Veterans Stadium

Philadelphia Veterans Stadium was located at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue in Philadelphia. It housed the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1971 through 2002 and Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 through 2003. The listed capacity for baseball in 1971 was 56,371 and for football was listed with a 62,000 seat capacity.

The Fans

The stadium became famous for the rowdiness of Eagles fans (although the infamous incident in which fans booed Santa Claus during a halftime show occurred in 1968 at Franklin Field) and none more so than the 1989 follow-up game to what many called "The Bounty Bowl". On Thanksgiving Day (November 23) that year, the Eagles beat the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in which former Eagles placekicker Luis Zendajas left the game with a concussion following a hard tackle by linebacker Jesse Shaw after a kickoff. After the game, Cowboys rookie head coach Jimmy Johnson commented that Buddy Ryan, the Eagles head coach, instituted a bounty on Zendajas and Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman. Two weeks later, on December 10, they played a rematch at The Vet, which was covered with snow in the stands. The volitile mix of beer, drunken fans, the "bounty" and the intense hatred for "America's Team" (who were 1-15 that season) led to fans throwing snowballs at Dallas players and coaches. Even the future mayor of Philadelphia and later Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, tossed snowballs. Beer sales were banned after that incident for two games. A simular incident a few years later at Giants Stadium during a nationally telecast San Diego Chargers-New York Giants game led the National Football League to rule that seating areas must be cleared of snow within a certain time period before kickoff. A decade later, Cowboy reciever Michael Irvin suffered a serious injury when he fell head-first onto the notorious AstroTurf, and would never play football again after that. A number of fans initially roared their approval for the hit, at least until they realized Irvin was seriously injured on the play.

Related Topics:
Santa Claus - Halftime show - 1968 - Franklin Field - 1989 - November 23 - Texas Stadium - Concussion - Jimmy Johnson - Buddy Ryan - Troy Aikman - December 10 - Ed Rendell - Giants Stadium - San Diego Chargers - New York Giants - National Football League - Michael Irvin

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The Eagles fans' hooliganism during a Monday Night Football loss to the San Francisco 49ers in 1997 and a Dallas Cowboys game a year later was such that the City of Philadelphia was forced to assign a Municipal Court Judge, Seamus McCaffrey, to The Vet for game days to deal with miscreants removed from the stands. This court ran for the rest of 1998 season, then was moved to a location away from the stadium until the Eagles and the city discontinued it after the opening of Lincoln Financial Field in 2003, where thanks to modern technology and better behaved fans, there would be no need for what was termed "Eagles' court" by the Philadelphia sports media, noted as one of the tougher critics of their hometown teams.

Related Topics:
Monday Night Football - San Francisco 49ers - Seamus McCaffrey - Lincoln Financial Field - 2003

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