankfully, it’s willing and able to teach the world.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com