PHILADELPHIA — Big Charlie’s Saloon in South Philadelphia appeared like an ideal watering gap for watching the Super Bowl on Sunday. It was anticipated to be packed, however not with Eagles followers. It’s a Kansas City Chiefs bar in a passionate however parochial sports activities city that doesn’t precisely roll out the pink carpet for followers of different N.F.L. groups.
On Monday, nonetheless, plans for a watch celebration were canceled abruptly when the bar’s proprietor determined to shut the saloon throughout the league’s championship recreation. Laura Sessa, 54, the saloon’s longtime supervisor, stated that so many tickets have been bought, not all of the common patrons might get theirs, so a call was made to not open throughout the recreation. The capability is 130 to 150 patrons.
“You don’t want to turn anybody away,” Sessa stated. “But you can’t fit what you can’t fit. We’re so bummed. I can’t believe this is going on.”
There was additionally a priority that if Philadelphia gained the recreation, Kansas City followers would get caught in the postgame celebration and would have problem getting house, Sessa stated.
There have been no threats from Eagles followers, and there was enough safety employed inside the bar, however “it’ll be crazy in South Philly,” she stated. “We have to make sure our people can get home.”
No tense rivalry between the groups triggered the change in plans. Coaching and household ties bind them.
Andy Reid, the affable Kansas City coach, led the Eagles for 14 seasons and took Philadelphia to the Super Bowl. Travis Kelce, Kansas City’s gregarious tight finish, is the brother of Eagles middle Jason. Their mom, Donna, has been recognized to put on a personalized jersey that mashes up colours representing each groups.
A bench is painted in Kansas City colours exterior Big Charlie’s. A staff flag flies on Sundays. Inside, the place is full of helmets, mugs, autographed footballs, even an Emmy Award from a function that N.F.L. Films did on the bar. There’s additionally a signed jersey from quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a duplicate of the Lombardi Trophy from the Super Bowl that ended the 2019 season.
For that Super Bowl, Big Charlie’s threw a block celebration full with a disc jockey and fireworks as Kansas City defeated San Francisco, 31-20. This 12 months, the watch celebration shall be extra subdued as an indication of municipal respect; it is going to be held solely inside the bar — an island of pink in a sea of inexperienced.
“I don’t want to instigate anything,” Paul Staico, 57, the proprietor of Big Charlie’s, stated in an interview final week. “This city is tough.”
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So far, there has solely been good-natured ribbing from Eagles followers.
“The mailman heckles us,” stated John Alessi, 56, a Kansas City fan.
It has been instructed that sporting the jersey of an opposing staff in Philadelphia is akin to placing an indication in your again that claims, “Hit me.” In 1983, Eagles followers infamously plucked the feathers from the headdress of Washington’s unofficial mascot at the time, tore off his costume like drunken tailors, ditched his rubber spear and gave him a pugilistic send-off that required hospitalization.
But these have been the loony days of long-gone Veterans Stadium. Sure, there may be nonetheless the occasional and regrettable punching of a police horse (2018) and greater than occasional taunting that showers visiting followers like vulgar confetti. But Eagles followers are typically higher behaved lately.
Ahead of final weekend’s N.F.C. championship recreation, one 49ers fan was seen on video climbing onto the Rocky Balboa statue exterior the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and he appeared to outlive the locals with none sudden dental payments or orthopedic realignments.
But nonetheless.
“A Chiefs bar?” stated Kevin Meyers, 37, an Eagles fan. “How do they exist?”
Probably as a result of the proprietor and his common patrons should not outsiders. They’re principally guys from the neighborhood. Big Charlie’s is their nook bar. The Kansas City allegiance started throughout Super Bowl IV in 1970, when Big Charlie himself, Charlie Staico, positioned a profitable, if not strictly authorized, guess on the staff.
“The Chiefs won, and the next day I had a bike,” stated Paul Staico, Big Charlie’s son, who remembers marveling at the staff’s pink helmets and arrowhead emblem, now tattooed on his arm. “I was a fan ever since.”
Charlie Staico handed away in 1983. Eventually, Paul remade the bar right into a Kansas City shrine.
Don’t misunderstand. This continues to be a Philly hangout. Logos of the Flyers and Phillies are inlaid into the aspect of the brick constructing. The place was packed for the latest World Series. But for professional soccer, the house staff shouldn’t be the most popular staff.
Paul Staico’s ardour unfold to his mates, a quantity of whom have been transformed. Word has unfold past Philadelphia, and Kansas City followers would possibly drop in on Sundays from New York, Baltimore, Texas and California — and, of course, Kansas City — as the crowd generally swells to 150 supporters.
“It’s a family thing, it’s our thing,” stated Michael Puggi, 48. “It’s an Eagles city, but this is our corner.”
Anthony Scola, 62, a retired carpenter, constructed the bench exterior the saloon.
“The atmosphere in this bar when the Chiefs play, you don’t care about the Eagles anymore,” Scola stated. “I might wear green underwear, but I’m watching Kansas City.”
Now that Big Charlies shall be closed, patrons should make different plans. Some, although, shall be probably relieved of conflicting allegiances that may have arisen from watching the recreation in the saloon.
“I am the biggest Eagles fan around, but this is my family,” Patrick Newcomb, 55, stated of his bar mates, reciting the lyrics of that famous soccer ballad from 1976 by Mary MacGregor: “Torn between two lovers, feeling like a fool, loving both of you is breaking all the rules.’’
Others, though, will have no tortured loyalties. Alessi, a Kansas City fan for 30 years, said he did not attend the Eagles’ victory parade after their 2018 Super Bowl win over New England. His wife and daughter went, he said with a laugh, and “they almost had to call a locksmith to get back in my house.”
In the two-week lead-up to this Super Bowl, Alessi added, “We’re not talking.”
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