Naw… I’m just kidding. They tore the city up.

Following a grueling match which went down to the final second in what was arguably one of the most exciting Super Bowls on record, fans of the victorious Philadelphia Eagles took to the streets of the City of Brotherly Love. Many were simply joyous and looking forward to welcoming the Lombardi Trophy to their town at last. But a significant number of them went and did what Eagles fans are known all too well for. They began ripping up the infrastructure, setting fires and flipped over at least one car in front of City Hall. (Business Insider)

The Philadelphia Eagles’ first Super Bowl victory set off rowdy celebrations in Philadelphia as people who poured into the streets set at least one fire and damaged property early on Monday, images on social media showed.

Joyous football fans burst into jubilation in gatherings at bars and took their party into the streets, jumping up and down, setting off pyrotechnics and singing the fight song “Fly Eagles Fly.”

Some went further and ignited a fire in the middle of a street that firefighters soon extinguished. Other images showed a light pole tipping over and the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News website Philly.com reported smashed windows and toppled awnings.

Of course, somebody captured the car flipping activity on video.

The department store mentioned later in the linked article was Macy’s. Some of the revelers may not have even been football fans. They smashed out the windows and stripped all the merchandise off the mannequins. Local news captured one looter yelling, “Everything’s free!”

Some of them, like the people who pulled down every single lamp post and traffic light in front of City Hall, were no doubt just exuberant, violent fans. But just as we’ve seen with some political protests and marches by social justice warriors, it’s obviously possible that the actual fans were infiltrated by thugs. There are always some who will take advantage of any large crowd to try to steal some free stuff or anarchists who just want to see the whole town burn. On that subject, you can browse through the Daily Snark’s extensive collection of videos showing the carnage all over the city last night.

I’ll never understand this phenomenon. I remember when Detroit’s denizens used to regularly set fire to their city after one of their sports franchises won a championship. How did this tradition begin? You just make your home town look bad and waste your own tax dollars cleaning up the damage.

So how did this all happen and who is really to blame? Well, in the opinion of our friend, New York Daily News editor Rob George, it was… me. Yep. It’s my fault that the Eagles won the big game, sparking all this mayhem.

I give full credit on this outcome to @JazzShaw ! Saturday on @smerconish: https://t.co/Mdqdtcsegf

— Robert A George (@RobGeorge) February 5, 2018

That joke referred to a rather ill-considered tweet I fired off at CNN host Michael Smerconish which wound up being used on his show on Saturday.

The Tweeps who pop up on your TV! Totally correct perspective, of course. @JazzShaw @smerconish pic.twitter.com/pBvT70TuTa

— Robert A George (@RobGeorge) February 3, 2018

Amazing how I was able to influence the game in that fashion, particularly when you consider that I managed to insert a typo into the hashtag, misspelling the team’s name. (Insert #HeadDesk hashtag here.)

But, if nothing else, I managed to come closest to the actual score and pick the final winner in our Hot Air Super Bowl thread. It also capped off my victory in the postseason competition with Ed, after losing out to him during the regular season. And it should go without saying that the world can breath easier now that the Patriots have finally been defeated. All in all, not a bad weekend.

Unless, of course, you were in the center of Philadelphia last night.