Celie Davis spent the week before the Super Bowl getting into fights with old men on the T.
A New Jersey native, the freshman nursing major proudly donned her Philadelphia Eagles jersey whenever and wherever she could – even in the epicenter of the Patriots frenzy, causing her to encounter the wrath of loyal New England fans.
“I would be on the T, wearing my Philly jersey, and old men would start fights with me, and I would have to defend my team. When you’re a Philly fan, you just don’t let that slide,” Davis said, but added she was always sure never to cross the line from defensive to rude. “Like my mom says, you gotta take it and give it back, but be respectful of their team too.”
Davis was psyched and confident throughout the week, and would gladly gush about Eagles players and statistics to any Bostonian willing to listen.
She added that football in Philadelphia is a passion unlike any she has seen in her time, save for maybe the crazed Red Sox Nation fans she witnessed for the first time this fall.
“Philly people feel the way about football that Boston people feel about baseball,” Davis said before her team was to take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX this past Sunday. “We eat, sleep and breathe football.”
She said since their National Football Conference Championship win, Philadelphia fans had been doing some Beantown bonding, high-fiving or yelling encouragement on the street whenever they cross another Eagles fans’ path.
Sitting in the Stetson East lobby for kickoff, Davis was fortunate enough to have a little Philadelphia gathering. Around her were three green and white jerseys and a pink Eagles hat — the only sign of dissention among a sea of Patriots T-shirts and hats.
Davis then ventured to her friend’s West Campus apartment, where the support went from minimal to non-existent. Braving an unending barrage of taunts and jeers, Davis watched the game as the only Eagles fan in sight. Despite being severely outnumbered, she wasn’t intimidated.
“I like it; it gives me something to root for,” she said. “It gives me a reason to yell louder.”
As the game progressed and the Patriots began to take control, however, Davis started to lose the steadfast composure she had held all week.
“I was by myself, they were screaming at me the whole game … and it just kept going in one ear and out the other,” she said. “But I thought I was gonna cry when it was 24-14.”
At the end of the game, she stayed inside, watched the trophy ceremony and commiserated with friends from home rather than taking to the streets to see the action, or in this case, lack thereof.
“I was here for Red Sox and saw how crazy it was, but nothing happened, there was no one out there,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing [there were no riots]. That’s what the parade is for, for everyone to get together and celebrate.”
Davis said if the Eagles had won, she doesn’t think there would have been riots in Philadelphia, despite the large number of colleges in the area, because Eagles fans “just aren’t like that.”
Being in Boston for both the Red Sox and the Patriots as well as an upcoming Beanpot championship game has been amazing, she said, but she doesn’t hesitate to warn Patriots fans to avoid becoming spoiled and smug.
“You can never take anything like that for granted, then you start sounding like Yankees, and that’s who you hate,” she said.
As far as next year goes for her favorite men in green, Davis said she is poised and ready, anticipating a Super Bowl championship and the end of the Patriots’ reign.
“I don’t see how things are going to get worse [because we lost]. I can only see them getting better. I’m always going to stay true to my Philly roots.”
