In what is surely a historic first, the entire world is seemingly rallying around Philadelphia in a moment of pure jubilation following the Eagles‘ Super Bowl LII defeat of the Patriots and, more importantly, Tom Brady.
As with the finals of any sport, fans of the teams that didn’t make the cut have backed whichever of the two they chose to be the lesser evil and, as underdogs backed by charmingly deranged fans, the Eagles seem to have won the popular vote, as evidenced by this not-at-all-scientific survey that vaguely cites one source without showing the data:
A virtual map based on geotagged Twitter data shows that most people are hoping for an Eagles upset. pic.twitter.com/9u85OQKUHM
— Ninja Economics (@NinjaEconomics) February 4, 2018
In saying that, though, a lot of it might have to do with people’s feelings about Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Whether it’s because of his past friendship with Trump or because he’s a bit of a weird unit (for various reasons), Twitter has taken immense delight in seeing the Pats (and thus him) utterly defeated, arguably because of a late-game fumble he did that played a huge part in the Eagles’ win.
See if you can determine a theme from these tweets:
The Sad Tom Brady has visited you tonight. RT to ensure that he stays sad for the rest of his career. pic.twitter.com/Gf7IDRGzXG
— Iateyourpie (@Iateyourp1e) February 5, 2018
— 🎃Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) February 5, 2018
— ed (@macaulaybalkan) February 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/makiki_reuvers/status/960358929761959937
— Shakira (@jodecicry) February 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/briangaar/status/960349057997778945
I’m happy the Eagles won the #SuperBowl but I’m not gonna lie — I’m just as happy that Tom Brady lost. pic.twitter.com/obfKEyHIRt
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) February 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/wokeluisa/status/960370071427153920
But not everyone was celebrating solely by trying to draw energy from Brady’s crushing disappointment, some people chose to focus on other things. Duracell, for instance, decided to focus on Philadelphia‘s various sports fans’ long and beautiful history with batteries.
https://twitter.com/Duracell/status/960352900546547712
They are, of course, referencing the city’s penchant for throwing batteries at opposing teams and fans, something detailed beautifully on this episode of The Dollop, if you’re into podcasts.
Others decided to express their newfound patriotism (for a place they likely do not live in) in more abstract ways:
Who fucking on a bed of Philly cheese steaks tonight???
— Sydnee Washington (@Justsydnyc) February 5, 2018
I know I am. (In spirit.)
