It doesn't take a genius to understand that Philadelphia sports fans are known to be loud, passionate and obnoxious by other sports fans around the United States. Whether you like them or not, they have developed this reputation through the years and it seems to always become amplified by people retelling stories of booing Santa Claus, having a jail cell and court room at their stadium, and innocent people getting snowballs thrown at them. The most recent story of "classless Eagles fans" that people will no doubt use when insulting the fanbase took place at the greatest stage of the year at Super Bowl 57.
This instance actually has nothing to do with what happened during the game, but merely beforehand. You see, the NFL does this really weird thing of bestowing the Walter Payton Man of the Year trophy to the winning recipient right before the start of the game and two days after the winner has been announced. Why they do that when they don't do that for any of the other awards is beyond me, but if you have been a fan of the NFL for a long time, you know who Walter Payton was and his importance to the game. The Walter Payton Man of the Year award is given to the player that exhibits moral character and does much for their community.
To me, it wasn't the person who won it that a lot of Eagles fans had a problem with, it was the team he played for. It doesn't take a genius to know that Eagles fans hate the Dallas Cowboys. Since 1960, these two teams have gone at it against each other and it takes a mere mention of that team with a star on their helmet to send Eagles fans into a rage. When the season starts, Eagles fans circle the Dallas Cowboys on their schedule as the team they want the Eagles to show up to. If the Eagles go 2-15 it's okay as long as those two wins came against the Dallas Cowboys.
When I was growing up I was extremely lucky because number one the Cowboys were really bad and number two, the Eagles beat the Cowboys almost every time they played them. This new generation of Eagles fans haven't been as lucky as the Eagles have been swept by the Cowboys two times in the last five years and the Eagles haven't swept the Cowboys once. Reason being is because the Cowboys have drafted very well including their starting quarterback, Dak Prescott who has done the job of owning the NFC East in the regular season. Despite having an off year, the Dallas Cowboys ended 12-5 again and were able to win a playoff game.
This might come off as mean, but there has been a common trend in sports media where no matter if the Dallas Cowboys are good or bad, sports media talks about them ad nauseam because they know the Cowboys are popular and people talk about them whether they love or hate them. Fans of the other 31 teams hate the fact that they are called "America's Team" they hate the fact that they have the most primetime games every year even if they were the worst team in the league and are just sick of the team getting shoved down their throats. To conclude, the NFL has just been oversaturated with the Dallas Cowboys and at this point, even Cowboys fans need to be tired of it.
Fast forward to Super Bowl 57 between the Eagles and Chiefs to decide who was going to be the best team in the league. As an Eagles fan I need to say that it was objectively the best Super Bowl ever played. However, right before the coin flip, Dak Prescott is given the Walter Payton trophy undeservingly was booed by Eagles fans. Dak Prescott is a great and high classed individual who I have seen first hand in working with kids in the DFW area, but the Eagles fans likely weren't booing him. They were booing the fact that another Dallas Cowboy was deservingly or undeservingly winning an award on the stage that their team was playing on.
Eagles fans are sick and tired of seeing the Dallas Cowboys everywhere they go. They weren't happy to see a Dallas Cowboys player win an award on the day that they were going to watch their team try to win their second Super Bowl ring. And although it didn't work out in the end, I just think that this was where their frustration came out in booing. It seemed like the Cowboys quarterback didn't mind it that much, exclaiming "f*** Philly"(EDIT: He said "Philly Fans" according to a Cowboys fan I know) while it was happening and Cowboys fans had fun with it as they posted memes about a Cowboy at least coming home with the trophy on that day. I don't think the award should be given on that day because the Super Bowl isn't about the Walter Payton Man of the Year winner, it is about the AFC and NFC champions and ultimately the best team between the two. I do not condone the act of booing that specific player, but I am just giving an opinion about why it happened.
