Veterans Stadium - Fans

Fans

Fans who attended games in the stadium for a football game gained a reputation of being among the most vociferous in sports, especially those in the notorious 700 Level, the highest seating level in the stadium prior to the erection of luxury skyboxes behind that seating area. The stadium became famous for the rowdiness of Eagles fans, although it was not the site of the incident in which fans booed Santa Claus during a halftime show. (The Santa Claus incident occurred on December 15, 1968, at Franklin Field, the Eagles' home stadium at the time.)

One of the more well-known examples of the fans' behavior was during the 1989 season at a follow-up game to what many called the "Bounty Bowl". On Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1989, the Eagles had beaten the Cowboys at Texas Stadium, 27-0. In that game, Cowboys placekicker Luis Zendejas suffered a concussion during a rough block by linebacker Jessie Small after a kickoff. After the game, Cowboys rookie head coach Jimmy Johnson commented that Eagles coach Buddy Ryan instituted a bounty on Zendejas and Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. Two weeks later, on December 10, they played the rematch dubbed "Bounty Bowl II" at the stadium which the Eagles won 20-10. The stadium seats were covered with snow in the stands. The volatile mix of beer, the "bounty" and the intense hatred for "America's Team" (who were 1–15 that season) led to fans throwing snowballs at Dallas players and coaches. Beer sales were banned after that incident for two games. A similar incident in 1995 at Giants Stadium during a nationally telecast San Diego Chargers–New York Giants game led the NFL to rule that seating areas must be cleared of snow within a certain time period before kickoff.

The Eagles fans' behavior during a Monday Night Football loss to the San Francisco 49ers in 1997 and a 34-0 loss to Dallas a year later was such that the City of Philadelphia assigned a Municipal Court Judge, Seamus McCaffrey, to the stadium on game days to deal with fans removed from the stands. Two years later, fans threw D-Cell batteries at St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew after he spurned the Phillies' offer to play with them, and wound up going back into the draft and picked by the Cardinals.