While on-air last night during for cable sports network DASN, national sports reporter Justin Gallagher used chichés he had heard hundreds of times before to describe sports fans in the Philadelphia area.
Lacking any knowledge of the history of Philadelphia sports or the area itself, Gallagher proceeded to use his knowledge of previous reports on the city to explain Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb’s situation this season.
“Listen, these are the same people who booed Santa. I mean c’mon their former mayor threw snowballs at Santa Claus,” Gallagher said during the show.
When told the story involving now Governor Ed Rendell occurred years after the alleged “Santa incident,” Gallagher responded by saying, “Whatever, they’ve got the worst fans no one can compare.”
Sports historian Albert Ralston, professor of kinesiology and history at Drexel University, said history has shown other cities have had worse incidents than snowball throwing.
“Right off the top of my head I can think of the infamous “Disco Demolition Night” in Chicago where they had to bring in riot police and dozens of people were arrested, or even “10 Cent Beer Night” in Cleveland where again there was a near riot and the Indians had to forfeit the game,” Ralston said. “Yet you never hear the national media bring up those events. What was the worse thing that happened here, a guy got hit by snowballs?”
Justin Gallagher did not return calls for comment by press time.
