About Booing with a True Confession
True confession: my dad taught me to boo at the age of 10, maybe 12.
Sitting in Veterans Stadium for countless Phillies games during the 1970s, nobody was off-limits. Except for Greg Luzinski and that’s because he was Polish, like my dad, who's parents - my grandparents - were immigrants from Poland. The Bull could do no wrong in my dad’s eyes.
So, I booed.
Until the day I began covering professional sports and realized there are some good guys that play these games. Not all, but most have been far better than worse in a writing career that has taken me to various cities and has now spanned more than three decades.
I bring this up now because there has been a lot of talk about booing this week, particularly of the Eagles.
Dallas Goedert was on the sidelines with some teammates when he said he heard the boos.
It was still the first quarter, but the Eagles were already trailing the undermanned Washington Football Team on Tuesday night, 10-0, after turning the ball over twice on their first two possessions.
“We’re all like sitting there like, man this game is far from over,” said the Eagles' tight end. “We can handle these guys easily. We just need to clean up our mistakes.”
The Eagles did and turned the boos to cheers with a 27-17 win.
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Booing has grown legs this week, with Miles Sanders and Darius Slay both responding on social media to the boos they hear at Lincoln Financial Field. Sanders did so in defense of Jalen Reagor, who was booed as soon as he was announced as the punt returner.
Slay engaged with a fan about coming into their workplace to boo.
Sanders tweeted: "Stop booing the players we put our heart and soul into this"
Jordan Mailata went on social media not to take issue with the booing but to apologize for his play.
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“I know in that first half, I truly fell below the standard,” said the left tackle. “I went to the fans as well. I think the one misconception, with all of the hate that we get from the fans – how the players interpret that as the fans hate us, but they don’t. I just think they’re passionate about being a hard worker.
“I think the one thing they respect is that if you give all of your effort, and you be a hard worker, that’s all it comes down to at the end of the day. If you give it your best effort. For me, I know that first half wasn’t my best effort. I just felt like it was a much-needed apology.”
Head coach Nick Sirianni said he doesn’t hear it because he has double headsets on, but knows fans can also motivate.
He took his double headsets off during the Washington a couple of times when the defense was on the field and in facing an important situation just so he could hear how loud the fans were.
“That poses problems, it's great to have the passionate fans that we do,” said the coach on Friday. “Again, I don't get too much into (the booing). Just don't hear it that much.”
Sirianni added, “We have great fans, great support from our fans. Love how passionate our fans are. And you know what? I'm passionate. I know our players are passionate, so we appreciate their support, and we need them this week against the Giants to be loud.”
Peace on earth and goodwill to man doesn’t always apply to the football teams’ fans, and I get it because I sat in a fan’s seat when I was younger, but with two of their final three games at home, and with a playoff berth hanging in the balance, is it the right strategy at this point?
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
