LONDON — The flight to London had just taken off from Newark and it’s a safe guess that somewhere around 150 of the 400 passengers on the Airbus A340-600 were Eagles fans, proudly wearing their Foles, Dawkins and Westbrook jerseys.
And when a crew member announced, “Alcohol is available on this flight in moderation,” all 150 of them just started spontaneously laughing.
You wanted the Eagles in London, NFL? You got ‘em.
Just make sure to restock the cooler.
The Eagles don’t arrive in town until Friday morning, but thousands — and I mean thousands — of Eagles fans were already in town Thursday.
And making their presence known.
“When we got to customs, there were hundreds of Eagles fans and one Jaguars fan,” Linda Carlin of Cape May said Thursday as she watched the Buckingham Palace guards marching around.
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“I actually feel bad for their fans. They don’t have any idea what they’re up against.”
Carlin and her daughter Rosemary of Jenkintown arrived in London Thursday morning. They’re headed to the Eagles-Jaguars game at Wembley Stadium on Sunday and then staying in town for more sightseeing until next weekend.
“We’ll probably do Stonehenge, Bath, Windsor,” Rosemary said. “But the main thing is going to the Eagles game. That’s why we’re here.”
Dean Bloemer and Kathleen Scullion of Salem are in London with a Green Legion tour group of more than 1,500 Eagles fans. There were so many they had to find eight different hotels to house them.
There are parties and tailgates planned all weekend leading up to Sunday’s game.
“We were talking about how lame Dodgers fans are,” Kathleen Scullion said. “They leave halfway through playoff games. Eagles fans fly to another country just to see their team play.”
Everywhere you went in London Thursday, there were Eagles fans. You couldn’t miss them.
“My husband was a cop, and whenever we wanted to go to a game at the Vet, he was like, ‘Nope, you are not going to the Vet. Too much bad stuff happens there,” Linda Carlin said.
“And then when they moved into the Linc and got good, it seems like the tickets were always too expensive and we couldn’t afford tickets. So now we can combine a vacation with going to an Eagles game.”
The Eagles haven’t played in London since preseason games against the Browns in 1989 and Bills in 1991. They haven’t played outside the U.S. since a 1993 preseason game against the Saints in Tokyo in 1993. They also faced the Saints in Mexico City in a preseason game in 1978.
But things were different then. Eagles fans didn’t take over cities as they do now.
“It’s such a great way to combine sightseeing with seeing the Eagles,” Rosemary Carlin said. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
The Eagles have taken over other cities before, and it goes back a while.
Miami in 2003, there had to be 30,000 Eagles fans at Joe Robbie Stadium on a Monday night. Last year against the Chargers in L.A. was crazy. Heck, the Super Bowl was a home game for the Eagles.
But this is different. This is another country.
“You can’t walk anywhere in London without seeing Eagles jerseys,” Bloemer said. “Literally every street we walk down. We’re everywhere.”
I saw one guy at the huge outdoor Borough Market near London Bridge wearing a Reggie White jersey.
I asked if he were from Philly.
“No, I’m actually from Scotland,” said Lucas Harris of Glasgow.
He said he’s been an Eagles fan all his life going back to Randall and Reggie.
Why make the seven-hour trip from Glasgow to London?
“The Eagles aren’t coming to Scotland now, are they?” he said. “This is as close as they’ll get, and I wasn’t going to miss it.”
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